Keynote Speaker Archives

Dan Warmenhoven, CEO, Network Appliance
Date: Friday, September 02, 2005
Location: Santa Clara

Dan Warmenhoven discussed his vision and strategies that have enabled Network Appliance to grow 40 times since he joined them in 1994. He focused their efforts on being the product innovation leader in their market, and created a strategy that IBM, HP and Sun found impossible to follow. We especially enjoyed listening to his leadership philosophies. Amazingly, he has built an executive team that has worked closely together for ten years!

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Chuck Smith, President & CEO, SBC West
Date: Friday, June 17, 2005
Location: Oakland

Chuck Smith shared some of the leadership lessons he has learned during his career, moving from an entry-level employee to CEO of SBC West.

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Rob Wrubel, CEO, Ask Jeeves & Founder, Yoga Works
Date: Friday, May 20, 2005
Location: Oakland

Rob's career has taken him from journalism and educational software to CEO of Ask Jeeves to his newest venture, Yoga Works - the largest and highest quality family of yoga studios in America.

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Bill Novelli, CEO, AARP
Date: Friday, April 08, 2005
Location: San Francisco

Bill Novelli is the leader of one of the most powerful organizations in the country, AARP, with 65 million members. Bill spoke to the Alliance about "How America Can Afford to Grow Older."

Jerry Johnston, CEO, The Clorox Company
Date: Friday, March 18, 2005
Location: Oakland

Jerry spoke to the Alliance about his leadership philosophies and vision for The Clorox Company.

Bill Coleman, CEO, Cassatt & Founder, BEA Systems
Date: Friday, March 04, 2005
Location: Santa Clara

Bill is the CEO of Cassatt and Founder of BEA Systems - the fastest software firm ever to exceed $1 billion in revenues. Bill spoke to us about his personal philosophies in building and leading companies.

George Halvorson, Chairman & CEO, Kaiser
Date: Friday, December 17, 2004
Location: Oakland

George spoke to the Alliance about his leadership philosophies and vision for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan.

Mary O’Hara-Devereaux, Founder, Global Foresight
Date: Friday, December 10, 2004
Location: San Francisco

Mary O'Hara-Devereaux, an internationally known futurist and the author of several books, talked to Alliance members about "Navigating the Badlands" and her visions for the future.

John Hamm, General Partner, Venture Strategy Group
Date: Friday, December 03, 2004
Location: Santa Clara

Former CEO of Whistle Communications, John Hamm is the author of the highly acclaimed article in the Harvard Business Review on "Why Entrepreneurs Don’t Scale." John's presentation to the Alliance was "The CEO Operating System: A Model for Consistent Leadership Practice." Over the last six years, John has worked with over 120 CEOs nationwide providing strategy and leadership advice.

Eamonn Kelly, CEO, Global Business Network
Date: Friday, November 19, 2004
Location: Oakland

Eamonn is a specialist in strategy formulation and organizational learning and development. He has explored four distinct scenarios over the next ten years about how the business and society will change and evolve. He is also the co-author of "What's Next: Exploring the New Terrain for Business."

Mark Walton, Chairman, Center for Leadership
Date: Friday, October 08, 2004
Location: San Francisco

Mark is an internationally known innovator, educator and advisor in the fields of leadership, management and executive communication. His real-world expertise has been refined over a distinguished career of more than three decades at the highest levels of business, media, military and government. Mark spoke to the Alliance about "Mastering the Language of Leadership."

Peter Cartwright, CEO, Calpine Corporation
Date: Friday, October 01, 2004
Location: San Jose

Alliance members participated in an interactive discussion with Peter on his innovative strategies in building a competitive power company in a very challenging industry.

Liz Fetter, CEO, QRS Corporation
Date: Friday, August 13, 2004
Location: San Francisco

Prior to joining QRS, Liz was CEO of NorthPoint Communications, which was one of the largest and fastest-growing DSL providers. She also ran the $5 billion Consumer Services Group at US West, where her responsibilities included company-wide e-commerce programs.

Carol Bartz, Chairman & CEO, Autodesk Inc.
Date: Friday, July 02, 2004
Location: San Jose

Carol discussed with Alliance members the need to continuously size up the business environment through up-cycles and down-cycles and develop the mental toughness necessary to cope in a constantly changing world.

Prasad Kaipa, Ph.D, Founder, Kaipa Group
Date: Friday, June 04, 2004
Location: San Jose

Dr. Kaipa was named one of the top executive coaches by Executive Coaching Network. He was a research fellow at Apple University and has reseached the area of "non-linear or discontinuous learning and thinking approaches" that lead to higher creativity, breakthrough ideas and unusual associations. He discussed his ideas about "Why Some CEOs Succeed While Other CEOs Fail" with the Alliance.

Phil Marineau, President & CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.
Date: Friday, May 14, 2004
Location: San Francisco

Phil Marineau spoke to us about "Values-Based Leadership in Challenging Times." Phil has an extensive record of achievement including success in the "Cola Wars" when he was CEO of Pepsi-Cola North America.

Peter Schwartz, Co-Founder & Chairman, Global Business
Date: Friday, April 23, 2004
Location: Oakland

Peter Schwartz spoke to the Alliance about "Inevitable Surprises: Thinking Ahead in a Time of Turbulence." Peter is an internationally renowned futurist, business strategist, founder of the Global Business Network and author of "The Art of the Long View" and "Inevitable Surprises."

Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D., President, Age Wave
Date: Friday, March 19, 2004
Location: Oakland

Ken Dychtwald spoke to the Alliance about "From Baby Boom to Age Wave: How the Boomers Will Age Differently than any Previous Generation." Ken is the nation's foremost visionary and original thinker regarding the lifestyle, marketing and workforce implications of the "age wave." He is the author of ten books including "Age Wave" and his latest, "Age Power: How the 21st Century will be Ruled by the New Old."

Robert Heller, Former Governor, Federal Reserve Board
Date: Friday, March 12, 2004
Location: San Francisco

Dr. Robert Heller spoke to the Alliance about "What's Really Driving the Economy in 2004." Dr. Heller has had a distinguished career in business, finance, government, and education. He is one of the most respected economists in the country.