JANUARY 29, 2016 • 7:30AM-1:00PM • WAYZATA, MN
AT THE HISTORIC LAFAYETTE CLUB ON LAKE MINNETONKA
LEADERSHIP &
INNOVATION CONFERENCE
Sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Mound-Westonka, Plymouth, Wayzata, Orono, Lake Minnetonka - Excelsior and Excelsior
CONFERENCE SPEAKER LINEUP
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
DAVID LONGREN
Polaris - President of Off Road Vehicles
Polaris Industries is a leading innovator in the power-sports market and came out of the recession ready to take market share - and it did so very well. Polaris produces off-road vehicles such as ATVs, snowmobiles, and motorcycles, among other products, and it has posted a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 20% over the past five years.
Polaris is a highly respected and well-known brand in power sports, mainly because of its track record of producing innovative products. Over 75% of its have come from products introduced in the last three years. Polaris' Slingshot is exceeding expectations and is expected to generate more than 20% of the company's total motorcycle sales guidance when the books are closed on 2015.
David is the President of Polaris Off-Road Vehicles, he has held this role since August 2011. Prior to this, Mr. Longren was the Chief Technical Officer since May 2006. He joined Polaris in January 2003 as the Director of Engineering for the ATV Division. Prior to joining Polaris, Mr. Longren was a Vice President in the Weapons Systems Division of Alliant Techsystems and Sr. Vice President, Engineering and Marketing at Blount Sporting Equipment Group. David has a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University Of St. Thomas, and a Bachelors of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.
OPENING KEYNOTE SPEAKER
DR. LEWIS M. RAMBO, PhD
Executive Coach, Consultant and Professor
Dr. Rambo is an Executive Coach, group facilitator, and consultant in Organization Development, Human Resources Management, Managerial Performance Enhancement, Strategy Formulation, and Diversity and Inclusion. He is also a Professor of Ethics, Corporate Responsibility and Organization Behavior at the Hult International Business School with campuses in Cambridge, Dubai, London, San Francisco and Shanghai.
For four years he served as Dean and Professor of Human Resources Management & Organization Development at INCAE, the premier business school in Central America, located on two campuses, San Jose (Alajuela), Costa Rica and Montefresco, near Managua, Nicaragua.
For over twenty years, he was Senior Vice President, Practice Leader, and Director of Human Resources at Arthur D. Little, an internationally recognized management, research and technical consulting firm that had nearly 2500 consultants, in thirty offices, located in eighteen countries. At the time, ADL was the oldest and one of the largest management, research and technical consulting organizations in the world. Prior to joining Arthur D. Little, Dr. Rambo held senior Human Resources Management positions at General Electric’s Aircraft Engine Division and at the World Headquarters of the Ford Motor Company.
He has taught and been engaged as a consultant for multinational corporations, governmental agencies, educational institutions, professional corporations, family-owned businesses, and NGOs in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He has also served and continues to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of a number of corporations and not-for-profit organizations.
Dr. Rambo received his M.A. and Ph.D. at Wayne State University in Organizational-Industrial Psychology, studied Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois and completed postdoctoral studies at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. He is a licensed psychologist and is the author and co-author of numerous articles and publications on a wide range of topics related to Human Resources Management, Organizational Development, Team Building and the Management of Diversity.
Susan Schuster
Senior Community Relations
Consultant at Blue Cross/Blue Shield
Susan is a passionate advocate for community involvement. As creator and founder of the Twin Cities Corporate Giving Garden Network, founding member of ImpactHub MSP, and facilitator for Innovation classes at Blue Cross University, Schuster is committed to innovation as a way to work across sectors and strengthen communities.
Recently described as “the answer” to hunger in Minnesota, corporate giving gardens have emerged as a significant revolution in providing access to healthy food at Minnesota food shelves. Started in 2008 at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, with their innovative Blue Cross Community Giving Garden, corporate giving gardens are now “the ultimate onsite volunteer project” at 20 local Twin Cities companies that grow fresh produce on their corporate campuses.
Susan Schuster is a multifaceted leader specializing in corporate citizenship, community relations, and traditional human resources functions, including employee total rewards, recognition and employee engagement.
She has served on multiple non-profit boards and earned her MBA from the University of Saint Thomas. She is a third year doctoral student at Hamline University, with a focus on cross-sector collaboration to improve communities.
David Williams
Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer at Cheval Partners
Mr. Williams has 30 years experience in innovation spanning emerging technology and organizational development. In the past decade he was a Strategy Advisor with Microsoft Corporation working directly with corporations and start-ups on their innovation strategies and development of new business models.
After leaving Microsoft he spent two years at the University of Minnesota as a Chief Innovation Officer for the Carlson School studying the development of innovation ecosystems and working with corporate advisory boards that were developing innovation practices.
Returning to consulting, he is currently Chief Innovation and Strategy officer at Cheval Partners, a management consulting firm, actively working with corporations on innovation practices and partnering with economic development companies working to create innovation centers in several US cities.
Dina Simon
CEO of Simon Says Lead
Dina has always known a company's greatest asset is its people. The core of her expertise and passion is coaching and developing leaders, teams and employees at every level to achieve their professional and personal goals. She believes that innovation and entrepreneurialism comes in many forms within a thriving organization and works with her clients to IGNITE their imaginations to grow and learn to lead differently.
Dina serves as the CEO of Simon Says Lead®, a consulting firm that is designated as a “benefit corporation” supporting her daughter Mandi’s nonprofit, Simon Says Give®.
Dina is the author of Make Unstoppable Simple – creative problem solving in life and leadership. In her book she shares the personal story of her leadership journey and the secrets of becoming "unstoppable" in life and business.
In here role as CEO, she works closely with clients to uncover business goals and objectives and how to creatively problem solve to turn-the-dial to positive results.
Lou Abramowski
Digital Entrepreneur
HotLou - aka Lou Abramowski - spent a decade joking he could build a 100k follower list on Facebook watching paint dry. Today, much to his surprise and delight, that's no joke. Dozens of brands, big and small, have benefited from his professional guidance on growth and entrepreneurship.
He took Jack Link’s Beef Jerky from zero to over 1 million followers, helped Delta Airlines become an industry social leader, brought deep social integration to Ticketmaster, accelerated social acquisition for the Minnesota Vikings, and helped launch OurFamilyWizard, the largest family organization site on the web.
Lou co-founded 8thBridge digital shopping solutions which won the 2009 Minnesota Cup and raised over $10 million in venture capital. It was acquired in 2014 by Fluid.
Lou is also active in Ultimate Frizbee where he has not only played, but also coached – leading Hopkins High School to 8 state championships and 3 national championships.
Jen Alstad
President & Founder of bswing
Jennifer founded and leads bswing, a strategic design consultancy that helps companies get to the future faster. bswing works at the intersections of consumer need, business need, and design (go to market tools, innovation, concept car development, service and product design, product roadmaps).
Her work has included strategic design efforts across many industries for companies such as Room & Board, Oracle Retail, Target, Landis & Gyr, Toshiba, Pentair, Center for Energy & Environment, the University of Minnesota, and the Children’s Cancer Research Fund. She has also worked with venture funded startups and exploratory work in the public interest.
bswing is committed to building a healthy eco-system of design related businesses and is partnering with the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology to bring continuing education courses on innovation, communicating the new, and product portfolio management to Minneapolis.
Jennifer is a Trustee of the Bush Foundation and a member of the Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable. She was named by Minnesota Business as one of Minnesota’s (Real) Power 50 in 2012. She is an active community volunteer serving on numerous boards, an adjunct faculty member at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design and was named by the SBA as Minnesota’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000.
Prior to founding bswing, Jennifer was a program associate at the Institute for National Policy Research in Taipei, Taiwan, was the Robert Chollar research fellow at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio, and at the University of Minnesota. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband Eric Freeberg and daughters Harper and Hadley.
Glenn Karwoski
University of St. Thomas, The Business of Idea, & Innovation Writer for Twin Cities Business
Glenn Karwoski has spent his entire career helping Fortune 500 companies find the next right answers to their problems. He works side-by-side with some of the most creative people in the business world and even teaches creativity at the graduate school level. He lives and breathes it every day.
One thing he’s learned from his experience is that creativity is unique to each individual situation. It can’t be packaged up and sold the same way to everyone. Glenn is owner of The Business of Ideas, an innovation consultancy, Senior VP of the PR firm Karwoski & Courage, and has been an adjunct instructor at the graduate and undergraduate level at St. Thomas for 17 years, teaching courses in creative process/innovation and communications.
Often quoted in local and national media in regard to innovation and marketing, he most recently had an article on innovation published in Health Progress magazine. Karwoski is a frequent speaker on the subject of innovation and has addressed numerous chapters of the American Marketing Association, including Silicon Valley, as well as professional training and development organizations.
Glenn also writes weekly for Twin Cities Business magazine at his Innovations blog while also writing a monthly column.
Tom Thorfinnson
Rotary International - Board of Trustees of Rotary Foundation
Tom Thorfinnson hails from Eden Prairie Minnesota and is one of fifteen individuals serving on the Board of Trustees of the Rotary Foundation (2015-19). He is Chairman of both the Programs Committee and the Rotary/USAID H2O Collaboration.
Tom served as District Governor in 1996-1997 and was on the Board of Directors for Rotary International from 2009 to 2011. He served as Vice President for our organization in 2010-11, and was a member of the Strategic Planning Committee for four years ending in 2013.
Tom practices corporate and estate planning law in Eden Prairie Minnesota. For 16 years he was a lecturer at the University of Minnesota School of Management, and has served on numerous non-profit and for-profit boards. He is currently on the Board of Directors of First Minnetonka City Bank.
Tom is a member of the management team for the Water and Sanitation Rotary Action group and has made sixteen volunteer trips to developing countries including 10 trips to the country of Haiti. All of the volunteer trips involved water and sanitation projects.
Special Guest Emcee
Judy Zimmer
Founder of Coachology
Judy is a personal branding expert and professional development coach who has presented to audiences on a national basis.
As a professional speaker Judy shares ideas for growth such as 10 Ways to Build Your Own Brand, Magnetize to Monetize, Get Going Through Goal Setting, and more.
Her interactive and passionate style, as well as her candor and professionalism have earned Judy high praise for her work.