Category: Presenters

BioJoan Woodward
Travelers Companies, Inc.
Ms. Woodward has been Executive Vice President for Public Policy for the company since June 2008. She also leads The Travelers Institute, which was created in May 2009. She joined Travelers from Goldman, Sachs & Co., where she was the founding Executive Director of their Global Markets Institute. During her nine years at Goldman Sachs, Ms. Woodward also served as Vice President and Director of Washington Research for Goldman Sachs’ Global Investment Research.

Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Ms. Woodward worked on Capitol Hill for 12 years, serving as Deputy Chief of Staff for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, as well as Senior Economist for the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Budget. Ms. Woodward serves on the Board of Directors of the United States Chamber of Commerce, is a member of the President’s National Small and Medium Enterprise Export Council, and she is engaged with numerous community and charitable groups.

Ms. Woodward has bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Political Science and a master’s degree in Public Administration, all from the American University. She also studied at the University of London.

Bio

Kim Cameron
Ross School of Business,
University of Michigan

Dr. Cameron’s past research on organizational downsizing, organizational effectiveness, corporate quality culture and the development of leadership excellence has been published in more than 120 academic articles and 13 scholarly books, the latest of which are Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture (Jossey Bass), Positive Organizational Scholarship (Berrett-Koehler), Leading with Values (Cambridge University Press), Competing Values Leadership (Edward Elgar), Making the Impossible Possible (Berrett Koehler), and Positive Leadership (Berrett Koehler). His current research focuses on virtuousness in and of organizations–such as forgiveness, gratitude, kindness, and compassion–and their relationship to performance.

He is one of the co-founders of the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship at the University of Michigan and has served as Dean at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, Associate Dean in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University, and department chair at the University of Michigan.

Bio

Clark Gilbert is the president and CEO of the Deseret News Publishing Company and Deseret Digital Media. The Deseret News is Utah’s longest running business and one of the nation’s fastest growing newspapers, both in print and online. Deseret Digital is one of the largest targeted media networks in the country. It manages the commercial Web properties of the Deseret Media Companies: DeseretNews.com, KSL.com, DeseretBook.com, MormonTimes.com and LDSChurchNews.com.

Prior to DDM, Gilbert was an associate academic vice president at Brigham Young University–Idaho, where he oversaw the university’s online learning and distance education initiatives. He was also a professor of entrepreneurial management at the Harvard Business School and has a background in media innovation.

As a professor at the Harvard Business School, Gilbert published numerous award-winning articles on innovation, including lead articles in the Harvard Business Review and MIT/Sloan Management Review. He also authored the book “From Resource Allocation to Strategy,” published by Oxford University Press. He has an extensive background in digital media and has published numerous articles on media innovation and the growth of the Internet.

Gilbert is a board member at Lead Media Partners, a Web prediction and lead generation company. He has also served on the New Ventures Boards at Landmark Media and Scripps Publications. Gilbert was a founding partner of Boston-based consultancy Innosight, where he built an advisory practice with media and healthcare clients targeting disruptive innovation.

Gilbert graduated from Brigham Young University. He earned a master’s degree from Stanford University and a doctorate degree from the Harvard Business School.
Gilbert speaks Japanese and has hiked Mt. Fuji. He and his wife, Christine, are the parents of seven children. Gilbert is heavily involved in the lives of young people and has a special affinity toward helping youths from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Summit Conference attracts speakers and presenters of the highest caliber. In 2009, Robert Gay of Huntsman Gay Global Capital, a billion dollar investment fund, spoke to Summit attendees. Mr. Gay’s bio is listed below:

Bio
Mr. Gay is a Managing Director, Cofounder, and the Chief Executive Officer of Huntsman Gay Global Capital. He is also a member of Huntsman Gay’s Policy and Investment Committee. Mr. Gay has been involved in the private equity business since 1986. From 1989 – 2004, he served as a Managing Director of Bain Capital. He was one of the firm’s senior partners and served as a member of its Management and Business Policy committees.

He also led many of the firm’s investments and oversaw Bain Capital Europe where he opened the firm’s London and Munich offices. Mr. Gay resigned as a full-time partner from Bain Capital when his church asked him to take a volunteer assignment as its Mission President for the countries of Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia from July 2004 to July 2007.

Mr. Gay has actively been involved in humanitarian work all his business life. In 2001 he co-founded Unitus, a global micro-credit company, which is currently helping lift 9 million people across the world out of poverty. Unitus has been recognized world wide and for the last three years has received the prestigious Fast Company/Monitor Group Social Capitalist award naming it one of the top 45 social capital companies in the USA. Mr. Gay has also funded KOMART, a micro-credit organization serving West Africa. He is currently a Board member of three global charities: Right to Play, Forever Young, and Realizing the Dream.

Mr. Gay started in private equity when he joined GE Capital from McKinsey & Co. where he was an Engagement Manager. At GE he was Executive Vice President of the GECC Capital Markets group. He also formed and organized Sorenson Capital, a middlemarket private equity firm, and was a member of its Advisory Board. Mr. Gay graduated in 1982 with a Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University where he also taught economics for two years. Mr. Gay graduated Phi Beta Kappa with an AB from the University of Utah.

Every year the Summit Conference hosts panels that discuss pressing issues that Directors and Officers are facing. This particular panel discussed D&O Liability – Litigation, Insurance and Indemnification. The distinguished group of panelists included the following individuals:

Moderator – Spence Hoole, Partner, Diversified Insurance Group
Panelist – Karen Mulroe, General Counsel, WellCare
Panelist – Dave Steuber, Partner, Howrey LLP
Panelist – Susan Miner, Director, Corporate & Executive Protection, Woodruff-Sawyer & Company

The discussion centered around the WellCare meltdown and the resulting suits and problems stemming from the governance problems and subsequent bankruptcy.