James Ciriello, ‎Associate Vice President, IT Planning & Innovation at Merck & Co.

Thurs 10/2, 5pm – 6pm EST
Forum: Supporting 21st Century Competencies

Jim Ciriello is Associate Vice President of IT Planning and Innovation for Merck, where he is focused on orchestrating the work of strategy, portfolio, architecture, innovation, digital business modeling, communications and learning across the larger organization. His previous roles at Merck include Executive Director, Strategic Planning and Health IT, which was focused on shaping the external environment and preparing the organization to compete on a new landscape of health information infrastructure, Senior Director of Strategy and Service Architecture for Shared Business Services and Senior Director of Business and Solutions Architecture for Human Health Information Technology. Prior to joining Merck, Jim worked at Boston University as Executive Director and Executive-in-Residence for the Boston University Institute for Leading in a Dynamic Economy (BUILDE), a research collaborative created to explore the effects of emerging technologies on competitive markets and organizations. Program Director for Global Mobility Insights and Innovations (GMII), a multi-university research program created to study the business impact of mobility and convergence of communications. In both roles, Jim worked with academia and industry to explore business platforms, real options, technological innovations and end user framed design. Prior to joining Boston University, Jim worked at AT&T and Lucent Technologies as a Director in positions spanning core business and the information technology organization. He is deeply rooted in the disciplines of business strategy, demand creation, functional architecture, systems engineering, and software development.

Jim is co-author of managerial points of view, including “Smart Health Community: The Hidden Value of Health Information Exchange”, “The Story of Island Man: It’s Not Just the Technology”, “Shaping the Future through Experimentation: Dr. Moulton’s Evolving Cone of Possibilities”, and “Convergence: Creating and Capturing Value for the Enterprise”. Jim holds degrees from St. Peter’s College (BS) and Stevens Institute of Technology (MS) in New Jersey, and attended the Tuck Executive Program at Dartmouth.

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L. Kevin Cox, Chief Human Resources Officer, American Express Company

Thurs 10/2, 7am – 8am EST
Forum: Supporting 21st Century Competencies

Kevin Cox is the Chief Human Resources Officer at American Express. He is the primary architect of the company’s human capital plan and related strategies that focus on making American Express one of the most financially successful and respected companies in the world.

Kevin has been a leader in Human Resources for more than two decades. His expertise lies in the fields of organizational effectiveness, talent management, and driving large-scale complex change.

He joined American Express in 2005 after 16 years at Pepsi-Cola and the Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG), where he held positions leading strategy, business development, technology, and Human Resources. He played a significant role in the successful initial public offering of PBG in 1999.

Kevin is a member of the board of directors of CEB as well as Kraft Food Group, where he is chair of the compensation committee.

He is active in a number of professional HR organizations, serving on the boards of the Human Resources Policy Association, the National Academy of Human Resources, and the Cornell University Center for Advanced Human Resources studies.

Kevin is a frequent speaker on strategy, building organizational capability and increasing the role and influence of Human Resources in global businesses.

He holds a Master’s of Labor and Industrial Relations from Michigan State University and a Bachelor of Arts from Marshall University.

He is an active member of his community in Connecticut, where he and his family enjoy their involvement with a wide range of charitable organizations. His hobbies include golf, weightlifting, and listening to an eclectic collection of music.

 

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David A. Garvin, C. Roland Christensen Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

Tues 9/30, 11:30am – 12:30pm EST
Forum: Supporting 21st Century Competencies

David A. Garvin is the C. Roland Christensen Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He joined the Business School faculty in 1979 and has since then taught courses in leadership, general management, and operations in the MBA and Advanced Management programs, as well as serving as chair of the Elective Curriculum and faculty chair of the School’s Teaching and Learning Center. He has also taught in executive education programs and consulted for over fifty organizations around the globe, including Amyris, Biogen Idec, Booz Allen Hamilton, Frito-Lay, Gillette, L. L. Bean, 3M, Mitsubishi, Morgan Stanley, Mueller, Novartis, PPG, Reed Elsevier, Seagate, Stryker, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Professor Garvin’s research interests lie in the areas of general management and strategic change. He is especially interested in business and management processes, organizational learning, and the design and leadership of large, complex organizations. He is also deeply interested in case method teaching. He is the author or co-author of ten books, including Rethinking the MBA (selected by Strategy + Business as one of the Best Business Books of 2010), General Management: Processes and Action,Learning in Action, Education for Judgment, and Managing Quality; more than thirty-five articles, including “How Google Sold Its Engineers on Management,” “Change Through Persuasion,” “What Every CEO Should Know About Creating New Businesses,” and “What You Don’t Know About Making Decisions;” eight CD-ROMs and videotape series, including A Case Study Teacher in Action, Working Smarter, and Putting the Learning Organization to Work; and over sixty HBS case studies, multimedia exercises, and technical notes. He is a three-time winner of the McKinsey Award, given annually for the best article in Harvard Business Review; a winner of the Beckhard Prize, given annually for the best article on planned change and organizational development in Sloan Management Review; and a winner of the Smith-Weld Prize, given annually for the best article on the University in Harvard Magazine. He has been cited in the New York Times,Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, Economist, Business Week, Fortune, and Fast Company.

Professor Garvin received an A.B. summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1974, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and a Ph.D. in economics from M.I.T. in 1979, where he held a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship and a Sloan Foundation Fellowship.

Prior to coming to the Business School, he worked as an economist for both the Federal Trade Commission, studying federal energy policies, and the Sloan Commission on Government and Higher Education, studying the impact of federal regulation on the academic and financial policies of colleges and universities. He has served on the Board of Overseers of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the Manufacturing Studies Board of the National Research Council, and the Board of Directors of Emerson Hospital.

In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, bicycling, and travel. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts with his wife, Lynn, and his daughters, Diana and Cynthia.

 

 
See other VIP guest from Harvard Business School: Clayton Christensen

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Pankaj Ghemawat, PhD, V Anselmo Rubiralta Professor of Global Strategy, IESE Business School, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Global Management, Stern School of Business, NYU

Wed 10/1, 10am – 11am EST
Forum: Supporting 21st Century Competencies

Pankaj Ghemawat is the Anselmo Rubiralta Professor of Global Strategy at IESE Business School and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Global Management, Stern School of Business, New York University.Between 1983 and 2008, he was on the faculty at the Harvard Business School where, in 1991, he became the youngest person in the school’s history to be appointed a full professor.  Ghemawat was also the youngest “guru” included in the guide to the greatest management thinkers of all time published in 2008 by The Economist.

Ghemawat’s books include Commitment, Games Businesses Play, Strategy and the Business Landscape andRedefining Global Strategy. IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano described the latter book as “an important strategic guidebook for leaders of the 21st century globally integrated enterprise… [with an] analytic framework that is both visionary and pragmatic – aware of the broader historic trajectories of globalization, but grounded in the real kinds of decisions business leaders have to make.”

Ghemawat’s new book, World 3.0, was published in May 2011 by Harvard Business Review Press. Pascal Lamy, Director General of the World Trade Organization, has described it as “offering recommendations that should inspire all global stakeholders in times of major global challenges”  and Peter Löscher, CEO of Siemens, as “the right book at the right time…[about] ways to make the global economy more stable–and more sustainable.”  And according to an early review in The Economist, “World 3.0.should be read by anyone who wants to understand the most important economic development of our time.” World 3.0 won the 50 Thinkers Book Award for the best business book published in 2010-2011, the Axiom Business Book Gold Award in the International Business/Globalization category and the IESE Alumni Research Excellence Award.

Pankaj Ghemawat also developed the DHL Global Connectedness Index 2012, which was first released in November 2011, and has recently launched the2013 Depth Index of Globalization, a comprehensive analysis otf globalization and the rise of emerging markets. According to Pascal Lamy, Director General of the World Trade Organization, “In the current global economic climate where the threat of increased protectionism and isolationist tendencies is of genuine concern, this report offers a compelling argument, based on a methodologically robust analysis, of why increased global and regional inter-connectedness and openness is the more prudent policy path.”

Ghemawat has written more than 100 research articles and case studies, is one of the world’s best-selling authors of teaching cases and fellow of the Academy of International Business and of the Strategic Management Society. Other recent honors include the McKinsey Award for the best article published in the Harvard Business Review,the Irwin Educator of the Year award from the Business Policy and Strategy division of the Academy of Management and the Herbert Simon Award of Rajk Laszlo College for Advance Studies in Budapest. Among other recognitions are the IESE-Fundación BBVA Economics for Management Prize and the IESE Alumni Research Excellence Prize for Redefining Global Strategy.

Ghemawat helps companies and business schools better understand and address international opportunities and challenges.  He served on the taskforce appointed by the AACSB, the leading accreditation body for business schools, on the globalization of management education, and authored the report’s recommendations about what to teach students about globalization, and how.

 

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Marshall Goldsmith, PhD, Executive Leadership Coach, Marshall Goldsmith Group

Tues 9/30, 1pm – 2pm EST
Forum: Supporting 21st Century Competencies

In November 2013, at the bi-annual Thinkers 50 Ceremony in London, Dr. Marshall Goldsmith was recognized again as one the Top Ten Most Influential Business Thinkers in the World – and the top-rated executive coach.  His work has been recognized by almost every professional association in his field and every major business publication around the world. Dr. Goldsmith’s 34 books have sold over two million copies, been translated into 30 languages and become listed bestsellers in twelve counties.  He has written two New York Times bestsellers, MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – a Wall Street Journal #1 business book and winner of the Harold Longman Award for Business Book of the Year.  Marshall’s next book, Triggers, will focus on our relationship with the world around us and how we can increase our own experience of engagement, happiness and meaning.  Dr. Goldsmith is one of a select few executive advisors who have been asked to work with over 150 major CEOs and their management teams.

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Lynda Gratton, PhD, Professor of Management Practice, London Business School, Founder of The Hot Spots Movement

Wed 10/1, 10am – 11am EST
Forum: Supporting 21st Century Competencies

Lynda Gratton is a Professor of Management Practice at London Business School where she directs the program ‘Human Resource Strategy in Transforming Companies’ – considered the world’s leading program on human resources. Lynda is the founder of The Hot Spots Movement and for over five years has led the Future of Work Research Consortium which has brought executives from more than 80 companies together both virtually and on a bespoke collaborative platform.

Lynda has written extensively about the interface between people and organizations. Her eight books have been translated into more than 15 languages. They cover the link between business and HR strategy (Human Resource Strategy: corporate rhetoric, individual reality and Living Strategy), the new ways of working (The Democratic Enterprise), the rise of complex collaboration (Hot Spots and Glow) and the impact of a changing world on employment and work (The Shift). Lynda’s case on BP won the EECH best case of the year, her article on ‘signature processes’ the MIT Sloan award, and in 2012  The Shift received the best business book of the year award in Japan. Her latest book The Key, published in June 2014, looks at the impact of the changing world on corporate practices, processes and leadership.

Lynda’s work has been acknowledged globally – she has won the Tata prize in India; in the US she has been named as the annual Fellow of NAHR and won the CCL prize; whilst in Australia she has won the HR prize. Lynda is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and has chaired the WEF Council on Leadership. She serves as a judge on the FT Business Book of the Year panel, chairs the Drucker prize panel and is on the governing body of London Business School.  In 2013 she was awarded the Life Time Achievement Award by HR Magazine and equally in 2013 she was amongst the 15 top thought leaders in the Thinkers50 ranking.

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Martha Josephson, Partner, Digital Media Global Practice Leader, Egon Zehnder

Tues 9/30, 8pm – 9pm EST
Forum: Supporting 21st Century Competencies

Martha has been a partner at Egon Zehnder for 16 years, and is industry recognized as a trusted advisor to many of the world’s most admired organizations. She leads the firm’s Global Digital Practice, which she founded in 1997 as the first purely digital practice in any global executive search firm; now the industry leader.  She also co-leads the Global Media Practice. She is one of the most sought after and reputed talent consultants in the Silicon Valley, and from her base in Palo Alto operates locally and  globally to secure, retain and develop exceptional C-level and Board talent for the world’s leading e-based and media centric organizations. She leads the Firm’s significant relationship with Google handling more than 300 executive searches as their primary partner over the course of the last ten plus years.

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Ashwini Kakkar, PhD, Vice Chairman, Mercury Travels, Chairman of Via.com, Ambit Corporation and the Fight Hunger Foundation

Wed 10/1, 7am – 8am EST
Forum: Supporting 21st Century Competencies

Mr. Ashwini Kakkar is an Entrepreneur, Vice Chairman of Mercury Travels and Chairman of Via.com, Ambit Corporation and the Fight Hunger Foundation.

He is a Mechanical Engineer with a Post-Graduate from IIM Kolkata,  MBA from INSEAD France, and a Law Education from the Government Law College Mumbai.

A past President of Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also of Travel Agents Association of India, Chairman of World Travel and Tourism Council, he is a board Director of many companies including Pramerica, Europ Assistance India, Jai Medica and Himalayan Exploration.

A distinguished fellow of the Institute of Directors London, Kakkar was knighted by the French Government in 2007 with the “Chevalier De L’Ordre Merite”.

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Jamie P. Merisotis, President and CEO, Lumina Foundation

Wed 10/1 4pm – 5pm EST
Forum: Supporting 21st Century Competencies

Jamie P. Merisotis is president and CEO of Lumina Foundation, the nation’s largest private foundation committed solely to enrolling and graduating more students from college.  Under his leadership, Lumina employs a strategic, outcomes-based approach in pursuing the Foundation’s mission of expanding college access and success particularly among low-income, minority and other historically underrepresented populations.  Lumina’s goal is to ensure that, by 2025, 60 percent of Americans hold high quality degrees, certificates and other credentials—up from the current level of less than 40 percent.

Before joining Lumina in 2008, Merisotis founded and served 15 years as president of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Higher Education Policy, one of the world’s premier education research and policy centers.  He previously served as executive director of the National Commission on Responsibilities for Financing Postsecondary Education, a bipartisan commission appointed by the U.S. president and congressional leaders. Merisotis also helped create the Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps), and serves on numerous national and international boards of directors, including Bates College in Maine, Anatolia College in Greece, the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, and The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

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George Pappas, Chancellor of Victoria University

Wed 10/1, 7pm – 8pm EST
Forum: Supporting 21st Century Competencies

George is the Chancellor of Victoria University, a position he has held for the last 4 years.  He was the Chairman of Committee for Melbourne from 2005 til 2013 where he led the Committee’s efforts to support the Higher Education Sector as well as new and innovative industry development.

George has over 30 years commercial experience in strategy consulting work for the largest companies in the United States, Japan, Asia and Australia.

He co-founded the business strategy consultancy, Pappas Carter Evans and Koop (PCEK) in 1979 and later became Managing Partner of Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG’s) Australasian offices following BCG’s acquisition of PCEK in 1990. He was also a member of BCG’s worldwide Executive Committee

Since retiring from BCG in 2002, George served as Under Secretary in the Department of Premier and Cabinet for the State of Victoria, as Member of the Dean’s Advisory Board for the Monash Faculty of Business and Economics, Chairman of the Monash Institute of Medical Research. He has also served on several other private sectors and not for profit boards.

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