Keynote Speakers 

 
Jack Welch

Jack Welch

SUNDAY, June 28
2:30 p.m.–4:00 p.m.

When you leave the room, you'll be 10 feet tall.

Jack Welch is a business writer of a widely read weekly column “The Welch Way,” which he writes with his wife, Suzy Welch.  This column appears in BusinessWeek magazine and is published by the New York Times syndicate in more than 45 major newspapers around the world.  The Welches are also the co-authors of Winning, a #1 Wall Street Journal and international bestseller, and its companion volume, Winning: The Answers.  In 2001, he wrote his #1 New York Times and also international best-selling autobiography, Jack: Straight from the Gut.
           
Jack is currently the head of Jack Welch, LLC, where he serves as Special Partner with the private equity firm, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and is a consultant to IAC (Interactive Corp).  He speaks to business audiences and students around the world.  Jack also teaches a leadership course at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. 
 
Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Jack received his undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts and an MS and PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois.  He began his career with the General Electric Company in 1960, and in 1981 became the Company’s 8th Chairman & CEO.  During his 20+ year tenure as CEO, the Company's market capitalization rose from $13 billion to $400 billion.  In 2000, he was named “Manager of the Century” by Fortune magazine.
 
To learn more about Jack's ideas, please visit his official website at www.welchway.com. 

Jack and Suzy Welch will be available for a book signing.

Claire Shipman

SHRM is thrilled to announce that Claire Shipman will moderate the discussion during the Opening General Session with Jack Welch.

Claire Shipman is the Senior National Correspondent for ABC News’ Good Morning America. She has worked at NBC and CNN, where she gained widespread recognition while covering the White House. She holds a graduate degree in international affairs from Columbia University and a B.A. in Russian studies from Columbia, where she graduated magna cum laude. Read her blog at the web site True/Slant.

Recently published, Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success by Claire Shipman and Katty Kay is a collaboration between two broadcasting powerhouses.  Shipman and Kay give career women explicit permission to demand the balance that's been missing in their lives. Through their own stories of struggling with demanding work and home lives and anecdotes from other working mothers, the authors make a convincing argument that with some mental and emotional effort, women can create their ideal work and home lives. This book will inspire readers to set in motion a flexibility-driven business revolution that can benefit all women and men, families and workforces.

Earl G. Graves, Sr.

MONDAY, June 29
8:30 a.m.–9:45 a.m.

Earl G. Graves, Sr. is the founder and publisher of Black Enterprise magazine and a nationally recognized authority on black business development. Today he is chairman of Earl G. Graves Ltd., the parent corporation of Earl G. Graves Publishing Co., the publisher of Black Enterprise magazine—a magazine that has been a five-time recipient of the FOLIO: Editorial Excellence Award in the business/finance consumer magazine category. Graves was previously chairman and CEO of Pepsi-Cola of Washington, D.C., L.P., the largest minority controlled Pepsi-Cola franchise in the U.S. In 1999, Graves received the 84th NAACP Spingarn Medal, the highest achievement award for African Americans, and he was named one of the Top 100 Business News Luminaries of the Century by TJFR, a business journalism publication. In 2007, he was inducted into the U.S. Business Hall of Fame. He has also authored a book titled How to Succeed in Business Without Being White, in which he talks about his strategies for success.

John Kotter

TUESDAY, June 30
8:30 a.m.–9:45 a.m.

Harvard Business School Professor John Kotter is widely regarded as the world's foremost authority on leadership and change. His is the premier voice on how the best organizations actually "do" change successfully. 

Professor Kotter is the author of 17 books, a collection that has given him more honors and awards than any other writer on the topics of leadership and change.   In addition to A Sense of Urgency (2008), Our Iceberg is Melting (2006) and Leading Change (1996), Professor Kotter is the author of The Heart of Change (2002), John P. Kotter on What leaders Really Do (1999), and Matsushita Leadership (1997), and eleven other books published previously.

Professor Kotter is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Workplace Learning and Performance. This award was presented by ASTD in recognition of his extensive body of work and the significant impact he has had on learning and performance in organizations. Dr. Kotter and his firm, Sage|Kotter, work with organizations around the globe to guide, educate, and inspire people to become better leaders, to successfully transform organizations that enrich lives today and build a better world for future generations. To learn more about Dr. Kotter’s breakthrough concept of Leading Change and how to make transformation work in your organization visit www.sagekotter.com.

Lee Woodruff

WEDNESDAY, July 1
8:30 a.m.–9:45 a.m.