Margaret Heffernan
www.mheffernan.com

Keynote Session
More women are starting successful businesses than ever before. But what makes women leaders different? And how can others learn to capitalize on their strengths? Through interviews with hundreds of women entrepreneurs, Margaret Heffernan discovered that women are more values-oriented, more flexible and less ego-driven than their male counterparts. As a result, they're creating company cultures that are better able to meet the demands of the new economy. Margaret's stories about real women making really serious profits is a must-read for all entrepreneurs, male or female, whether well-established or just starting up, as well as anyone seeking to understand what it takes to do business today.

Biography
Margaret Heffernan is an entrepreneur, Chief Executive and author. She was born in Texas, raised in Holland and educated at Cambridge University. She worked in BBC Radio for five years where she wrote, directed, produced and commissioned dozens of documentaries and dramas. As a television producer, she made documentary films for Timewatch, Arena and Newsnight. She was one of the producers of “Out of the Doll's House,” the prize-winning documentary series about the history of women in the twentieth century. She also designed and executive produced a thirteen-part series on the French Revolution for the BBC and A&E. The series featured, among others, Alan Rickman and Alfred Molina.

In 1994, she returned to the United States where she worked on public affair campaigns in Massachusetts and with software companies trying to break into multimedia. She then joined CMGI, where she ran, bought and sold leading Internet businesses, serving as Chief Executive Officer for InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and iCAST Corporation. She was named one of the “Internet’s Top 100” by the Silicon Alley Reporter in 1999, one of the “Top 25” by Streaming Media magazine and one of the “Top 100 Media Executives” by The Hollywood Reporter.

In 2004, Margaret published “THE NAKED TRUTH: A Working Woman's Manifesto about Business and What Really Matters,” and in 2007, she produced, “HOW SHE DOES IT: How Female Entrepreneurs are Changing the Rules for Business Success.” Margaret is Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Simmons College in Boston and Executive in Residence at Babson College. She was recently featured on television in The Secret Millionaire and on radio in Changing the Rules. She is married with two children.

Jon Luther
www.dunkindonuts.com

Keynote Session
Jon Luther is a proven expert at creative brand development and customer service. Learn from one of the best in the industry on how he has made a name for himself by taking good companies and making them great! His latest accomplishment: transforming a 54-year old company into a low-cost competitor to Starbucks.

Biography
Jon Luther was named chief executive officer of Dunkin' Brands in January 2003 and chairman in March 2006. A veteran of the food-service industry, Jon is a proven leader at creative brand development and at satisfying consumers who seek quality, convenience and value in a quick-service restaurant setting.

From February 1997 to December 2002, Jon was president of Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits, a division of AFC Enterprises. Prior to Popeyes, he was president of CA One Services, a subsidiary of Delaware North Companies, Inc. Jon also founded Benchmark Services, Inc. – a food service management firm specializing in business dining for corporations – and has since grown the business into a strong regional competitor.

In 2005, Jon was the recipient of the Nation’s Restaurant News Golden Chain Award, and in 2006, he received the Chain Leadership Award from Chain Leader magazine. Last year, Jon was awarded the 2007 Gold Plate Award from the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association.

George Naddaff
www.UFoodGrill.com

Keynote Session
Come hear a truly exciting and applicable entrepreneurial story that EO members have called “off the charts awesome! very inspirational,”  “highly motivating, I found it very relevant,” and “a must hear for every entrepreneur. George Naddaff is my idol!”

Biography
George Naddaff, a serial entrepreneur and recognized visionary, is considered by many to be the guru of franchising in America. George is frequently featured in leading business publications, such as Forbes, Success, Entrepreneur, The Wall Street Journal and in numerous trade publications. Most recently, the February 2008 edition of Inc. magazine has a feature article about him entitled, “How I Did It – From Spit’n Shine Boy to Boston Chicken and Beyond.”

George began his career in food service when he co-founded International Foods, which operated 19 Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises in the greater Boston area and was sold in 1970. In 1988 George founded, and until 1993 served as Chairman and CEO of New Boston Chicken, Inc. ("Boston Chicken"), a company that operated and franchised limited service restaurants specializing in rotisserie-roasted chicken. In 1992 he sold the company to a group of Blockbuster Video executives, and he went on to share in its record setting IPO (143 percent first-day increase) in 1993. The company, now known as Boston Market, is a 700-unit subsidiary of McDonald's.

In addition to Boston Chicken, George has been significantly involved with several other successful concepts including the founding of Mulberry Child Care Centers, which had over 90 company-owned childcare centers when it was sold to Kindercare, America's largest chain. In 1996 he invested in Ranch*1, a New York-based chain of grilled chicken sandwich restaurants that today operates 60 units in nine states and is franchising worldwide. George also founded Living and Learning Schools, which operated more than 50 upscale childcare facilities and was sold to Kindercare in 1980. In addition, he founded VR Business Brokers, the nation's largest business brokerage franchise with more than 350 offices, which was acquired in 1986 by Christies, LLP, London. In 1984, as a director and investor in Sylvan Learning Centers, George helped launch their franchising effort, and today they have more than 800 units.

George is currently Chairman and CEO of UFood Restaurant Group, an early-stage, publicly-held company that operates and franchises fast-casual restaurants featuring healthy meals. Uniquely, each restaurant includes a retail outlet where consumers may purchase nutrition products such as vitamins, supplements and energy bars.

Ben Zander
www.benjaminzander.com

Keynote Session
This musical genius and renowned conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra has been a keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum for three consecutive years. He engages passionately with orchestras and audiences the world over, enticing people to go beyond their customary barriers to accomplish truly extraordinary results.

Biography
Benjamin Zander started to compose music at the age of nine. In 1979, he became the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. In their 28 seasons together, they have performed an extensive repertoire.

Ben has established an international reputation as a guest conductor. He has conducted the Israel Philharmonic for three consecutive years and orchestras as diverse as the Bournemouth Symphony, the Scottish and Irish National Orchestras, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Malaysian Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony and the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. He has also appeared with the National Youth Orchestra of New Zealand, as well as the Australian Youth Orchestra.

Ben has an extensive speaking career and has traveled the world lecturing organizations on leadership. He has just returned from Davos, Switzerland, where he was the final keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum. He has appeared at the Forum four times as a keynote speaker, where he was presented with the Crystal award for "outstanding contributions in the Arts and international relations." Ben’s bestselling book, The Art of Possibility, co-authored with his partner, leading psychotherapist Rosamund Zander, has been translated into 16 languages.

Bill Aulet

Breakout Session: Financing for Growth

At every step of the way, how organization raises money is critically important to the long-term success of the company. At each financial inflection point, the value that the founder, the management team and the employees will receive for their efforts can and will be dramatically effected by the level of success with which the financing process is executed. In fact, poor execution not only can change the distribution of wealth created by the company, but can also destroy an otherwise good company. Conversely, strong and enlightened execution of the financing process can enhance a company’s probability and magnitude of success.

This workshop will provide a comprehensive framework for understanding fundraising processes and will show attendees how this framework can be applied to real world situations with the use of some illustrative case studies. This workshop will leverage the instructor’s significant expertise in this area to help the attendees become more effective and efficient at developing and executing their long term financing strategies.

Biography
Bill Aulet, Senior Lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and Entrepreneur in Residence at the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, has 25 years of experience in technology-business operations and financing. He started his career at IBM and went on to run two private companies: Cambridge Decision Dynamics and SensAble Technologies. Most recently, he helped engineer a dramatic turnaround at Viisage Technology as its Chief Financial Officer. Bill has created hundreds of millions of dollars of shareholder value by building focused, fundamentally sound businesses. He has raised US$100 million in institutional financing via private placements and public offerings. Bill now works with students and startup companies to build strategies and operating plans that will create sustainable value. He has an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a graduate degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he was a Sloan Fellow.

Martin Babinec
www.trinet.com

Breakout Session: Running Your Company with Other People’s Money

Many EOers running fast-growing and successful companies are attracted by the idea of bringing in outside investors to fund growth (and/or take some personal chips off the table), but oftentimes they draw a bright line at the thought of giving more than 50% of their company’s equity to outside investors.

Martin Babinec presents an insider’s view on the counterpoint to investing horror stories; horrible tales of investors wresting for management control and discarding the Founder. Martin puts perspective around the qualities needed for entrepreneurs to successfully manage evolving shareholder relationships through various stages of a company’s life cycle. Having raised equity from angel, corporate, venture capital and buy-out fund investors, Martin has found tremendous success. In fact, he leveraged the value of outside investors to transform TriNet from a local services company to an industry-leading international provider with annual revenues of nearly US$100 million.

Martin will share his insights on the dynamics of managing investor expectations at each investing phase. He will also share the critical steps to success he adopted in maintaining management control more than 12 years after selling a controlling interest in TriNet’s equity to outside shareholders.

Biography
Martin Babinec is Founder and CEO of San Leandro-based TriNet, which was founded in 1988 to provide a single-vendor solution for outsourcing benefits, payroll and HR support. Prior to founding TriNet, Martin enjoyed a successful career in human resources management with Navy Exchanges, an international retailer. During that time he resided in Japan and Italy, where he managed all facets of human resources with an emphasis on international labor relations. He is a volunteer management consultant to non-profit organizations and speaks frequently at domestic and international conferences on topics involving entrepreneurism, high-technology trends and human resources.

Martin received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania, and has previously held the accreditation of Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the Human Resources Certification Institute. Martin is a recipient of the “Silicon Valley Entrepreneur of the Year” award and serves on the Board of Advisors to the Kauffman Foundation's Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. He also serves as a guest lecturer with the Stanford Graduate School of Business, which has profiled TriNet in a case study for academic research into high-growth, equity-financed companies.

Dr. Bob Beall
www.cff.org

Breakout Session: Leading from the Heart

Ten years ago, Dr. Robert Beall worried that an opportunity to develop new drugs for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients was being squandered. Aside from failed attempts at gene therapy, no drug companies had joined the quest for new treatments. "We were frustrated," says Beall, President of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. "Companies only wanted blockbuster drugs, and no one was willing to spend money on cystic fibrosis," a disease that afflicts just 35,000 people in the US. But rather than fuming, "I took the biggest gamble I ever made," Beall recalls. If the pharmaceutical industry wouldn't try to develop CF drugs on its own, the foundation would pay to do so.

Attend this amazing lecture and hear Bob’s entrepreneurial story of leadership and change. He will discuss the how the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has developed an innovative research model that is described as “ venture philanthropy,” which means that the Foundation directly invests—much as a venture capitalist would—in research and development of new CF therapies. Bob will share with you how his innovative methods have changed the way the industry thinks and pursues development.

Biography
Dr. Robert J. Beall has been with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for more than 27 years. He began his tenure at the CF Foundation as Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, and for the past 13 years he has served as President and Chief Executive Officer.

Under Bob’s leadership, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has become one of the most respected voluntary health organizations in the country, and is recognized for its innovative approaches to bringing new therapies to CF patients. The creation of an innovative research center program in the 1980s (the Research Development Program) attracted many leading institutions and first-rate scientists to the CF research effort. This collaborative network contributed to the identification of the CF gene in 1989. Since then, the focus has been on translating knowledge about the gene and the basic defect into the development of novel CF treatments. In 1998, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation launched its ground-breaking Therapeutics Development Program, a unique coalition between industry, academics and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation that is directed at the discovery and development of additional approaches to CF drug discovery and development.

As a result of the pioneering business model of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, there are currently nearly 30 potential CF therapeutic products in the pipeline, and the prospects for a cure and control for CF have never been higher.

Jim Craig
www.jimcraigusa.com

Breakout Session: Great Teams, Great Groups

What defines a great team? What, specifically, did USA Olympic Hockey Coach Herb Brooks do to plant the seed of a dream that would grow and be shared among millions? How can you, as an entrepreneur, take lessons from the 1980 Olympic USA hockey team and apply them to your business? Jim Craig, the goalie from that miraculous team, will share these tactics with you and the secrets to creating your own “miracle.”

Biography
Jim Craig has been called the backbone of a team that accomplished one of the most extraordinary and memorable sports victories of all time. He went on to play professionally and transitioned to tremendous and ongoing success in the business world.

An All-American goalie at Boston University and a standout for the Terriers’ 1978 NCAA championship squad, Jim was selected as the starting goaltender for the US 1980 Olympic hockey team. At the Lake Placid games his performance was phenomenal. Indispensable to Team USA’s epic—what some have called miraculous—upset of the Soviet Union was the play of Jim Craig. In the game against the Soviets, the Americans were outshot 42-16, but Jim made 39 spectacular saves, and his teammates scored four times.

How incredible was the victory over the Soviets? Consider this: As the 20th century came to a close, most major media sports polls selected what happened in Lake Placid two decades prior as the number one sports episode of the previous 100 years. “It may just be the single most indelible moment in all of US sports history,” said Sports Illustrated of Team USA's win over the Soviet Union. “One that sent an entire nation into frenzy.”

Jim is in demand from coast to coast and is internationally as a motivational speaker, spokesperson, marketing and sales strategist, and master storyteller. He is president of Gold Medal Strategies, a Boston-area based promotions and marketing firm that also manages and represents Jim and his appearance business. In the past 25 years, Jim has inspired, instructed and provided strategic and winning direction for employees and associates from more than 300 organizations.

John DiJulius III
www.johndijulius.com

Breakout Session: What's The Secret? Providing a World-Class Customer Experience

John R. DiJulius has cracked the code and shares dozens of brilliant ideas on how the top customer-service companies in every industry consistently exceed their customer and staff expectations. He is the bestselling author of “ Secret Service: Hidden Systems That Deliver Unforgettable Customer Service,” which is regarded as the authority on world-class customer experience. 

John is an international speaker and consultant, and has worked with companies like The Ritz Carlton, Lexus, Nordstrom, Hallmark, Panera Bread, Starbucks and many more. He travels all over the world sharing his passion and proven systems.

• Learn the secret to being a world-class customer-service organization
• Discover how companies like The Ritz Carlton, Disney and Nordstrom can get 50,000 associates to consistently deliver world-class customer service while most companies struggle with getting a few dozen employees to deliver good customer service
• Learn how to make price irrelevant to your customers

Biography
John is redefining customer service in corporate America today. He didn’t read the book on customer service; he wrote the book. One of the most captivating and charismatic speakers today, John will share with you behind-the-scenes systems used by world-class customer service companies to provide unforgettable customer service. Some of John’s clients include Ritz Carlton, Lexus, General Electric, Progressive Insurance, US Bank, Nemacolin Resort, Lane Bryant, Chick-fil-A and many others. He has helped them to continually raise the bar and set a standard in service that consistently exceeds customer expectations.

John is also the president and owner of John Robert’s Spa, which has five locations and more than 130 employees. He uses as his living laboratories to test his findings and theories. Among numerous honors and awards, John Robert’s Spa has been named one of the “Top 20 Salons in America” and has been repeatedly selected as one of the Top 99 companies to work for in Northeast Ohio. His business has also won the Pillar Award, gaining recognition as one of the top seven companies in Northeast Ohio that gives back to the community. John is also the president of Minding Your Business, a consulting firm that specializes in helping companies become world-class customer service organizations.

Special Learning Sneak Peek:
Want a sneak peek of John’s EO University: Boston sessions? Follow the below steps to listen to his EO Webinar from 7 May 2008:

1. Click here to be linked to the archived file.
2. On the page that appears, click "Playback."
3. *Wait for the Network Recording Player to complete set up.
4. *Allow the blue bar at the bottom of the Network Recording Player to load completely before clicking "Play."

*Steps 3 and 4 may take some time, depending on the speed and connectivity of your computer.

To download John’s Webinar materials in PDF format, click here!

Barbara and Charlie Dunlap

Breakout Sessions: How to Simplify Your Family Life

EO families are busy families. Oftentimes, the pressures of work, parenthood and the everyday urgencies of today's fast-paced life can leave us frustrated, confused and unfulfilled. Parenthood is a complicated time in most couple’s lives. “How to Simplify Your Family Life” is designed to help couples take control over their families during this complicated time and keep them on an agreed course. This session is encouraged for members and spouses; however, single members may also attend.

Breakout Sessions: How to Nurture your Marriage

As EOers, you often focus your energy on your business and kids. Oftentimes, you may put your marriage further down your list of priorities, assuming that it will take care of itself. Well, it won't. As the follow-up session to “How to Simplify Your Family Life,” this workshop is designed to help couples develop a vision for their marriage and carry out the steps necessary to realize that vision. Please bring your spouse with you to this session. This session is encouraged for members and spouses; however, single members may also attend.

Biography
Authors of “Setting Family Goals,” Barbara and Charlie Dunlap actually write an annual plan for their family. The Dunlaps have used this approach to simplify their busy family life and to strengthen their marriage. As former YPO’ers, the Dunlaps understand the pressures and strains that work and success can put on a marriage and a family. And having successfully used this method in their own marriage for more than 24 years, participants can be assured that their presentation is based on years of practical experience, and not simply academic theory.

Barbara and Charlie met while she was a student at Sweet Briar College and he was at the University of Virginia. They have been married for more than 36 years and have five children. After graduation from the University of Virginia, Charlie received a diploma in International Law from The Hague Academy of International Law in the Netherlands, as well as a master’s degree in International Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science in London, England.

Charlie has been a housing developer in Phoenix, Arizona since 1972 and joined the Arizona YPO Chapter in 1983.

Mo Fathelbab
www.forumnet.net

Breakout Session: The Secret Advantage of Successful Leaders

This session will focus on how Forum tools can be used in improving relationships at home and at work. It will provide various guidelines learned from a variety of Forums for personal growth. In addition to the lessons shared by Mo, the session will be interactive, leveraging participant experiences. It will cover:

• Keys to forging powerful relationships
• How to lead effective teams
• Communication skills for any situation
• How to gain peer support for life

Biography
Mo is the Founder and President of Forum Resources Network, the largest outsource provider of Forum programs. He has been at the forefront of Forum since adapting the program for EO in 1991, when he served as Executive Director. Mo is the only Forum trainer to train trainers and create content for EO, YPO and WPO, and he has personally worked with more than 1,400 Forums. He lives in the Washington, DC area with life partner, Sally Hurley, and their 5-month-old son, Eli.

Mo recently published his first book, entitled Forum: The Secret Advantage of Successful Leaders. Forum: The Secret Advantage of Successful Leaders is a complete guide for starting and running successful Forums. It is loaded with tools and exercises for Forum retreats, management retreats and for self-discovery. Mo will be signing copies at the end of each session to celebrate the official launch of the book on Amazon.com.

Traci Fenton
www.worldblu.com

Breakout Session: Secrets of the World’s Most Democratic Workplaces

In this new world where the Internet has made everybody a somebody, speed is king and Generations X and Y are increasingly taking the leadership helm, the most successful companies are practicing organizational democracy as a key to their competitive advantage. Organizational democracy is a disciplined, yet freedom-centered, strategy for fully engaging employees, tapping their potential, sparking innovation and building trust. Business as usual, characterized by an omnipotent CEO, layers of management and closed-door deal-making, is officially becoming a recipe for failure.

Sharing best practices and stories from the companies featured on the groundbreaking “WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces™ 2008,” and drawing from over a decade of research into successful democratic companies around the world, Traci, Founder and CEO of WorldBlu, Inc., shares her secrets to building a world-class democratic workplace. Along the way, she challenges audiences to rethink their assumptions about what democracy actually is and explains with spirited insight why “getting naked,” “renouncing rankism” and “pointing fingers” is the best way to attract top talent, boost the bottom line and reinvent your workplace for business in a Democratic Age.

Biography
Traci Fenton is the Founder and CEO of WorldBlu, Inc., an Atlanta-based leadership and business design studio specializing in organizational democracy and freedom-centered leadership. As a leading expert in organizational democracy, Traci is recognized as one of the finest business thought leaders of her generation, as well as of the next generation of business.

Traci has spent more than a decade pioneering methods and tools for designing and building democratic companies, including the WorldBlu Democratic Design System™. Her unique vision has created events like WorldBlu LIVE™, a first-of-its kind global conference on organizational democracy. She also pioneered the groundbreaking “WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces™,” an annual listing of the most democratic organizations in the world that premiered in 2007. Traci has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, US News and World Report, Boston Magazine and dozens of other media outlets.

Prior to becoming the Founder and CEO of WorldBlu, Inc., Traci founded the WorldBlu Foundation, a non-profit think tank. Early in her career, she worked in public relations and advertising for a Fortune 500 company, was a social venture capitalist for the NASDAQ Stock Market’s multi-million dollar educational foundation and was a social entrepreneurial consultant for a national non-profit organization.

Mark Levy
www.levyinnovation.com

Breakout Session: Innovation on Demand: How to Come Up with Strong Business Ideas When You Need Them

What are ideas worth? These days, a fortune. There are companies out there whose intellectual capital is worth millions, even billions, of dollars more than their hard assets.

In other words, these organizations’ hard assets are almost liabilities. It’s their intellectual assets that make them market leaders.

How, then, do you create your own intellectual capital, which you can draw upon to solve problems, build products and services, create methodologies, write books, launch social media campaigns, establish thought leadership and rise to the top of your market?

In this must-attend breakout session, positioning and ideation expert Mark Levy will teach innovation methods that participants can immediately apply to their businesses. Among other things, you will learn:

• An easy-to-master method of examining and busting paradigms in your field, so that you can launch products and services that completely separate you from the competitive pack
• A freestyle form of journaling that can help you get to your best, most original ideas in minutes
• How to change perspectives at will, so that you can see stuck situations through fresh eyes
• How you and your staff can engage in “thinking campaigns” and improve your group brainstorming by multiples
• How to effortlessly incorporate original-thinking techniques into your business day, so that they can help you see and create opportunities in an ongoing way

By the time the session concludes, you will have created a number of intriguing ideas that could make a substantial impact in your business. More importantly, you will have techniques that you can use whenever a problem must be solved or a new idea has to be hatched.

Biography
Mark Levy is the founder of Levy Innovation, a marketing strategy and ideation firm that helps consultants and entrepreneurial companies increase their fees by up to 2,000 percent. David Meerman Scott calls Mark a “positioning guru extraordinaire.” Joe Vitale calls him “a Superman of the mind . . . Computers want to grow up and be like him. And I’m probably under-describing his abilities.”                              

Mark has written for the New York Times, has authored or co-created four books, including “ Accidental Genius: Revolutionize Your Thinking Through Private Writing,” and has taught persuasive business writing (and entrepreneurial strategy) at Rutgers University.

Mark also invents illusions. His creations have been performed Off-Broadway, in Las Vegas and on all of the major US television networks. He is co-creator and creative director of the Off-Broadway show, “Chamber Magic: A Demonstration of Modern Conjuring,” which has run for more than seven years at the Waldorf Towers.

John Macomber
www.buildingvision.com

Breakout Session: Learning from Failure: Keeping it Together when “IT” Hits the Fan

John Macomber had returned to the helm of a proud and prominent century-old family business, following the departure of an outside CEO. In the midst of a turnaround of this high profile construction company, he received the phone call that every boss dreads: "Men are down, and we think that there is more than one fatality....” Clearly, the business would be in jeopardy.

What does the leader do now? How can the clients and vendors have confidence that you will be able to fulfill your promises to them? What goes through the minds of your people ... and of the press?

Sometimes things don't go as planned. Your actions as CEO under stress can cause things to blow apart, or they can help keep your business, your clients, your vendors and your people together. What are the common lessons learned? What trials and crises do you need to be prepared for?

Drawing from personal and academic experience, tempered by the YPO Forum culture, this breakout explores reactions, feelings, planning, and most of all, communication in the crucible of a disaster. Drawn from other YPOers experiences, the session ends with lessons learned and take-aways that any CEO can use under duress.

Biography
John Macomber is a member of the finance faculty at Harvard Business School, where he teaches several courses in real estate development and investing. He also teaches a course in leadership at the MIT Center for Real Estate. Prior to joining HBS, John's professional experience included running a VC-funded Internet startup, a construction equipment rental firm, real estate companies, and his YPO business, a fourth-generation, large regional General Contracting firm. The firms' clients included Fidelity Investments, CISCO, EMC, Mass General Hospital, Harvard, MIT, Dartmouth College, Four Seasons Hotels and similar demanding, private sector firms.  

John was a member of the International Board of YPO, chair of the Education and Networks committees of the YPO International board, chair of the New England chapter and education chair for YPO Universities in Boston (2002) and Beijing (2005). He is active on several corporate boards, including Boston Private Bank (NASDAQ:BPFH), the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, the Appalachian Mountain Club and formerly the WGBH Educational Foundation. John holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Ken Morse

Breakout Sessions: Global Sales Strategy

Improving the effectiveness of sales management processes and the overall speed of decision making in large and small companies is consistently cited by business experts as one of the highest priorities, year after year. In the current tough climate, every purchase by any prospective customer must be triple-justified at all levels of management. Therefore, having the best ROI-based sales approach is essential to shortening the sales cycle, and therefore, to the survival of most young companies. Attending this course can help ensure that your company succeeds.

This course is designed to enable entrepreneurs and the fast-growing companies from which they come to be more effective in establishing long term, dependable, predictable, profitable, referenceable and mutually beneficial customer relationships. This course will assist entrepreneurs, CEOs and experienced business development managers to sharpen their skills and improve the customer-focused culture of their organizations. This course is highly interactive and features case studies of fast-growing companies, as well as “live” exercises with real-time feedback.

Biography
Ken Morse is a serial entrepreneur, having played a key role in launching several high-tech startups, including 3Com Corporation, Aspen Technology, an expert systems company and a biotech firm. Ken's batting average is 0.833: five of his startups went public or were successfully merged, while one was a complete disaster. As head of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, Ken is responsible for inspiring, training and coaching new generations of entrepreneurs from all parts of MIT. Ken has been profiled and quoted in numerous publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Economist and Red Herring.

Since Ken joined the MIT Entrepreneurship Center in 1996, the number of students taking entrepreneurship courses has increased from 220 to 1,500 per year, while the number of professors and lecturers has grown from two to 30. He also raised US$20+ million endowment for the E-Center. Ken was named “Education All-Star” by Mass High Tech magazine. Ken serves as an advisor to China Capital Ventures, LLC, Darby Overseas Investments, Ltd., PolyTechnos Venture-Partners GmbH, and SINTEF A/S. He has been an instructor in sales at the Munich Entrepreneur Academy for several years and has taught a global sales strategies workshop in several European cities. Ken, an American, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Cercle Royal Gaulois Artistique & Littéraire ( Brussels) and the Quissett Yacht Club. He speaks fluent French and some Chinese. Concurrent with his MIT duties, Ken holds the Chair in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Competitiveness in the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management at the Delft Technical University. When he is not helping young companies succeed, Ken enjoys sailing his wooden boat with his family around Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA.

Lou Paget
www.loupaget.com

Breakout Session: Be the Great Lover You Want to Be (Ladies Only)

In this “Ladies Only” session, Lou Paget will pull from her world-famous seminars and bestselling book, “How to Be a Great Lover,” to demonstrate the time-tested ideas, attitudes and techniques shared by thousands of women (and some men) on how they became, and remain, great lovers and partners. With Forum confidentiality, you can ask ANY question about relationships and get the answers that deliver immediate and measurable results. This session will have new information that you have not seen at any other EO University!

Breakout Session: Be the Great Lover You Want to Be (Gentlemen Only)

Don’t miss out on this unbelievable event! It was highly praised by members at the EO Las Vegas University, and now there are NEW goodies and tips. In this “Gentlemen Only” session, Lou will pull from her world-famous seminars and bestselling book, “How to Give Her Absolute Pleasure,” and share the ideas and techniques women would love their partners to know. Whether you’re conservative or liberal with your sexuality, you’ll receive great take-away value in the form of new ideas and explorative techniques. You can also ask ANY question you want and will receive immediate and tremendously measurable results. This session will have new information that you have not seen at any other EO University!

Biography
Lou Paget is one of the bestselling authors in the field of sex education. She has written five books on the topic, each having been translated into 28 languages, and has sold more than three million copies in 60 countries. She is an American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) Certified Sex Educator, and she serves on the National Advisory Council on Sexual Health at Morehouse School of Medicine, as well as The Leadership Council for the Endowed Chair for Sexual Health at University of Minnesota. Lou hosted her own TV special, “Making Love Happen with Lou Paget,” in 2006 and is part of Redbook magazine’s “Love Network.”

Mark Rice

Breakout Session: Driving Growth through Innovation

Starting a company from scratch is a breakthrough innovation. However, once the company has moved beyond startup and survival is a growing concern, most of the company’s bandwidth is committed to sustaining itself— in a sense, harvesting its past success. To succeed in the long term, the company must “create the future” by discovering, developing and implementing innovations that will change the game in its market and its industry. Innovation can occur in products, services, processes, business models and so forth.

Part one of this session will be a presentation and discussion focused on the seven challenges of managing breakthrough innovation and the variety of approaches firms have used to address those challenges. During Part two, the audience will be divided into teams to engage in an interactive exercise, which will conclude with summary comments for the session leader.

Biography
Mark P. Rice , currently the Frederic C. Hamilton Professor for Free Enterprise at Babson College, served as the Murata Dean of the F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College from 2001-2007. He also has an appointment as Professor of Technology Entrepreneurship at Babson’s sister school, the Olin College of Engineering. Mark is the co-author of Radical Innovation: How Mature Companies Can Outsmart Upstarts, which was published by the Harvard Business School.

His research on corporate innovation and entrepreneurship has been published widely in academic and practitioner journals, including Sloan Management Review, Organization Science, R&D Management, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, IEEE Engineering Management Review, Academy of Management Executive and California Management Review. Mark consults and teaches in the areas of innovation management, technology strategy, new business incubation and entrepreneurship.

In 2002 Mark received the Edwin M. and Gloria W. Appel Entrepreneurship in Education Prize. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Simon Sinek
www.sinekpartners.com

Breakout Session: The Golden Circle: Understanding Why Your Customers Buy From You

There isn’t a single company that makes something your customers can’t buy from someone else for about the same price, quality and service. If that’s true, then why are your customers your customers? And if you don’t know why your customers are your customers, how do you know what to do to attract more of them?

Simon Sinek will share a simple idea, based on the biology of how customers make choices, to show you why your customers buy from you and how you can adjust the way you think, act and communicate to attract more loyal customers.

Simon will show you the exact same ideas he has taught to other entrepreneurs, FORTUNE 50 companies, members of the US Congress, ambassadors, leaders of US Air Force, government and executives in various industries.

Biography
Simon is CEO and found of SinekPartners, Corporate Refocusing. He is helping pioneer the Corporate Refocusing industry. His unorthodox approach of applying tried and tested marketing techniques to all parts of a company’s operations is having significant positive impact on the cultures and bottom lines of a diverse group of organizations.

Prior to co-founding SinekPartners, Simon held lead account positions at global advertising agencies Euro/RSCG and Oglivy & Mather, both headquartered in New York City. While there, he developed strategic communications platforms for OppenheimerFunds, JPMorgan Chase, EchoStar’s Dish Network, MCI and Northwest Airlines, all for their ultra-competitive Asia-Pacific business. Simon currently teaches in Columbia University’s Graduate Program in Strategic Communications, speaks at various conferences and industry events, and comments regularly on marketing trends to industry and consumer publications.

Simon received a bachelor’s in cultural anthropology from Brandeis University and studied law at the City University in London, England. He currently serves on the Board of Advisors of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, one of America’s fastest-growing companies. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Notario Dance Company in New York City.

Northeastern University has a celebrated history of combining entrepreneurship and technological innovation. In these special Off-Site Learning opportunities, you will meet with top professors to discuss business opportunities that are arising in three technical areas of expertise at NU. You will need to choose one of the three areas: creative industries, nanotechnology or global product development.

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Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology, or, as it is sometimes called, molecular manufacturing, is a branch of engineering that deals with the design and manufacture of extremely small electronic circuits and mechanical devices built at the molecular level of matter. Nanotechnology research at Northeastern encompasses applications in manufacturing, materials, medicine and biotechnology.

About the speaker:
Ahmed A. Busnaina, Ph.D. is the William Lincoln Smith Chair Professor and Director of National Science Foundation’s Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) for High-rate Nanomanufacturing and the NSF Center for Nano and Microcontamination Control. He is internationally recognized for his work on nano- and micro-scale defects mitigation and removal in semiconductor fabrication. He also is involved in the fabrication of nanoscale wires, structures and interconnects. He specializes in directed assembly of nanoelements (such as nanotubes and nanoparticles) and in the fabrication of micro and nanoscale structures. He served as a consultant on micro contamination and particle adhesion issues to the semiconductor industry. He also serves on many advisory boards including Samsung Electronics; Chemical Industry Nanomaterials Roadmap, and International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors. He was awarded the 2006 Nanotech Briefs National Nano50 Award, Innovator category.

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Creative Industries
Creative industries are businesses that are at the intersection of digital media/art and computer and information science. At Northeastern we focus on opportunities in emerging technologies, across a variety of platforms, including music, games and electronic publishing.

About the speaker:
Anthony De Ritis, Ph.D. is Chair of the Department of Music and Director of the Multimedia Studies Program. He is the founder and lead developer of the Online Conservatory collaboration between the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Northeastern University, which was featured in the New York Times, the Chronicle for Higher Education, Newsweek, Symphony magazine and the Boston Globe. The Online Conservatory allows viewers to explore BSO programs in-depth before their performances. De Ritis is faculty head of the multimedia incubator at NU, which is responsible for spinning out new companies in the creative industries. De Ritis holds a certificate in Internet Technologies and a Masters in Business Administration with an emphasis in High Tech.

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Global Product Development
Global product development deals with the new approaches that go into speeding up and improving the creation of new products. Northeastern research focuses on innovations in design, rapid prototyping and manufacturing.


About the speaker:
Tucker Marion, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at Northeastern University's School of Technological Entrepreneurship. He specializes in product development, innovation and entrepreneurship. His research is concentrated on engineering management processes that improve early-stage firm and product success. He has held product development and manufacturing positions at Ford Motor Company and Visteon. In 2001, he co-founded the Innovation Factory, where he headed product development and operations. In 2004, he began FlashPoint Development leading the design effort for numerous consumer and technical projects. Product initiatives led by Tucker have been featured in Popular Science and the New York Times. Tucker is a Mechanical Engineering graduate of Bucknell University who holds a Masters from the University of Pennsylvania and Wharton School in Technology Management, as well as a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Penn State.

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Cambridge Innovation Center

July 25, 2008
2 - 4 p.m.

Cambridge Innovation Center – Meet with Founder Tim Rowe
The Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), located next to MIT, is the largest facility dedicated to housing startup companies in the United States. A winner of Boston Magazine’s “ Best Place to Work” award, CIC currently houses approximately 170 companies. In 2005, Google, Inc. selected CIC to house its new New England operations, and they remained at CIC until it reached approximately 200 people. A recent analysis suggested that of the combined US$16B invested in venture capital in New England in the past 5 years, at least US$750M of that was invested in companies that grew at CIC. Meet with Founder Tim Rowe to learn more about this unique shared community of startups.

Timothy Rowe
Tim Rowe is the founder and CEO of Cambridge Innovation Center. CIC is one of the largest facilities in the US dedicated to housing startup technology companies.

In addition to his role with CIC, Tim is a venture partner and member of the investment committee of New Atlantic Ventures. Tim is particularly interested in consumer-facing technology products with mass-market potential.

Previously, Tim has served as a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, a manager with the Boston Consulting Group and an analyst with the Mitsubishi Research Institute. Tim speaks Spanish and Japanese fluently.

In 1994 Tim co-coordinated the operations of the first international World Wide Web conference, “the Woodstock of the Web,” at CERN in Geneva. Tim holds an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a BA from Amherst College. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and he and his wife have three children.