Berges Lecture Series
Berges Schedule
Lectures are held in the evenings.
The public and media are welcomed.
CONTACT US
Crystal Boser
cboser@nd.edu
Phone: (574) 631-4827
2023 Berges Lecture Series
Business Doing the Right Things: Is it worth it?
5 p.m. in Mendoza College of Business’ Jordan Auditorium. Free and open to the public.
Sponsored by The Business Ethics and Society Program.
Tomasz Konik has been with Deloitte for more than 20 years. Since June 2020, he has held the position of Managing Partner at Deloitte Poland and leader in charge of the key accounts and industry programs in Central Europe. Since August 2021, he has headed the Deloitte cluster covering Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Prior to becoming Managing Partner, he was Vice President of the Management Board in charge of the industry programs in Poland and successfully combined this role with responsibility for strategy and operations in Consulting, which he took on in 2017. Between 2005 and 2017, he built and developed Deloitte’s tax teams in various cities in Poland and Czech Republic.
Tomasz actively pursues the firm’s goal of becoming the undisputed leader in the professional services market, following our brand purpose of “Making an impact that matters” – making a positive impact on the environment in which Deloitte operates.
He graduated from the University of Economics in Katowice and completed an international MBA program at St. Gallen Business School. He also studied at IMD in Lausanne, Harvard Business School, Oxford University and IESE Business School Universidad de Navarra. He is a licensed tax adviser.
In June 2024 Tomasz Konik will officially begin in his role as CEO for Deloitte Central Europe.
4 p.m. in Mendoza College of Business’ Jordan Auditorium. Free and open to the public.
Co-sponsored by Mendoza College of Business and the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government.
Magatte Wade is an entrepreneur and advocate for African dignity and prosperity. Her TED talk, “Why it is too hard to start a business in Africa – and how to change it” has been seen by more than 600K people. She is a Forbes “20 Youngest Power Women in Africa”, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum at Davos, a TED Global Africa Fellow, and “Leading Woman in Wellness” award winner by the Global Wellness Summit. In 2014 she was featured on the cover of Forbes Afrique for being the person in Francophone Africa having the greatest positive impact on the future.
She serves as the Director of the Atlas Network’s Center for African Prosperity. Wade is a member of the board of Directors of Conscious Capitalism Inc and a member of the John Templeton Foundation Board of Trustees. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the Whole Planet Foundation, of Whole Foods Market. She has written for The Guardian, HuffingtonPost.com, and Barron’s, and has been profiled by the NYT. She has spoken at numerous high profile venues including the U.N., The Clinton Global Initiative, the Aspen Institute, TED, Conscious Capitalism, and many dozens of universities including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, MIT, UC Berkeley, Dartmouth, and the Wharton School of Business. Magatte has been interviewed by Jordan Peterson, Lex Fridman, and dozens more.
Throughout her career, she has created successful high-end retail brands inspired by diverse African traditions, most recently SkinIsSkin.com.
Wade believes that the “cheetah generation,” a new cohort of dynamic African entrepreneurs and professionals identified by Ghanian economist George Ayittey, will create local pathways for change that will shape the future of African prosperity. “Perhaps the most unique challenge we face is that the world has come to perceive that Africans themselves are not capable of creating prosperity—and require charity in order to survive,” she said. “This simply isn’t true. The combination of negative perceptions of Africans, combined with widespread ignorance regarding the need for economic freedom is a toxic combination.”
2022 Berges Lecture Series
René Girard and the Gravity of Desire
4 p.m. in the Jordan Auditorium on Tues. Nov. 8
Luke Burgis is Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship at The Catholic University of America. He has been the Founder and CEO of three companies, and is currently the Founder and Managing Partner of Fourth Wall Ventures, an incubator that invests in people and ventures that contribute to a healthy human ecology. Free and open to the public. The first 50 students to attend will receive a free copy of Burgis’ recent book “Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life.”
The first 50 students to attend will receive a free copy of Burgis’ recent book “Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life.”
From Bonds to the Bronx: A Conversation about Wall Street
4 p.m. in the Hesburgh Library’s Carey Auditorium, rm 107
After abandoning his twenty year Wall Street career, Chris Arnade decided to document poverty and addiction in the Bronx. He began interviewing, photographing, and becoming close friends with homeless addicts, and spent hours in drug dens and McDonald’s. Then he started driving across America to see how the rest of the country compared. He found the same types of stories everywhere, across lines of race, ethnicity, religion, and geography.
2021 Berges Lecture Series
Culture Clash: When Corporate Values and Actions Collide
4 p.m. in Jordan Auditorium, Mendoza College of Business
Ellen M. Hunt is an award-winning ethics and compliance professional, audit executive, lawyer, and former chief compliance and privacy officer. She has expertise in identifying, evaluating, and mitigating risks as an advisor to the Board of Directors and senior management. She has over 20 years of management experience in various industries in creating, designing, implementing, and operating world class ethics and compliance programs. She specializes in board governance, board reporting, designing ethics education, creating policy management frameworks, managing enterprise and compliance risk processes as well as handling investigations and regulatory agency inquiries. Ms. Hunt most recently served as the Vice President, Compliance Program Operations and Chief Privacy Officer for LifePoint Health, a national healthcare network with 60,000 employees in over 80 hospitals, post-acute services, and outpatient centers operating in 28 states. Before joining LifePoint, she served as the Senior Vice President, Audit, Ethics & Compliance Officer for AARP, a 38-million-member association. During her tenure, AARP was honored for three consecutive years as a World’s Most Ethical Company.
Honesty at Work
4 p.m. in 215 McKenna Hall, University of Notre Dame
Christian B. Miller is the A. C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University. He is currently the Director of the Honesty Project (honestyproject.philosophy.wfu.edu/), funded by a $4.4 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation. He is the author of over 100 academic papers as well as Moral Psychology with Cambridge University Press (2021) and four books with Oxford University Press, Moral Character: An Empirical Theory (2013), Character and Moral Psychology (2014), The Character Gap: How Good Are We? (2017), and Honesty: The Philosophy and Psychology of a Neglected Virtue (2021). He is a science contributor for Forbes, and his writings have also appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, Slate, The Conversation, Newsweek, Aeon, and Christianity Today.
Transcendent Leadership in a Mimetic World
4 p.m. in the Jordan Auditorium, Mendoza College of Business
Luke Burgis is Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship at The Catholic University of America. He has been the Founder and CEO of three companies, and is currently the Founder and Managing Partner of Fourth Wall Ventures, an incubator that invests in people and ventures that contribute to a healthy human ecology. He studied finance at NYU’s Stern School of Business and philosophy and theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. Luke is co-author with Dr. Joshua Miller of the book Unrepeatable: Cultivating the Unique Calling of Every Person. His latest book, Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life, was called by the Sunday Times “a thought-provoking book…also a deeply moral one.”
2019 Berges Lecture Series
Ethics and Wellbeing
Kathleen Schulz, Wellbeing & Engagement Practice Leader at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
7:00pm | Jordan Auditorium, Mendoza College of Business
Biography:
Kathleen brings more than 20 years of experience in
designing and implementing wellness, fitness, occupational
health, EAP, benefits, and work/life programs. As the
Northeast & Southeast Region’s Practice Leader, Kathleen
works with Gallagher teams and clients to design holistic
strategies to address the total employee value proposition –
including all the dimensions of wellbeing, employee
engagement and productivity.
Prior to joining Gallagher Benefit Services, Kathleen spent
nineteen year’s leading award winning occupational health
and wellness programs at Campbell Soup Company and
four years leading the health and wellness programs for
NYNEX company in New York. Her experience lies in
designing integrated approaches to wellbeing & engagement
by building relationships and collaborating with key internal
stakeholders to understand the organization’s mission, then
developing strategies that enable the mission and support
high performance.
Kathleen received her MS in Organizational Development
with a minor in Health Administration, as well as a Post
Graduate Diploma in Occupational Health, from St. Joseph’s
University in Philadelphia, PA. She also holds a BS in
Cardiovascular Health from Northeastern University in
Boston, MA and is a Certified Health Education Specialist
(CHES).
In 2018 Kathleen was named a Top 25 National Wellbeing
Leader by the Corporate Health & Wellness Association
and Corporate Wellness Magazine.
Reflections on the Future of Ethical Leadership in Business
Rachel Fichter, Vice President of Talent at S&P Global
Kurt Drake, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, Kimberly-Clark.
7:00pm | Jordan Auditorium, Mendoza College of Business
With over 17 years of experience in financial services, Fichter has had the opportunity to serve in a wide range of learning and development roles across the industry. In her current position as Chief Learning Officer at S&P Global Ratings, she is designing a digital learning strategy and transforming the learning platform to help employees succeed in their current roles, develop into future roles, and achieve their broader career aspirations.
Prior to joining S&P Global Ratings, Fichter was Managing Director and Head of Learning and Development for JPMorgan Chase’s Commercial Banking line of business, where she was also a member of the global Learning & Development leadership team. She began her career at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt as a member of the Corporate Leadership and Organization Development team and became the Head of Learning and Development for Credit Suisse’s global technology organization in 2006. After spending time in a Chief Operating Officer role in Credit Suisse’s Investment Banking Operations, she joined JPMorgan as Head of Training for Worldwide Securities Services.
Through her experiences over the years, Fichter has developed a key combination of business and HR skills. These include business strategy development and management, leadership and talent development, succession planning, employee engagement, onboarding, recruiting and internal mobility. She is also passionate about developing the capabilities of HR professionals.
Kurt Drake is the Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer and Vice President of Kimberly-Clark.
From Compliance Week: Before joining Kimberly-Clark as its chief ethics and compliance officer in 2016, Kurt Drake already had more than 20 years of global ethics and compliance and finance experience. He has been the chief ethics & compliance officer for GE Aviation, Mubadala Development Co., PPG Industries, and General Cable. In these roles, he has successfully built and led global ethics and compliance programs and teams in a range of industries. For more than nine years of his career, he took his talents overseas to China, Italy, and the Middle East. A common denominator at each company: building a worldclass compliance program unique to each entity, eschewing the easy route of a cookie-cutter, check-the-box approach. Drake is a former board member of the Ethics & Compliance Officer Association, now known as the Ethics & Compliance Initiative.
Why Publish Wages?
Barrett Ward, CEO of ABLE
7:00pm | Jordan Auditorium, Mendoza College of Business
Barret Ward Bio:
Leading a fashion lifestyle brand might be an unlikely role for someone self-described as “not a fashion guy,” but that’s exactly where ABLE CEO Barrett Ward finds himself. As the visionary behind the rapidly growing Nashville-based company disrupting the fashion industry with a social conscience, Ward was inspired to start ABLE with the mission of creating sustainable economic opportunities for women.
While living in Ethiopia, Ward and wife Rachel saw firsthand how extreme poverty forced many young women to make difficult choices for money. They wanted to give women the chance to earn a living with dignity. In 2010, they began ABLE by employing women who had overcome the sex industry to make handmade scarves. ABLE has since grown into a lifestyle brand carrying beautiful leather bags, jewelry, denim, apparel, and shoes with a primary focus on empowering disadvantaged women in Ethiopia, Peru, Mexico, and Nashville, TN.
Beyond adding new categories and communities of impact, Ward and ABLE have also grown in their ambition for social justice. In 2018, ABLE became the first brand to publish their lowest wages, creating the #PublishYourWages movement and providing complete transparency to empower and protect the fashion industry’s vulnerable workers – most of whom are women.
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies at a Silicon Valley Startup
John Carreyrou, Author and Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist at the Wall Street Journal
7:00pm | DeBartolo Auditorium (101 DeBartolo Hall)
Fostering an Inclusive Culture at Uber
Bo Young Lee, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Uber
7:00pm | Jordan Auditorium, Mendoza College of Business
2018 Berges Lecture Series
Giving Voice To Values: The “How” of Values-Driven Leadership Development
Mary C. Gentile, PhD, is Creator/Director of Giving Voice to Values, Professor of Practice at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, Senior Advisor at the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program, and consultant on management education and leadership development. Among numerous other awards, Mary was named as one of the 2015 “100 Most Influential in Business Ethics” by Ethisphere, one of the “Top Thought Leaders in Trust: 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award Winners” by Trust Across America-Trust Around the World, January 2015 and just this year was named one of the “Top Minds 2017” in ethics leadership by ComplianceWeek.
Giving Voice to Values, a pioneering business curriculum for values-driven leadership, has been featured in publications such as, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, McKinsey Quarterly and piloted in over 995 business schools and organizations globally. The award winning book is Giving Voice To Values: How To Speak Your Mind When You Know What’s Right, with translations in Chinese, Spanish and forthcoming in Korean. Mary has authored numerous books and articles and partnered with Nomadic.fm in 2014 to launch six online interactive social cohort-based modules around Giving Voice To Values.
While at Harvard Business School from 1985-1995, Mary held various positions as a faculty member, case writer and manager of case research and was one of the principal architects of HBS’s Leadership, Ethics and Corporate Responsibility curriculum. Among numerous other books, cases and articles, Mary co-authored Can Ethics Be Taught? Perspectives, Challenges, and Approaches at Harvard Business School and was Content Expert for the award-winning interactive CD-ROM, Managing Across Differences (HBS Publishing).
Mary earned her Bachelor’s degree from The College of William and Mary and her MA and PhD from State University of New York-Buffalo.
Practicing Ethics in Digital Transformation
Greg Davis, President, Aunalytics
Guided by the leadership of Greg Davis, Ph.D. first as Senior Architect and most recently as President, Aunalytics has developed Aunsight, its powerful, flexible, and scalable data platform. Greg holds a dual Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and Computer Science from the University of Notre Dame and has an extensive background in software system development.
Prior to Aunalytics, Greg gained software experience in a number of positions, including Lead Programmer at the University of Notre Dame involved with the design and development of a malaria research portal, VectorBase, experience in healthcare software systems as a Software Architect and co-founder of Adjuvant! Inc., and Systems Specialist at the University of Texas Health Science Center.
Why I Hired a Workforce Others Overlooked
Randy Lewis, Founder and President of the Nogwog Fund, an Illinois not-for-profit corporation.
He is author of No Greatness Without Goodness which was released in 2014 and was named by Fast Company as one of its “10 New Books You Need To Read This Year”.
In 2014 Mr. Lewis launched the Nogwog Disability Initiative to assist businesses and communities in developing and launching disability hiring initiatives that result in a more inclusive and effective workforce for business, improve the well-being of the community and have positive impact for all those involved, with and without disabilities. He has helped senior executives of companies across the country and abroad to launch their own disability hiring initiatives including Lowe’s, P&G, Best Buy, UPS, Marks & Spencer (UK) and Ica (Sweden).
Mr. Lewis pioneered this model at Walgreens where he served twenty years as the chain grew from 1,800 to 8,000 stores. When he retired in 2013, he had served sixteen years as Senior Vice President of Logistics and Supply Chain and was responsible for all aspects of logistics including strategy, operations, engineering, IT systems, and inventory management. The Walgreens supply chain is considered the most advanced logistics network in its industry composed of one of the U.S.’s largest private transportation fleets and 19 automated distribution centers (DCs). During his tenure, Lewis directed the design and building of 13 of DCs and major expansions of the other six.
In 2004, he initiated a new generation of large-scale distribution centers like no others in the world. The objective was to incorporate the latest technologies and innovative management without incurring additional costs to employ large numbers of people with disabilities. The first of these opened in 2007 with the expectation that employees with disabilities would perform the same jobs, earn the same pay, and be held to the same performance standards as everyone else. The new DC exceeded all expectations, becoming the most productive and cost effective in the company’s history. Over 30% of the workforce has a disability, most of which had never been able to secure a steady job before. As a consequence of the success, over 1,000 people with disabilities were working in all of Walgreens centers across the country within four years.
The work – acknowledged by the White House – has been called the “gold standard of disability employment” by the National Governors Association (NGA). In addition, Mr. Lewis has been called to testify before the Senate and speak at the United Nations. In 2012, he worked with Congressional leaders in both parties to organize and host a CEO Summit at its distribution center in Hartford, Connecticut. The meeting was attended by leaders of 15 major companies, many of which have subsequently launched their own disability hiring initiatives.
Mr. Lewis was recognized as Leader of the Year in 2011 by the Human Resources Management Association of Chicago for his body of work and outstanding service to and accomplishments in the field of human resources and business. His peers and DC Velocity magazine recognized him for his contribution to the logistics profession in 2008. He received the South Carolina’s highest award to non-citizens – the Order of the Silver Crescent – in 2008 for his leadership and contribution to the well being of its citizenry.
Mr. Lewis served on the Board of Directors of Wendy’s from 2004 to 2015. With Wendy’s spin-off of Tim Hortons in 2006, he was selected to serve on the Board of Directors of Tim Hortons as chairman of its Compensation Committee in addition to his duties at Wendy’s. When Wendy’s came under increased activist shareholder pressure and it was determined that serving on both Boards could eventually result in a conflict of interest, Mr. Lewis resigned from the Tim Hortons Board. When Wendy’s was acquired by Arby’s in 2008, Mr. Lewis was selected by the Wendy’s Board as one of two legacy directors to join the combined companies’ Board where he has served on its Compensation, Audit, Benefits & Investments and Governance Committees.
Prior to joining Walgreens in 1992, Mr. Lewis worked for seventeen years as a management consultant beginning in the Consulting Division of Arthur Andersen (Accenture) and ending as a Partner at Ernst & Young (E&Y). As a consultant, he advised companies in a variety of industries including advertising, manufacturing, distribution, retail and energy. Specific assignments include the development of the financial control systems for the trans-Arabian pipeline in Saudi Arabia and the creation of the cost management/production planning systems for Argentina’s largest private steel manufacturer.
Mr. Lewis received an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975 and a BA in economics in 1974. He also earned a BBA in accounting in 1971 at Texas. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru from 1971 to 1973.
Throughout his career, Mr. Lewis has worked to live out his belief that excellence, people, and community are the cornerstones of effective business leadership. In addition to his on-going work in disability employment advocacy, he is often called to speak on leadership at business events and universities and has been a recurring lecturer at Booth School of Business (UofChicago) for the past ten years.
Mr. Lewis lives with his family near Chicago.
2017 Berges Lecture Series
Sustainability, Innovation, and Ethical Leadership
Erin Fitzgerald, Senior Vice President, Global Sustainability for the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy
Erin Fitzgerald (@fitzisit) is senior vice president, global sustainability for the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy®, a forum for the dairy community to work together pre-competitively to foster research, measurement and innovation for sustainability from farm to table. Under Erin’s leadership, the Innovation Center conducted an environmental impact assessment that led to an industry-wide voluntary carbon reduction goal of 25% by 2020. She established strategic
partnerships with World Wildlife Fund and USDA. She leads efforts to enhance dairy’s contributions to a more sustainable food system by examining the intersection between nutrition, health, hunger, food waste and environmental impact.
Fitzgerald previously served as senior manager, business development at Lowendal group, a European operational cost reduction firm. She also led multiple projects at Cardinal Health in Chicago, and Maurepas, France, where she received the Chairman’s award for integrating a pan- European business plan for sales and marketing measurement.
Fitzgerald is recognized as a White House Champion of Change for Sustainable and Climate-Smart Agriculture, an Aspen Institute First Movers Fellow, and a Crain’s Chicago 40 under 40 recipient. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame. Erin participates in many agriculture initiatives including: Sustainable Agriculture Initiative, Field to Market, Global Dairy Agenda for Action, North America Climate Smart Alliance, Solutions from the Land, the White House Climate Data Initiative, she serves on the boards of Sustainable America and Aspen Institute First Movers Fellowship Program, a board advisor to Food Waste Reduction Alliance, and an expert in residence at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Developing Authentic, Values-Driven Business Leaders: Innovative Approaches from the C-Suite
John Heiser, President and Chief Operating Officer, Magnetrol International, Inc.
John Heiser is President and Chief Operating Officer of Magnetrol International, Incorporated. Magnetrol is a global leader in the development and manufacture of level and flow process control instrumentation. John began his career as an attorney in private practice before transitioning into business where he has held numerous leadership positions in legal, government affairs, sales, and marketing.
John earned his BA degree in political science/sociology from the University of Iowa, a J.D. from Tulane University, an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a PhD from Benedictine University’s Center for Values-Driven Leadership. His primary areas of focus include ethical leadership and its impact on driving corporate social responsibility and organizational change, leadership ethics, and leadership development.
Interview with a Whistleblower
Scott Noble, EMBA ’17
Scott Noble, EMBA ’17, will share with us his experience as a whistleblower in a financial fraud case while he served as Vice President of Samex Capital Advisors, an investment management firm specializing in alternative and tactical investment strategies for wealthy clients. He discovered and reported fraud which led to the conviction and incarceration of his business associate, the owner of Samex Capital, Keenan Hauke. Scott has shared his story through The American Whistleblower Tour with engagements at St. Joseph’s University, Kennesaw State University and Auburn University. Additionally, he has been a guest speaker at Notre Dame for both undergraduate business and EMBA ethics classes.
Scott is a native of South Bend and currently lives in the Indianapolis area, where he is a technology focused entrepreneur and corporate product line strategist. He has a BS Accounting from Indiana Wesleyan University, and he earned his MBA at the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business EMBA program in 2017.
2016 Berges Lecture Series
Ethics Are a Reflection of Your Culture: Do You have the Culture You Want?
Tom Carmazzi, CEO, Tuthill Corporation
As CEO, Tom has but one job, and that’s to bring Tuthill’s COMPASS to life. COMPASS is a special document that describes Tuthill’s reason for being, its definition of ultimate success, and the ongoing focus of its profitmaking activities. It also speaks directly to the spacious environment the company will maintain and the responsibilities entrusted to each member of the Tuthill community.
Tom has shared the story of Tuthill’s journey to become a “conscious company” in many distinguished forums. He so believes in what his company is doing that he wants everyone with an interest to benefit from hearing about the ten years of hits and misses he’s witnessed as the company has undergone a profound transformation – a transformation that began as an intensely personal journey for Tom & a couple of close collaborators – and a transformation that is still very much underway.
Two decades ago, Tom was completely unable to foresee the path his life would take. He was busy scaling the corporate ladder, first in the financial world, next in business development, and finally in manufacturing. He leaned heavily on numbers, hard work, and courage. Who could have guessed that two decades later Tom would find himself, happy as he could possibly be, in a place where affairs of the heart are the keys to the castle.
A long, long time ago, Tom thought his education was mostly complete once he’d collected degrees from the University of Cincinnati and the University of Chicago. Tom is married to his high school sweetheart. He and Deb have two children aged 23 & 20. In addition to his Chicago-centric credentials, Tom is a member of the Parents Board at Westminster College in Salt Lake.
Tuthill Corporation is a 125 year family owned manufacturer of pumps, meters, blowers, and vacuum systems used in the foundational markets of agriculture, energy, construction, food & beverage, and wastewater treatment.
Roadmap for Ethics in Business Leadership
Keith Sherin, Vice-Chairman, General Electric Co., Chairman and CEO, GE Capital
He previously served as GE’s chief financial officer from 1998 to 2013. He was also named vice chairman in 2007. Sherin first joined GE in 1981 through the GE Financial Management Program in Medium Steam Turbine. After three years he joined the Corporate Audit Staff where he progressed to executive audit manager and later manager of programs and planning.
Sherin was promoted to manager of finance for Commercial Engine Operations at GE Aircraft Engines in early 1992, and the following year he was named director of finance for GE Plastics Europe in Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands.
In the fall of 1995, Sherin joined GE Medical Systems as manager of Global Finance and Financial Services, and less than a year later he was promoted to vice president of Finance and Financial Services Operation.
Sherin earned his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.
Kenneth Ricci, Principal of Directional Aviation Capital
Kenneth Ricci is a 35 year aviation industry veteran beginning in 1980 with Corporate Wings, an aircraft charter operation. Today, Kenn is the principal of Directional Aviation Capital which owns various aviation enterprises including Flexjet, Flight Options, Sentient Jet, Sky Jet, Nextant Aerospace, N1 Engines, and Constant Aviation.
Kenn is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Cleveland Marshall School of Law. He is an airline transport pilot with extensive international experience and was Governor William Clinton’s pilot when he ran for President in 1992.
Kenn was honored as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of Year and received the Harvard Business School’s Dively Entrepreneurship Award. He was also the youngest recipient of the prestigious William Ong Award for extraordinary achievement in the general aviation industry.
Kenn serves on the Board of Trustees for University Hospitals, the University of Notre Dame and the Smithsonian. He also serves on several Corporate Boards and is the aviation advisor to the Guggenheim Aero Opportunity Fund.
Kenn’s management strategies have been featured in the Wall Street Journal and he is the Author of “Management by Trust”, a book featuring practical management techniques for building employee trust and success.
Earning Trust and Respect from Others
Michael Dowling, President and CEO of Northwell Health
Michael J. Dowling is president and chief executive officer of Northwell Health, which delivers world-class clinical care throughout the New York metropolitan area; pioneering research at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research; a visionary approach to medical education, highlighted by the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine; and health care coverage to individuals, families and businesses through the CareConnect Insurance Co., Inc. Northwell Health is the largest integrated healthcare system in New York State with a total workforce of about 61,000 employees – the state’s largest private employer. With 21 hospitals, 6,675 hospital and long-term care beds, more than 450 outpatient physician practices and a full complement of long-term care services, Northwell is one of the nation’s largest health systems, with $9.5 billion in annual revenue.
Prior to becoming president and CEO in 2002, Mr. Dowling was the health system’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. Before joining Northwell Health in 1995, he was a senior vice president at Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
Mr. Dowling served in New York State government for 12 years, including seven years as state director of Health, Education and Human Services and deputy secretary to the governor. He was also commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services.
Before his public service career, Mr. Dowling was a professor of social policy and assistant dean at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Services, and director of the Fordham campus in Westchester County.
Mr. Dowling has been honored with many awards over the years. They include: the 2012 B’nai B’rith National Healthcare Award, the 2011 Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award from the National Center for Healthcare Leadership, the 2011 CEO Information Technology Award from Modern Healthcare magazine and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the National Human Relations Award from the American Jewish Committee, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Public Service Award from the State University of New York’s Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, an Outstanding Public Service Award from the Mental Health Association of New York State, an Outstanding Public Service Award from the Mental Health Association of Nassau County, the Alfred E. Smith Award from the American Society for Public Administration, and the Gold Medal from the American Irish Historical Society. In August 2015, Modern Healthcare ranked Mr. Dowling 22nd on its annual list of the “100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare.” In March 2016, Mr. Dowling was also listed No. 1 on Long Island Press’ 2015 “Power List” recognizing the 50 most-influential Long Islanders.
Mr. Dowling is chair of the Healthcare Institute. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences and the North American Board of the Smurfit School of Business at University College, Dublin, Ireland. He also serves as a board member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and the Long Island Association. He is past chair and a current board member of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL), the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) and the League of Voluntary Hospitals of New York. Mr. Dowling was an instructor at the Center for Continuing Professional Education at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Mr. Dowling grew up in Limerick, Ireland. He earned his undergraduate degree from University College Cork (UCC), Ireland, and his master’s degree from Fordham University. He also has honorary doctorates from University College Dublin, Hofstra University and Dowling College.
Sustainability and Ethics at 3M
Jean Sweeney, Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) of 3M Company
Jean Bennington Sweeney is Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) for 3M Company. Ms. Sweeney has held a diverse array of positions at 3M ranging from product development to manufacturing. Her leadership includes assignments as Manufacturing Director 3M Australia and New Zealand, Managing Director of 3M Taiwan and Vice President, Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability.
In her current role as CSO, Ms. Sweeney is responsible for 3M Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability programs globally. This includes technical and regulatory EHS expertise for over 200 facilities and the development and implementation of corporate Sustainability strategies in collaboration with 3M employees, suppliers, customers and stakeholders globally.
Ms. Sweeney is recognized as a female leader in engineering and is passionate about encouraging young women to pursue careers in STEM. In addition, Ms. Sweeney is a strong advocate for purpose-driven innovation and the business benefits of Sustainability.
Ms. Sweeney holds a degree in chemical engineering from Montana State University, an MBA from the University of St. Thomas, and an Honorary Doctorate in Science (Engineering) from Montana State University.