Keynote Speakers & Panelists

Keynote Speaker

Bo Burlingham is the author of Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big (Portfolio, 2006) and editor-at-large of Inc. magazine.

He joined Inc. in 1983 as a senior editor and became executive editor six months later. In 1990, he became editor-at-large. He subsequently wrote two books with Jack Stack, co-founder and CEO of Springfield Remanufacturing Corp. and the pioneer of open-book management. One of the books, The Great Game of Business (Doubleday/Currency, 1992), has sold more than 300,000 copies. The other, A Stake in the Outcome (Doubleday/Currency, 2002), has been called "the first management classic of the new millennium."

Burlingham co-authors (with Norm Brodsky) the popular monthly column in Inc. called "Street Smarts," which was a 2006 finalist for a National Magazine Award, the highest honor in the magazine industry.

Before joining Inc., Burlingham freelanced for various publications, including Esquire, Harper's, Boston Magazine, The Boston Globe and Mother Jones. He also was managing editor of Ramparts magazine. In 1982, he joined Fidelity Investments and wrote for Peter Lynch, Ned Johnson and other executives before coming to Inc. From 1992 to 1997, Burlingham served on the board of The Body Shop Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of the international cosmetics company. He also was a founder, with Tom Peters, of PAC World, an international networking group.

Burlingham has been married 35 years to his wife, Lisa. They have two children and two grandchildren.

Panelists

With the rapid growth of nonprofits and the resulting increase in competition for financial resources, the well-managed and strategic nonprofit will set the pace and provide leadership in the field. The following nonprofit CEOs have set a standard of leadership that inspires excellence.

Bill Bryan, Ph.D. and Executive Director of the Cook Center, had a vision of preserving the environmental, social and economic resources of Montana ranchers and started the Cook Center for Sustainable Agriculture in the American West as a way to reverse the decline of agriculture in that region.

The mission of the Cook Center is to increase the economic viability of farms and ranches, thereby enhancing the health of the land, open space and rural communities. Bryan formerly served as co-founder and chairman of the board of Off the Beaten Path LLC, a travel planning and consulting service specializing in helping clients plan highly personalized trips to the Rocky Mountains, Desert Southwest, Alaska and Patagonia.

Bryan also has served in numerous environmental teaching positions including the School of Natural Resources & Environment (SNRE) at the University of Michigan; Utica Community Schools in Utica, Michigan; Dexter Community School System in Dexter, Michigan; Ann Arbor Public Schools and Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences in New York. He serves on the boards or committees of several organizations including SNRE at U-M, Yellowstone Business Council, Museum of the Rockies, Resource Renewal Institute in San Francisco and the National Parks Conservation Association. Bryan holds a bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of New Hampshire and a master’s degree in conservation and a PhD in resource planning and conservation from the U-M.

Debbie Hinde, President and CEO of Vital Bridges, succeeded in merging three organizations—Open Hand Chicago, the HIV Coalition and Community Response—that all served Chicago's HIV/AIDS community. With a successful merger, they were able to provide continuous service during the transition and craft a strategic plan that has gained the respect of their donors while keeping the needs of the HIV/AIDS community front and center.

Vital Bridges is a nonprofit that provides food, housing and counseling services to more than 2,600 people impacted by HIV or AIDS in the Chicago metropolitan area. Hinde began her current role 10 years ago and has more than 25 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, including spearheading the 2002 merger of Vital Bridges. She holds a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University and a master’s degree from Cornell University.

Steve Mariotti, BBA '75 and MBA '77, Founder and President of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), began his career as treasury analyst for Ford's Venezuela, Mexico, Caribbean, Argentina, Peru, Chile and South Africa divisions, as well as their export division. He then founded Mason Import/Export Services of New York.

In 1982, Mariotti changed careers and became a special education business teacher in the New York City school system, teaching lower-income students. This led to his founding the NFTE in 1987, an organization whose mission is to teach entrepreneurship to young people from low-income communities to enhance their economic productivity by improving their business, academic and life skills.

Mariotti has received numerous awards for his work in the field of youth entrepreneurship and has co-authored eight books, including the best-selling How to Start and Operate a Small Business and Entrepreneurs in Profile. He will discuss the growing demand to impact more low-income youth with NFTE's curriculum.

Paul Saginaw, Co-owner and founding partner of Zingerman's in Ann Arbor, began Food Gatherers in 1988. A perishable food rescue program, Food Gatherers is responsible for delivering more than 2,000 pounds of food daily to community agencies that feed men, women and children in need. Last year, the organization accepted an award for Nonprofit Management Excellence. Saginaw was Food Gatherers’ founding board president and currently serves as vice president. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in zoology and has been in the food service industry for over 30 years.

Zingerman's started as a 1,300-square-foot restaurant and specialty food retail store run by Saginaw and two other employees. It now employs more than 400 people and generates over $20 million in annual sales from seven separate businesses—Zingerman's Delicatessen, Zingerman's Catering, Zingerman's Mail Order, Zingerman's Bakehouse, ZingTrain, Zingerman's Creamery and Zingerman's Roadhouse.

Alan Spector is a retiree from a 33-year career at the Procter & Gamble Company, where he began work after receiving his BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri at Rolla. During his P&G career, he served in a number of positions in both the Research and Development and the Product Supply organizations. Most recently, he retired as the Director of Worldwide Quality Assurance for P&G's Baby Care and Feminine Care businesses.

Since retiring in May 2002, he has been doing both volunteer and private consulting in the areas of organization effectiveness and quality improvement. In March 2003, he began consulting as a volunteer with Every Child Succeeds, helping the program to become more productive and to further improve its quality outcomes. In addition, he consults privately with both large and small companies and other local nonprofit organizations.

Spector and his wife Ann travel extensively for his baseball tournaments, to visit family (including their two grandsons) and for other recreation, spending about half of their time away from Cincinnati. He also is researching his family tree, reading extensively, working out at the gym daily and writing a book about continuing to play senior baseball.

Eileen Spring has served as Food Gatherers Executive Director for more than 10 years. Under her leadership, the food rescue program has increased its distribution from half a million pounds annually to more than three million, and has turned its attention to addressing root causes of hunger. She has overseen the development of two capital campaigns—one for a community kitchen and a new 17,000-square-foot distribution center for Food Gatherers.

Spring is active on the local FEMA board and serves on the board of the Food Bank Council of Michigan and the national council of food banks. She is a founding member of the Washtenaw Housing Alliance and has more than 20 years experience in grassroots organizing and nonprofit management. Spring received her bachelor's degree from Hofstra University and her master's degree from the University of Michigan.

Judy Van Ginkel, Ph.D. and President of Every Child Succeeds (ECS), saw the powerful and positive outcome that occurred when young mothers were provided pre-natal and in-home support and education, thereby creating an economic future and stable family environment for single-parent families. She is currently a professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

ECS is a regional collaborative program with three founding partners—Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, United Way of Greater Cincinnati and the Hamilton County Community Action Agency/Head Start. The organization is based upon an understanding of the importance of early brain stimulation for a child's long-term development. During the first six years of operation, ECS served 8,400 mothers and babies with 170,000 home visits in two states.

An innovative strategist and leader, Van Ginkel has been instrumental in establishing public policy on social service issues and healthcare. Her many honors include being named "Woman of the Year" by the Cincinnati Enquirer (1998), YWCA Career Woman of Achievement (2003) and the Greater Rivers Girl Scout Council Woman of Distinction (2004). She also received the Delbert Pugh award for Excellence in Planning and Marketing and the Proclamation of Appreciation by the Cincinnati Pediatric Society, a national award for her series of travel articles. She was twice honored at the National Speaking of Women’s Health conference.

Bill Yellowtail, Senior Project Specialist at the Cook Center for Sustainable Agriculture in the American West, grew up on his family’s cattle ranch on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. Although the letters B.A.denote his degree attainment at Dartmouth College (1971), an acronymic EPEF (Education, Politics, Environment, Fishing) in many ways sums up his lifelong pursuits since then. Yellowtail’s first major responsibility in education was as assistant supervisor of Indian education in the Montana Department of Public Instruction, where he not only administered a $1 million grant program, but also wrote the curriculum in Indian Studies for public school teachers.

From there, he moved back to the Crow Agency, where he again administered a variety of educational projects as director of Human Resources Development and Education. More and more prominent in Montana public life, Bill Yellowtail went all the way into politics with his election in 1984 (re-elected in 1988 and 1992) to the Montana State Senate, representing Big Horn, Rosebud and Powder River counties. His interest in the environment led to his appointment in 1994, by then EPA administrator Carol Browner, as regional administrator responsible for a six-state region including Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and the Dakotas.

Yellowtail is a most remarkable and dedicated fly fisherman and winner of the 1991 Angler of the Year Award from Fly Rod and Reel magazine. He lives in Bozeman, Montana with his spouse, Margarette Carlson who is a painter, sculptor and fine-arts teacher.