MAINSTAGE SPEAKERS

Rod Beckstrom
Co-author, The Starfish and the Spider
 
Rod Beckstrom is the co-author of The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations that presents a new model for analyzing organizations, leadership style and competitive strategy.
 
Beckstrom has been an entrepreneur in different environments. He started his first company when he was 24 in a garage apartment and grew it into a global enterprise with offices in New York, London, Tokyo, Geneva, Sydney, Palo Alto, Los Angeles and Hong Kong. That company, CAT•S Software Inc., which was #54 on the Inc. 500 list in 1991, went public and was later sold. He Co-founded Mergent Systems which was sold to Commerce One. He recently Co-founded TWIKI.NET, a supporting services company for an open source wiki software system.

He has helped to start more than a half dozen non-profit groups and initiatives. He serves on the boards of Environmental Defense Fund and Jamii Bora Trust (micro-lending) in Africa.
 
Beckstrom graduated from Stanford with an MBA and a BA with Honors and Distinction. He served as President of the combined Stanford student body (ASSU) and was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

Paul Bennett
Chief Creative Officer, IDEO
 
Paul Bennett is IDEO's chief creative officer. He has worn many hats at IDEO, managing the San Francisco and London locations and founding and leading the company's largest global practice, Consumer Experience Design. Paul has managed key client relationships with Virgin, Numico, Vodafone, Motorola, Procter & Gamble and Pepsi.
 
Bennett's perspectives on how design thinking builds great and enduring brands have been featured in Ad Age, Business Week and Creativity Magazines.  He also speaks widely on the topic at such forums as TEDGlobal, Walpole seminars and client innovation summits.
 
Originally trained as a graphic designer, Paul honed his brand skills by working in many diverse facets of the design business, both agency and client-side.  Projects ranged from retail and packaging design in London, where he worked on The Midland Bank, Boots and Sainsburys, to advertising in Asia and New York for clients such as Singapore Airlines, Raffles Hotel, Estee Lauder, Coach and Citibank.
 
Prior to joining IDEO, Paul ran his own pioneering brand design business, Nick & Paul, in New York for seven years, where his clients included Coca-Cola, Motorola and Unilever. He has had numerous other clients in fashion, fragrance, technology, consumer products and hospitality. Paul has run many large branding programs, all from the same basic premise: that great design springs from singularity of vision, courage and collaboration.

Alex Bogusky
Co-chairman, Crispin Porter + Bogusky
 
Alex Bogusky joined Crispin and Porter Advertising in 1989 as an art director. He became the creative director five years later, a partner in 1997, and a co-chairman in January 2008. Under his direction, Crispin Porter + Bogusky has grown to more than 700 employees, with offices in Miami, Boulder, Los Angeles, and London.  Bogusky’s work has won hundreds of top industry awards, including the Grand Prix at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in all five categories: Sales Promotion, Media, Cyber, Titanium, and Film. Bogusky was inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Achievement in 2002. Most Mondays, he comes to work with at least one grisly, blood-oozing injury that forces people to look away. He has a photographic memory, but only for ads.

Marilyn Carlson Nelson
Chairman and CEO, Carlson Companies

Marilyn Carlson Nelson is chairman and CEO of Carlson Companies, one of the largest privately held companies in the world. Under her leadership, the firm’s systemwide sales has grown more than threefold, from $12 billion to $40 billion. She transformed Carlson into a “new model” company and initiated an employee effort that netter more than $200 million in bottom-line process and program improvements.

Carlson Companies is a global group of integrated companies that provides travel, hotel, restaurant, cruise, and marketing services. The firm’s global business portfolio encompasses Carlson’s major operating groups: Carlson Hospitality Worldwide; Carlson Wagonlit Travel; Carlson Leadership Group; and Carlson Marketing Group, the largest relationship marketing group in the U.S. Other companies include Thomas Cook travel and financial services; Regent International Hotels; Radisson Hotels and Resorts, and T.G.I Friday’s restaurants.

She has been named one of “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S. News and World Report and Forbes magazine has regularly selected her as one of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.” In 2007, Ethisphere Magazine named her one of the “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics.” She is also the author of the forthcoming How We Lead Matters: Reflections on a Life of Leadership.

Jim Collins
Author, Good to Great and co-author, Built to Last
 
Jim Collins is a student and teacher of enduring great companies—how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how good companies can become great companies. Having invested over a decade of research into the topic, Collins has authored or co-authored four books, including the classic Built to Last, a fixture on the Business Week best seller list for more than six years, and has been translated into 29 languages.  His work has been featured in Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company.
 
Collins’ most recent book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t attained long-running positions on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Business Week best seller lists, has sold three million hardcover copies since publication, and has been translated into 35 languages, including such languages as Latvian, Mongolian and Vietnamese. 
 
Driven by a relentless curiosity, Collins began his research and teaching career on the faculty at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992. In 1995, he founded a management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where he now conducts research and teaches executives from the corporate and social sectors. Collins holds degrees in business administration and mathematical sciences from Stanford University, and honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Colorado and the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. 
 
Collins has served as a teacher to senior executives and CEOs at over a hundred corporations. He has also worked with social sector organizations, such as: Johns Hopkins Medical School, the Girl Scouts of the USA, the Leadership Network of Churches, the American Association of K-12 School Superintendents, and the United States Marine Corps.  In 2005 he published a monograph:  Good to Great and the Social Sectors.
 
In addition, Collins is an avid rock climber and has made one-day ascents of the North Face of Half Dome and the Nose route on the South Face of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.  He continues to climb at the 5.13 grade. 

Bill George
Author, True North
 
Bill George is Professor of Management Practice, Henry B. Arthur Fellow of Ethics, at Harvard Business School, where he is teaching leadership and leadership development. He is the author of new best-selling leadership book, "True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership." His previous book, “Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value", was also a best-seller. His commentary has been featured on "The Need for Authentic True North Leaders" on PBS' "Nightly Business Report"
 
Mr. George is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Medtronic. He joined Medtronic in 1989 as President and Chief Operating Officer, and was elected Chief Executive Officer in 1991, serving in that capacity through 2001. He was Chairman of the Board from 1996 to 2002. Under his leadership, Medtronic's market capitalization grew from $1.1 billion to $60 billion, averaging 35% a year.
 
Mr. George currently serves as a director of ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs, and Novartis, as well as Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and World Economic Forum USA.
 
During 2002-2003, Mr. George was Professor of Leadership and Governance at IMD International in Lausanne, Switzerland and Executive-in-Residence at Yale University’s School of Management. Prior to joining Medtronic, he spent ten years as a senior executive with Honeywell and ten years with Litton Industries, primarily as president of Litton Microwave Cooking.
 
Mr. George received his BSIE with high honors from Georgia Tech, and his MBA with high distinction from Harvard University, where he was a Baker Scholar. He has received a honorary Doctorate of Business Administration from Bryant University. George was named Executive-of-the-Year by the Academy of Management (2001) and Director-of-the-Year by NACD (2001-02). In 2002 George was selected as one of "The 25 Most Influential Business People of the Last 25 Years" by PBS Nightly News.

A.E. Hotchner
Writer and co-founder, Newman’s Own
 
A.E. Hotchner was born and raised in St. Louis, where he received his LL.B., Doctor of Law at Washington University. After practicing law for two years, Hotchner entered the Air Force, served with the Anti-Submarine Command and emerged four years later a Major.
 
Hotchner did not return to his practice in St. Louis, but instead settled in New York City where, as a freelance writer, he wrote more than 300 articles and short stories for such publications as Esquire, Saturday Evening Post, The New York Times, and Reader’s Digest. During the golden days of television, when Playhouse 90 flourished, he wrote a series of distinguished plays, including several prize-winning adaptations of Ernest Heminway’s work. He also wrote the screenplay for “Adventures of a Young Man,” which starred Paul Newman.
 
Hotchner also wrote about his long friendship with Hemingway in Papa Hemingway, a highly acclaimed bestseller that was published in 34 countries in 28 different languages. Hotchner has also written bestseller biographies of Doris Day and Sophia Loren, as well as numerous other books and plays.
 
Along with his writing career, Hotchner’s accidental business venture with his long-time friend Paul  Newman has turned into one of the country’s surprising success stories. Their Newwan’s Own products generate millions of dollars of annual profit, which is entirely contributed to a long list of deserving charities. One of the beneficiaries is the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, which they built in Connecticut for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. They have sponsored sister camps in four other states and six countries internationally.

Elon Musk
Chairman of the Board, Tesla Motors; CEO and CTO, SpaceX
 
Elon Musk is the principal owner and has been the main funding source for Tesla Motors from when it was just three people and a business plan to present day.  As Chairman of the Board of Tesla Motors, he helps drive Tesla's business and product strategy, and assists with aspects of the technology development.

Musk's primary activity is serving as CEO and CTO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), which he founded in 2002.  SpaceX develops rockets and spacecraft for missions to Earth orbit and beyond. Last year, SpaceX won the NASA competition to design, build and demonstrate operation of a commercial replacement for the Space Shuttle, which retires in 2010.
 
Prior to SpaceX, Musk co-founded PayPal, the world's leading Internet payment system, and served as the company's Chairman and CEO. Musk also co-founded Zip2 Corp., a provider of Internet software to the media industry, with investments from The New York Times Company, Knight-Ridder, MDV, Softbank, and Hearst. In early 1999, Zip2 was sold to Compaq for over $300 million in an all cash transaction.
 
In addition, Musk is also the chairman and principal owner of SolarCity, the leading installer of commercial and residential installer of solar electric systems in California, where he provides strategic direction and product development.  Mr. Musk also sits on the boards of the Space Foundation, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, The National Academies Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, The Planetary Society and is a Trustee of the X Prize Foundation.
 
In 2007, Musk was recognized for his work as the recipient of Research and Development magazine’s Innovator of the Year Award, as well as by Inc. magazine as Entrepreneur of the Year. He received an Index award for serving as co-designer of the Tesla Roadster.

Alfred Spector
Vice president, research and special initiatives, Google
 
Alfred Spector joined Google in 2007 and is responsible for the research across Google and also a growing collection of special engineering initiatives, including projects like Google Health.
 
Previously, Spector was vice president of strategy and technology for IBM's software business, vice president of services and software research across IBM, and a general manager in the software business, where he led products such as CICS and WebSphere. He was also founder and CEO of Transarc Corporation, a pioneer in distributed transaction processing and wide area file systems that was acquired by IBM in 1994.  Previously Spector was associate professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, specializing in highly reliable, highly scalable distributed computing.
 
Spector received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford and his A.B. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard. He has published numerous articles and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the IEEE and ACM, and the recipient of the 2001 IEEE Computer Society's Tsutomu Kanai Award for work in scalable architectures and distributed systems.