 |
  |
 |
Speaker Biographies
RUDY GIULIANI
Two-Term Mayor of New York & Recent Candidate for US Presidential Nomination
Rudolph W. Giuliani gained international acclaim as Mayor of New York, for leading the crisis response and then the recovery of the city during and after the attacks of September 11. Time magazine named him Person of the Year and he also received an honorary knighthood from the Queen a year later.
“When I said the city would be stronger, I didn't know that. I just hoped it. There are parts of you that say, 'Maybe we're not going to get through this.' You don't listen to them.”
Giuliani brought the city and even the country together through his crisis leadership skills, with a highly visible presence that took him onto the streets, leading his team, making on the spot decisions and impromptu morale-boosting speeches that were beamed around the globe.
As significantly, prior to 9/11, Giuliani was already rated by many commentators as the most successful Mayor of New York – supposedly one of the toughest jobs in American politics - since the legendary Fiorello LaGuardia. Under Giuliani, the NYPD pioneered ‘Zero Tolerance’, which was widely credited at the time with achieving significant reductions in crime, particularly the murder rate, which plunged for the first time in decades under his tenure.
After leaving office, Giuliani founded Giuliani Partners, which has become a leader in a range of areas including leadership during crisis. Giuliani most recently ran for the Republican Party nomination to the US Presidency.
JACK WELCH
Former Chairman & CEO, General Electric Corporation & Voted Manager Of The Century By Fortune Magazine
Voted:
• The No. 1 Choice, From History Or Today, To Join A Company Board – The FT
• The Greatest Leader Today - Fast Co
• The Most Admired CEO of the Past Twenty Years - Chief Executive Magazine
• Manager of The Century – Fortune
During Welch’s twenty-year tenure at GE, market capitalisation rose from $13 billion to $400 billion as Welch transformed the company from a bureaucratic behemoth to a dynamic and revered powerhouse. Welch’s management innovations have made him the most influential CEO of his era. He’s a gutsy leader who has forged a unique philosophy and operating system that relies on a ‘boundaryless’ sharing of ideas, an intense focus on the customer and people and an informal give-and-take style that makes bureaucracy the enemy.
“Hierarchy is an organization with its face towards the CEO and its ASS towards the customer”
Organizations today still look to GE and to Welch in particular to learn how to
build in flexibility, agility, and leadership at all levels in both small and large organisations. The techniques and ideas that Welch employed to drive GE forward range from ‘the boundaryless organization’ to ‘de-Bossing the company’, in Welch’s own words. Welch’s transformational leadership is applicable to any size corporation. His books, Jack: Straight From The Gut and Winning are best-sellers and he consults to a select group of Fortune 500 CEOs, who regularly benefit from his advice and guidance. This is your chance to do the same.
GARRY KASPAROV
“World’s #1 Ranked Chess Player for 21 Years and World Champion for 15 Years”.
The most successful chess player of all time will share at Leaders in London his insights into organizational leadership as a game of strategy, in which you learn to think ahead and make every decision count. Kasparov will draw on his own story of competing and winning continuously at the highest level, as well as drawing
on the worlds of business and politics
"His insights are thought-provoking and possess more value than the bromides of so many business books.
'Why did I move my bishop?' may be a question with more lessons for success than 'Who moved my cheese?' "
As the youngest ever World Champion, at 22, Garry was the undefeated world champion for 15 years, defending his title more than any other world champion in modern times. Based on his experiences, Garry Kasparov will share with us the powerful secrets of strategy, thinking ahead & winning which he has learned from dominating the world's most intellectually challenging game for two decades - lessons about mastering the strategic, mental and emotional skills to maximise success no matter how tough the challenges and how powerful the competition seems to be.
As modern leaders read Sun Tzu to distil and adapt leadership lessons from the art of war, and Machiavelli to learn about power and organizational politics, Kasparov will draw lessons for us from his global dominance of the game of chess, on how to anticipate the competition, prepare for their next move, force them to play your game instead of theirs, improvise and adapt your strategy in mid-flow, and how to hold your nerve and win in intensely competitive situations. His book, How Life Imitates Chess: Making The Right Moves, From The Board To The Boardroom, has been a business best-seller.
CARLY FIORINA
Former President, CEO & Chairman, Hewlett Packard & The First, And As Yet Only, Woman To Lead A Fortune 20 Company
Carly Fiorina was the first, and as yet, only woman to lead a Fortune 20 company and was named the "Most Powerful Woman in Business" by Fortune in 1998. She succeeded as an outsider – she was neither an engineer, nor a man in an industry dominated by both. Her leadership at HP culminated in the audacious and hotly-contested acquisition of Compaq, followed by an ambitious transformation project.
With Gateway gone, Dell going through difficulties and IBM selling its PC division to the Chinese company, Lenovo, a common view, now, is that HP CEO Carly Fiorina saw the future and called it right with her strategy of merging two of the world’s largest PC makers – HP and Compaq.
However, in February 2005, in the most public of boardroom manoeuvres, Fiorina was ousted as Chairman and CEO, in a battle with family members of the company’s founders. HP’s subsequent success could well be claimed as a result of her long-term vision and her bold strategic moves, which drew widespread criticism at the time.
“HP, not IBM became the first $100 billion infotech company this year (2007). Primary reason? The highly contentious, and surprisingly successful, Compaq acquisition and integration. Tenacious champion? Carly Fiorina! Transformation agent? Ms Fiorina! Architect? Carly Fiorina!” Tom Peters
Carly Fiorina spent nearly 20 years at AT&T and Lucent Technologies where she directed Lucent’s IPO and subsequent spin-off from AT&T. She has also served on the boards of Cisco Systems, Kellogg Company and Merck. Since leaving Hewlett Packard, Fiorina has become a Director at Revolution Health Group, a board member of computer security company Cybertrust and a board member of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Her book, Tough Choices: A Memoir, has been an international best-seller.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS
Founder & MD, Grameen Bank, 2006 Nobel Prize Winner & Pioneering Economist
When economist Muhammad Yunus approached the banks and asked them to help him launch a new form of finance aimed at the poor, they told him it would never work and laughed in his face. So, Yunus experimented by loaning $27 from his own pocket then grew the experiment into a $5 billion business. In breaking the rules, he created an entirely new form of banking.
Grameen Bank, which Yunus founded, has been a consistently expanding and successful business. In creating his new business model, Yunus confounded the traditional economic assumptions of the banking industry, originating the concept of offering loans without collateral for the poorest of the poor – Grameen offers small loans for self employment for the rural poor, especially poor women. 99% of the bank’s $5 billion in loans to over 5.3 million poor people in his native Bangladesh have been repaid, one of the lowest default rates throughout the world’s lending industry, yet, at the start, no-one believed this could be developed into a viable business or that the poor would prove to be sound borrowers.
"I stumbled across Yunus & Grameen about 5 years ago. I went bananas! The story, of course, is amazing." Tom Peters
His microcredit banking has been copied in over one hundred countries, including the United States. Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2006 in recognition of his extraordinary achievements.
GARY HAMEL
Visiting Professor of Strategic & International Management, London Business School and Director, Management Lab (MLab)
The highly respected Journal of Business Strategy lists Gary Hamel as One of the 20th Century’s 25 Most Influential Business Thinkers, along with business pioneers such as Bill Gates and Henry Ford. His newest work cements that reputation as strategy’s sharpest thinker for this century, and led to Hamel being ranked The Number 1 Business Guru in the world in the Leadership Excellence 100 List for
2007-8.
Professor Hamel’s newest work, The Future of Management, continues his reputation for fundamentally changing how the world’s leading organizations ‘do’ strategy- It was voted Best Business Book of 2007 by the editors of Amazon.com
Hamel uses research from the ground-breaking Management Lab to come up with innovative concepts such as ‘strategic intent’, ‘core competence’ and ‘corporate imagination’, that are then taken up by some of the world’s most successful organizations.
‘The World’s Reigning Strategy Guru’
The Economist
Professor Hamel’s landmark book, Competing for The Future, became the world’s best-selling book on corporate strategy. His book Leading The Revolution further confirmed his reputation for helping businesses re-think strategy to encompass innovation, and was described as “eye-opening for any business” by Michael Dell. He will be taking us further into the ‘Future of Management’, drawing on the latest research from the Management Lab, at Leaders in London.
BILL GEORGE
Former Chairman and CEO, Medtronic & Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School + Best-Selling Leadership Author: True North and Authentic Leadership
Bill George was an inspirational, high-achieving leader at Medtronic, which he grew to become the world’s leading medical technology company. One of the most admired CEOs of his generation, Bill George grew Medtronic’s market capitalization from $1.1 billion to $60 billion. Following a lifetime’s achievement as a successful business leader, he then became one of the world’s foremost teachers of leadership, as a Harvard Professor and best-selling author.
His definition of leadership involves developing the organization so that passion and inspiration are built into the system, not merely dependent on the CEO, an objective he put to the test by setting himself a ten-year term limit as CEO. And his strategy proved to be right as Medtronic’s growth path is just as strong today as it was when he was there.
Known for his integrity and authenticity, George has translated his experience into a practical values-based leadership that delivers results. His research at Harvard Business School into 125 successful leaders helped him codify Authentic Leadership, as he calls it, leading to the creation of Harvard’s MBA in Authentic Leadership.
“In the 21st century, without authenticity in leadership, organizations can't develop sustained growth."
Bill George now serves as a Director of Goldman Sachs, Novartis, ExxonMobil and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In 2002, George was selected as one of “The 25 Most Influential Business People of the Last 25 Years”.
DANIEL GOLEMAN
Psychologist And Best-Selling Author: Emotional Intelligence, Primal Leadership (The New Leaders) And Social Intelligence
Daniel Goleman is the world’s leading expert on emotional intelligence. His book on the subject has sold more than 5 million copies and has been translated into 30 languages. His book Primal Leadership (The New Leaders) went on to define the emotional dimensions of great leadership. His new book, Social Intelligence, takes us further, teaching us how to build committed, motivated organisations.
Goleman’s studies of the competencies that create high-performers, from PepsiCo to the U.S. Federal Government, led to his article in the Harvard Business Review called “What Makes a Leader?”, which became the Review’s most-requested reprint to that point. Goleman further refined his analysis of how emotions shape leadership in his landmark work, Primal Leadership (The New Leaders). His latest research into Social Intelligence takes us further into how emotions shape organizations and affect their performance. Social Intelligence, says Goleman, is the interpersonal part of emotional intelligence; how leaders build relationships to create a positive, ‘can do’ culture.
“Business leaders who maintain that emotions are best kept out of the work environment do so at their organization's peril.
Best-selling author Daniel Goleman's theories have radically altered common understanding of what ‘being smart’ entails.”
At Leaders in London, Daniel Goleman will share with us how to use Social Intelligence to develop high morale and performance – harnessing what he calls ‘socialised power’, as opposed to the old leadership model of ‘personal power’. Dr Goleman received his PhD from Harvard and was Science Writer on the New York Times, where he was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In recognition of his work, he was awarded the American Psychological Association's Lifetime Achievement Award and made a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
MARK PENN
Best-Selling Author, Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Big Changes,& Worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller
Mark Penn was senior advisor to both President Clinton & Tony Blair in their successful re-election campaigns and Chief Campaign Strategist to Senator Hillary Clinton. He is an advisor to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, to numerous corporations, and to twenty-five heads of government around the world. On his wall are notes saying "You were brilliant" from Tony Blair, and "Thanks" from Bill Clinton.
In 2007, Penn turned leader thinking on its head with his ground-breaking book, Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes, by showing how success demands a focus on small things, not just the large canvasses leaders tend to think they should concentrate on.
Microtrends has been compared to The Tipping Point by Kirkus Reviews and has received praise from Bill Clinton and Bill Gates.
'Mark Penn has a remarkable gift for detecting patterns and identifying trends. (His) ideas …will help you see the world in a new way.’
Bill Clinton
Penn is the leader’s consummate advisor on deep, emerging consumer patterns - trends that will make or break your organization; what they will want next, how they think, and how to lead the re-shaping of your organization and its offering to keep ahead of those shifts.
Penn was dubbed "the most powerful man in Washington you’ve never heard of" by The Washington Post, "Master of the Message" by Time Magazine, "The king of polls" by The Times, and an "incandescent intellect" by the New York Times.
CAPTAIN D. MICHAEL ABRASHOFF
Former Commander, USS Benfold, Which He Turned From The Worst Into The Best-Performing Ship In The US Pacific Fleet
Captain Mike Abrashoff took a poorly-performing $1 billion US warship and turned its performance around in just months. Working within a rule-bound hierarchy, he couldn’t hire and fire or increase pay to solve morale problems. What he could do was change the culture to elevate performance – and that’s exactly what he did.
“Abrashoff learned the right lessons of leadership the old-fashioned way: practising under fire. His reflections provide a fresh outlook and guide for all leaders everywhere.”
– Professor Warren Bennis, ‘The Dean of Leadership’ (FT)
During his two year tenure, Abrashoff increased morale & performance while lowering costs, saving the Pentagon over $1.5 million in annual running costs, while his crew set a series of records in combat readiness exercises – the Navy’s equivalent of ‘excellence’ or ‘quality’ measures.
Most culture change methods assume it takes years to lead big change. Yet it took just seven months from Abrashoff’s arrival as captain for the ship to win the Spokane trophy for the most combat-ready ship in the fleet. So, how did he do it? Abrashoff’s tale of inspiring leadership that delivers startling results, fast, has become legendary. Now he’s coming to Leaders in London to share it with us.
Abrashoff took ‘command and control’ and gave the control away, creating a crew of confident and inspired problem-solvers who dramatically improved the ship’s
performance themselves. Crew retention rates jumped from 28% to 100%. The slogan on board became ‘It’s your ship!’ and Benfold quickly started breaking records.
VIJAY GOVINDARAJAN
Professor, Tuck School of Business & Professor in Residence and Chief Innovation Consultant, GE
Vijay Govindarajan, appointed by General Electric to guide its innovation strategy, is also Professor of International Business and Director of the Tuck Center for Global Leadership. An expert on strategy and innovation, he has been cited by BusinessWeek, Forbes, and The Times as one of the world’s top strategy and innovation thinkers. GE appointed him for his expertise in balancing innovation with maintaining the best existing practices.
“Fundamental changes may owe their origins to chance events. But our response to those events is anything but chance. This is what I call ‘planned opportunism’...”
Govindarajan, on how to practice ‘reactive innovation’ triggered by external Change
How do you keep the best of what works while also opening up your organisation to constant innovation? It’s been likened to rebuilding the plane engine while still flying. The world expert on this ‘Essential tension’, as Thomas Kuhn called it, between old and new, is coming to Leaders in London to help us resolve it, using techniques such as ‘planned opportunism’.
Professor Govindarajan has gained international attention for helping organisations deal with the downside of total quality management and other excellence frameworks: how building in ‘repeatable excellence’ can stifle creative thinking and get you stuck in the moment.
He has identified five barriers that prevent large companies engaging in breakthrough innovations. He teaches how to overcome them and sustain big growth with clever but
simple practices that he calls ‘adjacency innovation'.
‘VG’, as he is known, is Winner of the 2006 Accenture Award for his work on Organizational DNA for Strategic Innovation. His recent book, Ten Rules for Strategic
Innovators, is a Wall Street Journal Top Ten Recommended Read.
PHILIP KOTLER
The Inventor Of Modern Marketing and Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management
Professor Philip Kotler is the world’s foremost expert on strategic marketing. He was voted the first Leader in Marketing Thought by the American Marketing Association and named The Founder of Modern Marketing Management by the Handbook of Management Thinking.
Kotler’s recent work in evolving marketing strategy and practice places him at Number 11 in the current Thinker’s 50, the list of the world’s top business thinkers in all fields.
"The most influential marketer of all time."
Financial Times
While Kotler has moved the marketing agenda on to reflect the emergence of the internet and growing customer power, many business leaders trained in his thinking have not kept up with his re-invention of the discipline. "There are still too many CEOs who identify marketing with selling and advertising. But marketing has evolved…" he said recently.
Senior managers around the world trained in Kotler’s famous ‘Four Ps of Marketing’ still construct strategy around it, whereas Kotler himself sees the ‘Four Ps’ as too rigid for 21st century marketing.
Kotler will be helping us update our practice, as he shares his latest work, showing leaders how to evolve marketing from a departmental discipline to become the engine that adds value for the customer across the whole organisation, embracing new media and new business models.
Philip Kotler is the S. C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and holds a PhD in economics from MIT. He is the author of over thirty-five books that continue to define the evolving discipline of modern marketing management.
RICHARD REED
Co-Founder, Innocent Drinks
Richard Reed is the co-founder of the UK's fastest growing food and drink company and the No.1 brand in its market. The business was started in May 1999 by Richard and two friends and has grown to a turnover of over £100m. Innocent has been called “The Ultimate 21st Century Company” – quirky, personable, values-based and profitable and determined to remain what Reed calls a ‘big small’ company, no matter how large it grows.
“This is a serious business...Reed has proved that you can create a successful brand without agency help and without breaking the bank. Innocent has shaken up the branding rules” – Financial Times
Innocent now has 75% of its domestic market, sells in 10 different countries across Europe, and its products are sold in every major chain, from Sainsbury’s to Boots to Starbucks. Turnover is set to punch through £150m as the business enters its 10th year.
Richard Reed will share with us how a non-corporate attitude, a simple proposition and creative thinking have created a fast growing, profitable company that acts responsibly and has achieved sustained and sustainable growth.
As well as growing Innocent, Richard has been a government advisor on entrepreneurship, through round table discussions with the Prime Minister and his seat on the Small Business Council. Richard and Innocent’s awards include E&Y Young Entrepreneur of the Year, National Business Awards’ Small/Medium Business of the Year, Orange Small Business of the Year and Orange Innovative Company of the Year.
DANIEL PINK
Futurist, Analyst & Author, A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule The Future
Daniel H. Pink is the author of the acclaimed national and international bestseller Free Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind (2005). He has written articles and essays for The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Salon, Slate, Fast Company, and other publications, and is Contributing Editor at Wired. His articles on business and technology have also appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and other publications.
A Whole New Mind is focussed on the growing importance of right-brained people and what it means for employees and employers alike. It was one of the “Best Business Books of 2005.”
"This book is a miracle. On the one hand, it provides a completely original and profound analysis of the most pressing personal and economic issue of the days ahead -- how the gargantuan changes wrought by technology and globalization are going to impact the way we live and work and imagine the world. Then Dan Pink provides an equally profound and original and practical guidebook for survival -- and joy -- in this topsy-turvy environment. I was moved and disturbed and exhilarated all at once.” Tom Peters
He has lectured on work, business, and economic transformation to corporate, association, and university audiences around the world. He's provided analysis on dozens of television and radio broadcasts, including CNBC's "Power Lunch," ABC's "World News Tonight," NPR's "Morning Edition," and American Public Media's "Marketplace."
Dan’s last ‘proper’ job was as chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore. Pink has also worked as an aide to United States Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich, been an economic policy staffer in the United States Senate, a legal researcher in India, and a latrine builder in Botswana. His newest work is The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need, the first business book for a western audience in the Japanese comic format known as manga. He received a BA with honours in linguistics from Northwestern University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a JD from Yale Law School.
LUKE JOHNSON
Senior Entrepreneur (Pizza Express, The Ivy, Le Caprice), Chairman, Channel 4 & Risk Capital Partners
Luke took control of Pizza Express in 1993, grew it from 12 to 250 restaurants and sold it in 1999. He then founded Signature Restaurants group, which included The Ivy, Le Caprice, as well as the Belgo chain. He also started the Strada restaurant concept from scratch and took that chain to 30units. He sold both Signature and Strada in 2005, for a total in excess of £90 million.
In the period 1993 to date Luke has also been involved as director/owner of various quoted and private companies in parcel delivery, financial services, maritime commerce, recruitment, gaming, directory publishing, advertising and car park equipment, including Whittard of Chelsea, My Kinda Town, Nightfreight and American Port Services.
He is currently Non-Executive Director of Elderstreet VCT plc, and founder/owner and Director of InterQuest Group plc, a quoted recruitment business. From 2004 to 2006 he was Director of Dollar Financial Group Inc, a US NASDAQ traded corporation with $80m EBITDA. Since 2000 Luke has run Risk Capital Partners Ltd., focusing on private equity deals. He has been the principal owner of GRA, the UK's largest greyhound track owner, since early 2005. He was principal owner of Mayfair Gaming, the group of Riva bingo clubs, since 2004. This was sold in 2006 for IRR of over40%.
“Johnson’s investment success is based on avoiding the crowds. The same principle applies when he buys private companies: take the long-term view, search for neglected opportunities and back good people.”
He is also the owner/Chairman of private firms in directory publishing (Superbrands), restaurants -Giraffe and Patisserie Valerie – and, between 2003-2006 advertising/design (Loewy Group). The Loewy investment was successfully sold in late 2006. He has been a major owner and Director of the market leader in car park equipment, APT Controls, since early 2007. Luke became Chairman of Channel 4Television Corporation in January 2004. Since then, he has appointed a new CEO, restructured the board and seen the organisation enjoy record ratings, revenues and surplus.
Luke wrote a weekly column on business matters for The Sunday Telegraph for eight years until2006. He now writes a weekly column for the Financial Times. His book, The Maverick, was published in2007.
Chairman: RENÉ CARAYOL, Author, Business Guru & Visiting Professor, Cass Business School
René's focus is on inspirational leadership and culture, bound together with a compelling philosophy founded on his own board level experience.
Globalisation is here to stay.
The rippling effects of the US sub prime markets and resulting credit crunch have been felt the planet over as the business world becomes increasingly fast paced and unrelenting. Everybody is trading through turbulent times.
But whilst for some this potent reminder of globalisation can bring uncertainty, for others it offers an opportunity. It has become a business imperative to consider if you have the necessary attitudes in place to ensure your organisation continues to thrive.
Everybody thinks their leadership team is strong and decisive in times of success. But is it fit for purpose when the going gets tough?
René Carayol is one of the world's leading business gurus. He specialises in leadership and culture, drawing from his own unique experiences on the Boards of British and American organisations; from Pepsi (UK) to IPC Media and the Inland Revenue. He is the best selling author of the leadership and culture bible, "Corporate Voodoo" and a Visiting Professor at Cass Business School. In 2004 he was awarded an MBE for outstanding service to the business community.
René is a regular broadcaster for the BBC and has presented the influential "Pay Off Your Mortgage In 2 Years" series, BBC2's flagship business programme "The Money Programme" and the critically acclaimed "Mind Of A Millionaire" and "Man From The Met" documentaries. He is a broadsheet columnist, a frequent voice on Radio 5 Live and a regular expert commentator on Sky News and BBC Breakfast.
René is now CEO of the Inspired Leaders Network with operations in London, Belfast and Johannesburg and has provided leadership support to the likes of the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, the Home Office and McKinsey and Co.
With this unrivalled business acumen, he chairs and addresses international conferences and has had the privilege of interviewing and working closely with some of the world's greatest leaders; from former US President Bill Clinton to the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan and from former US Secretary of State Colin Powell to Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson.
