7 Great Keynote Speakers

Malcolm Gladwell has an incomparable gift for interpreting new ideas in the social sciences and making them understandable, practical and valuable. In 2005, Time magazine named Malcolm one of its "100 Most Influential People". His book, Outliers: The Story of Success, is having an even greater impact than his first two. In Outliers, Malcolm suggests an exciting new approach to helping people succeed by using the factors that really foster success. It debuted as a #1 bestseller for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, Barnes & Noble, and Publisher's Weekly. He is the author of two other New York Times #1 bestsellers, The Tipping Point and Blink. With his first book, Malcolm embedded the concept of The Tipping Point in our everyday vocabulary and gave organizations new tools for understanding how trends work. In Blink, he analyzed first impressions-the snap judgements that we all make unconsciously and instinctively-and explores how we can master this important aspect of successful decision-making. Malcolm is a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine. His editor describes his work as a new genre of story, an idea-driven narrative focused on the everyday and combines research with material that's more personal, social and historical. He now has another bestseller, What the Dog Saw, a compilation of essays from his writings in The New Yorker magazine. He was previously a reporter for the Washington Post. www.gladwell.com

Dr. John Toussaint is Chief Executive Officer of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and former CEO of ThedaCare, Inc.  During his tenure as president and CEO of ThedaCare, he introduced the ThedaCare Improvement System (TIS), which is derived from the Toyota Production system. This model of continuous improvement helped save millions of dollars in healthcare costs by reducing patient errors, improving outcomes and delivering better quality care at a higher value. ThedaCare and Dr. Toussaint's work have been featured in Health Affairs, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Modern Health Care and Health Management Technology. He is asked to speak all over the world on LEAN and the topics of quality and efficiency in healthcare. www.createhealthcarevalue.com

George Koenigsaecker is a principal investor in several Lean enterprises. He is a Board Member of the Shingo Prize, The Association of Manufacturing Excellence, The Thedacare Center for Healthcare Value, Ariens Outdoor Power Equipment, Baird Capital Partners, Simpler Consulting and Watlow Electric Corporation. From 1992-1999, he led the Lean conversion of the HON Company, a $1.5 billion office furniture manufacturer, his efforts led a tripling of volume and culminated in HON Industries being named by Industry Week magazine as one of the "World's Best Managed Companies". Prior to this, George was with the Danaher Corporation, where he was President of the Jacob's Vehicle Equipment Company (whose Lean conversion is featured in the book Lean Thinking by Jim Womack and Dan Jones) and Group President of the Tool Group, then the largest business unit of Danaher. He also developed and implemented the "Danaher Business System", a comprehensive Lean enterprise model. He has held senior management positions in Finance, Marketing and Operations with Rockwell International and Deere & Company. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School.

Colleen Abdoulah, the only female CEO to lead a Top 20 cable company, is widely respected for her passionate focus on customer experience and company culture. Colleen has guided WOW! Internet, Cable and Phone through seven years of industry leading financial success and earned an unprecedented ten J.D. Power & Associates awards for customer satisfaction. She has been the Keynote Speaker at a variety of management conferences and business forums, where she has shared her views on the strategic importance of customer experience and company culture; development of gender-balanced management and leadership; and cultivation of authentic leadership among other topics. Prior to joining WOW!, Colleen spent much of her career at Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) where she served in a number of positions, including Assistant to the COO and Executive Vice President of Cable Operations. She architected the business strategy and deployment of TCI's digital cable service after serving as General Manager of Netlink, where she oversaw operations of TCI's national satellite division.

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Author of the Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die, and named by Leadership Excellence Magazine as one of North America 's Top 100 Thought Leaders, Dr. John Izzo sees and feels the goodness many of us aspire to. As an author, community leader and inspiring speaker, he has worked hard to talk about the essential elements of Leadership and the new frontier of that ever changing role. His interests are Development as it pertains to the individual, as well at the company, Corporate Culture and the pursuit of creating places that support the individual and the corporate vision, and Personal Well-being in the fight to balance work and life. He works with leaders to create corporations and organizations where values and purpose are the foundations for success. Establishing these foundations helps leaders and organizations reach sustainable success through the integration of purposeful leadership and business practices. www.theizzogroup.com

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Author of The Winds of Turbulence on leadership and ethics and former CEO of Southwest Airlines, Howard Putnam inspires audiences to a greater vision and new insights. Southwest Airlines changed the way the game is played in the airline industry, creating a new model that focused on low costs, low fares and great customer service. The goal was to expand the size of the pie (market). They hired "attitudes" and developed skill sets. Tradition doesn't always work in any industry. Sometimes you have to flip your model upside down for a fresh look. You have to have a clear and concise vision if you want your organization to survive and thrive through turbulence. A clear understanding of what business or businesses you are really in is critical. Cultures can then be developed to support the vision and business. Bottom line improvement comes through your people. Howard will share with you how successful organizations get through the maze. www.howardputnam.com