Each year we bring you leading speakers who frame the big picture themes facing business. The speakers inspire, inform and help us envision the future course for business in society. This year our speakers included:
Kurt Kuehn is the chief financial officer of UPS. He is responsible for all activities related to accounting, auditing, finance, financial planning, taxes and treasury. He also acts as a liaison to the finance, investor and analyst communities.
Kuehn serves as a member of the UPS Management Committee, which is responsible for the day-to-day management of the company.
A native of South Bend, Ind., Kuehn attended Yale University and received a master's degree in business administration from the University of Miami. He is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program of the Wharton School of Business.
Kuehn began his UPS career in 1977 as a delivery driver. He has held positions of increasing responsibility in operations, industrial engineering, finance and marketing. After several positions in Florida and Montana, Kuehn was named facilities planning manager in 1986. Subsequent positions included work in strategic marketing analysis and financial planning.
In 1996, Kuehn was named manager of the strategic cost department, responsible for profit and loss measurement, customer pricing systems and cost analysis. He later held the position of vice president of business information analysis. In that role, Kuehn oversaw market research, strategic cost analysis, competitive analysis and data mining.
Kuehn became UPS's first vice president of investor relations in 1999 and later that year, helped take UPS public - the largest IPO of the 20th century.
Prior to his current position, Kuehn served as senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, where he led the company's sales-force integration to provide a harmonized customer experience.
In addition to his corporate responsibilities, he serves on the board of directors of the Foundation for Independent Higher Education, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and the Woodruff Arts Center.
Kathryn C. Brown Senior Vice President, Public Policy Development & Corporate Responsibility,
Verizon
Kathryn C. Brown is senior vice president, Public Policy Development and Corporate Responsibility. She has been with the company since June 2002. She is responsible for public policy development and messaging, emerging issues management, and cultivating strategic alliances with key national and international organizations. She is also responsible for Verizon’s domestic and international corporate responsibility initiatives. Ms. Brown has responsibility for the Verizon Foundation and its focus on the issues of education and literacy, with programs such as the Verizon Thinkfinity.org education website, and safety and health, supporting initiatives that further Internet safety, and apply technology toincrease access to healthcare information and services.
Before joining Verizon, Ms. Brown was a partner at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Brown was the Chief of Staff to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman William E. Kennard, managing the agenda on all telecommunications, broadcast, and spectrum matters.
Additionally, Ms. Brown was the Associate Administrator, Office of Policy Analysis and Development, at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications & Information Administration. Ms. Brown worked for eight years at the New York State Public Service Commission as the Director of the Consumer Services Division and as Litigation Attorney and Managing Attorney for Telecommunications with the Office of General Counsel. Prior to joining the NYPSC, she was the Deputy Clerk of the New York State Court of Appeals.
Ms. Brown serves on numerous boards and advisory committees including, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History board of directors; US Center for Citizen Diplomacy board of directors; National Council of LaRaza corporate board of advisors, Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) advisory board and the FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity.
Ms. Brown received her J.D., summa cum laude, from Syracuse University College of Law in 1980 and her B.A., magna cum laude, from Marist College in 1974. She is admitted to practice in New York and the District of Columbia. Kathy and her husband Steve reside in Oakton, Virginia. They have two adult daughters.
John Hoffman Vice President,
HBO Documentary Films
John Hoffman is vice president, HBO Documentary Films, for Home Box Office, responsible for overseeing the development and production of various HBO documentaries. He was named to this position in June 2006.
An award-winning television producer, Hoffman has been associated with HBO since 1996, having spearheaded some of the network’s most noteworthy and critically acclaimed documentaries as an independent producer.
Hoffman’s HBO credits include: The Alzheimer’s Project (series producer, 2009), a four-part series on the impact of Alzheimer's Disease in America which recently won two Creative Arts Emmys - "The Memory Loss Tapes" was honored for Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking, while "Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am? with Maria Shriver" won for Outstanding Children's Nonfiction Program.; Addiction, an Emmy® Governors Award winner (producer, 2007); All Aboard! Rosie’s Family Cruise (producer, 2006); Emmy® nominee Last Letters Home: Voices of American Troops From the Battlefields of Iraq (executive producer, 2005); A Rape in a Small Town: The Florence Holway Story (executive producer, 2004); Academy Award® nominee My Architect (supervising producer, 2004); Emmy® and Dupont-Columbia Award-winner In Memoriam, New York City, 9/11/01 (producer, 2002), Academy Award® nominee Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton (supervising producer, 2001); Sundance and Berlin Film Festival Award-winner Paragraph 175 (supervising producer, 2001); A Little Curious (producer, 1999-2000), Emmy®-winner Children in War (supervising producer, 2000); Emmy® nominee Cancer: Evolution to Revolution (supervising producer, 2000), Emmy®- and Academy Award®-winner One Day in September (supervising producer, 2000); The Eyes of Tammy Faye (supervising producer, 2000); Mary Tyler Moore in Three Cats from Miami (producer, 1998); and Smoke Alarm (producer, 1996).
Prior to HBO, Hoffman created and produced the award-winning Nickelodeon series Allegra’s Window from 1993-96, was a producer at Children’s Television Workshop in 1993, and from 1990-92 was the administrative director of the Center for Special Studies at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. He also co-founded the non-profit production company AIDSFILMS, dedicated to HIV education. As the executive director of AIDSFILMS from 1987-90, he raised funds and produced six multi-award winning documentaries, including the PBS special AIDS: Changing the Rules. In 1985 he was coordinating producer for Pumping Iron II: The Women, and from 1982-83 was production manager for the NBC series Real People. He is a graduate of Cornell University.
While there is no cure for the disease, THE ALZHEIMER'S PROJECT shows there is now genuine reason to be optimistic about the future. Created by the award-winning team behind HBO's acclaimed "Addiction" project, this multi-platform series takes a close look at groundbreaking discoveries made by the country's leading scientists, as well as the effects of this debilitating and fatal disease both on those with Alzheimer's and on their families.
Watch John Hoffman at TEDxBoston on July 28, 2009:
Dan Roam Author
Founder, Digital Roam Inc.
Dan Roam is the author of the international bestseller “The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures” – designated by BusinessWeek and Fast Company as best innovation book of the year, and Amazon's #5 selling business book. The book has been published in 25 languages and is a bestseller in Japan, South Korea, and China.
He is also founder of Digital Roam, a management consulting firm that uses visual thinking to help business solve complex problems. Dan has worked with companies such as Microsoft, Google, Wal-Mart, Boeing, and the United States Senate. Dan and his whiteboard have been featured on CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, Fox News, and NPR.
Dan's visual explanation of American health care was selected by Business Week as "The World's Best Presentation of 2009", and got Dan an invitation to discuss visual problem solving with members of the White House Communications Office.
“Canned, pre-built presentation actually often stops the conversation, if what you really want is to invite participation and the development together of ideas than nothing works more effectively than going to the whiteboard and drawing it out.”
See how Dan Roam tackles the national healthcare issue:
Award-winning journalist Nadira A. Hira is a general assignment writer at Fortune, where she has focused increasingly on stories for and about Generation Y, the fastest growing segment of the American workforce.
While it may seem to some executives that, given the current economic climate, it’ll be easy to get and keep Yers, Nadira has found just the opposite: If Yers were suspicious of corporate America before, they’re completely distrustful now, having had all their fears about corporate life confirmed by the financial crisis and its fallout. And while some Yers may take a job now to pay the bills, they’re sure to be off pursuing work that’s more in line with their values—be it at a nonprofit or with an entrepreneurial venture—as soon as it’s possible. So it’s even more important than before that organizations focus on recruiting, retaining, and developing the best Gen Y talent.
She speaks on how to creatively engage Generation Y as important contributors to corporate culture and productivity, on racial and generational diversity, and on the role of social networks in the modern workplace and in society in general.
She authored Fortune’s widely discussed 2007 cover story on Gen Yers and their impact on corporate America. She also writes a blog for Gen Yers on Fortune.com called "The Gig ."
In 2007, Nadira received the NewsBios 30 Under 30 award, which showcases the most promising business journalists. She has three times been nominated for a National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence award.
Nadira’s work has also appeared in various other national publications—among them, Essence, Smithsonian, and Men’s Fitness magazines. Her media presence extends to television, where she has been a featured personality on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher and ABC’s America's Black Forum, a regular contributor to VH1’s The Fabulous Life and BET’s Black Carpet, and an expert guest on many major outlets, including CNN, CBS, MSNBC, CNBC, and BBC-A.
As the baby-boomers begin to retire, triggering a ballyhooed worker shortage, businesses are realizing that they may have no choice but to accommodate these curious Gen Y creatures.
These kids - self-absorbed, gregarious, multitasking, loud, optimistic, pierced - are exactly what the boomers raised them to be, and now they’re being themselves all over the business world. It’s going to be great.
Niloufar K. Molavi Tax Partner and Chief Diversity Officer
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Niloufar Molavi is a tax partner in the Houston office of PricewaterhouseCoopers focused on the energy sector. She has more than nineteen years of tax experience serving energy clients and was the US Energy Tax Leader 2005-2009. In July 2009 Niloufar was appointed to the US Core Leadership Team as the US Chief Diversity Officer reporting to the Chairman and Senior Partner.
Since joining PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1991, Niloufar has worked with a number of significant clients on various projects including tax planning for foreign investments into the U.S. as well as U.S. investment abroad, international and U.S. tax structuring for clients in acquisitions, mergers and potential public offerings with an emphasis in dealing with the oil and gas taxation of such transactions and tax compliance outsourcing. Niloufar's clients have included Shell Oil Company, ConocoPhillips, Kinder Morgan Inc., Enbridge Inc., Unocal Corporation, Marathon Corporation, Berry Petroleum Corporation, Repsol S.A, and Transocean Inc.
Niloufar served on the national tax Sarbanes Oxley task force and co-developed the PwC Sarbanes Oxley 404 tax training program. Niloufar has been a frequent contributing editor for the Recent Cases and Ruling section of the Oil, Gas and Energy Quarterly. She has been a frequent speaker at the Texas Society of CPA Oil and Gas Conference, the Tax Executive Institute Tax School, American Petroleum Institute Tax Forum and the Houston chapter of CPAs tax seminar.
Niloufar received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting and a Masters in Professional Accounting degree with a concentration in Taxation from the University of Texas at Austin. She serves on the Accounting Advisory Board of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas and the Board of Directors for Dress for Success Houston. Niloufar lives in Houston with her husband, son Darya age 14, and daughter Tara age 11.
Kurt Kuehn is the chief financial officer of UPS. He is responsible for all activities related to accounting, auditing, finance, financial planning, taxes and treasury. He also acts as a liaison to the finance, investor and analyst communities.
Kathryn C. Brown is senior vice president, Public Policy Development and Corporate Responsibility. She has been with the company since June 2002. She is responsible for public policy development and messaging, emerging issues management, and cultivating strategic alliances with key national and international organizations. She is also responsible for Verizon’s domestic and international corporate responsibility initiatives. Ms. Brown has responsibility for the Verizon Foundation and its focus on the issues of education and literacy, with programs such as the Verizon Thinkfinity.org education website, and safety and health, supporting initiatives that further Internet safety, and apply technology toincrease access to healthcare information and services.
John Hoffman is vice president, HBO Documentary Films, for Home Box Office, responsible for overseeing the development and production of various HBO documentaries. He was named to this position in June 2006.
Dan Roam is the author of the international bestseller “The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures” – designated by BusinessWeek and Fast Company as best innovation book of the year, and Amazon's #5 selling business book. The book has been published in 25 languages and is a bestseller in Japan, South Korea, and China.
Award-winning journalist Nadira A. Hira is a general assignment writer at Fortune, where she has focused increasingly on stories for and about Generation Y, the fastest growing segment of the American workforce.
Niloufar Molavi is a tax partner in the Houston office of PricewaterhouseCoopers focused on the energy sector. She has more than nineteen years of tax experience serving energy clients and was the US Energy Tax Leader 2005-2009. In July 2009 Niloufar was appointed to the US Core Leadership Team as the US Chief Diversity Officer reporting to the Chairman and Senior Partner.