Keynote Speakers
Dr. Daniel Goleman
Daniel Goleman lectures frequently to business audiences, professional groups and on college campuses. A psychologist who for many years reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for The New York Times, Dr. Goleman previously was a visiting faculty member at Harvard.
Dr. Goleman’s most recent book, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships (Bantam Books), explores the emerging field of social neuroscience and its implications for better understanding interpersonal dynamics and abilities. From the perspective of emotional intelligence, the book investigates the neural basis for interpersonal capacities like empathy and social skill. Dr. Goleman continues to explore these themes in a CD conversation series, Wired To Connect.
When he wrote his 1995 book Emotional Intelligence (Bantam Books), there was little neuroscientific understanding of the interpersonal realm; in this sense Social Intelligence fills in a piece missing from the earlier book. Emotional Intelligence argues that human competencies like self-awareness, self-regulation, and empathy add value to cognitive abilities in many domains of life, from workplace effectiveness and leadership to health and relationships; children are better prepared for life when they are taught these emotional and social skills. Emotional Intelligence was on The New York Times bestseller list for a year-and-a-half, with more than 5,000,000 copies in print worldwide. It has been a best seller throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America, and was translated into nearly 30 languages.
Dr. Goleman was a co-founder of the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning at the Yale University Child Studies Center (now at the University of Illinois at Chicago), with the mission to help schools introduce emotional literacy courses. One mark of the Collaborative - and book’s - impact is that thousands of schools around the world have begun to implement such programs. A meta-analysis of more than 200 of these programs shows they significantly increase proscocial behavior, decrease antisocial behavior, and boost academic achievement.
His 1998 book, Working With Emotional Intelligence (Bantam Books), argues that workplace competencies based on emotional intelligence play a strong role in star performance, in addition to intellect or technical skill, and that both individuals and companies will benefit from cultivating these capabilities. His more recent 2002 book, Primal Leadership - Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Harvard Business School Press), explores the crucial role of emotional intelligence in leadership. Dr. Goleman is co-chairman of The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations, based in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University, which seeks to catalyze research on best practices for developing emotional competence, and the impact of emotional intelligence in leadership and organizations. In 2003 he published Destructive Emotions (Bantam Books), an account of a scientific dialogue between the Dalai Lama and a group of psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers. He is a member of the board of directors of the Mind & Life Institute, which sponsors an ongoing series of such dialogues, and fosters relevant research.
Dr. Goleman has received many journalistic awards for his writing, including two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize for his articles in the Times, and a Career Achievement award for journalism from the American Psychological Association. In recognition of his efforts to communicate the behavioral sciences to the public, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Born in Stockton, California, Dr. Goleman attended Amherst College, where he was an Alfred P. Sloan Scholar and graduated magna cum laude. His graduate education was at Harvard, where he was a Ford Foundation Fellow, and he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology and personality development. Dr. Goleman now lives in the Berkshires of Massachusetts with his wife Tara Bennett-Goleman, a psychotherapist. He has two grown sons and several grandchildren.
Mary Armstrong, Sandy Stash and Bill O'Rourke
Mary Armstrong, Vice President, EHS, Boeing Company
Mary Armstrong has led Boeing's EHS department since May 2007. The organization is responsible for developing and implementing enterprise strategies, objectives, systems and standards to address current and potential future environmental, health and safety issues at Boeing.
Mary has extensive experience from both a product and operations perspective. Before leading EHS, Mary was the president of Boeing Shared Services Group, and was responsible for leading a 10,000 person, multi-billion business unit that provides cost-effective services across Boeing’s global enterprise. Before that, she held a number of leadership positions at Boeing in fabrication, aircraft systems and interiors, and facilities.
She holds a Bachelor of Science and Master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Washington and University of Rochester, New York. She serves on The Nature Conservancy's International Leadership Council as a council member, on the executive committee for the Conference Board Chief EH&S Officers’ Council, and as Boeing's delegate to the World Business Council on Sustainable Development. Armstrong also serves on the Board of IslandWood, a Bainbridge Island school inspiring environmental and community stewardship.
Sandy Stash, Vice President, EHS, Talismen Energy
Over her 28 year career in the oil and gas and hard rock and coal mining industries, Sandy Stash has been the go-to person within her organization for solving difficult problems. Starting with her successful oversight of the closure of Anaconda Company businesses across North America, including several of the largest Superfund sites in the US, Sandy developed a reputation as a collaborative problem-solver, frequently managing multiple constituencies and conflicting interests in pursuit of mutually beneficial solutions. Sandy has been called fearless by colleagues and community leaders for her commitment to open and transparent collaboration. She has a strong belief that transparency leads to trust and has seen its value in depolarizing difficult situations and in creating and maintaining strong, long-lasting relationships with community leaders, industry colleagues and regulators. Sandy ’s credibility with internal and external stakeholders has enabled her to identify and implement creative community-supported solutions.
In her current role as Global VP Health, Safety, Environment, and Operational Integrity at Talisman Energy, Sandy is focused internally on building a strong global team with a robust HSE/OI management framework. By drawing on regional strengths and focusing on sharing of best practices, Sandy is building a system with broad global support. By focusing on knowledge transfer, Sandy is building enhanced organizational capacity for strong HSE/OI management. Sandy spent many years representing business on controversial natural resource, public health and environmental issues with the general public, national and local media, and local, state and national governments. A recent challenge was the oversight and direction of BP’s response to federal and State of Alaska regulatory compliance concerns in the wake of the largest oil spill in Alaska since the Exxon Valdez. In her role as Vice President for Regulatory Affairs, Compliance and Ethics for BP Alaska, Sandy managed Congressional investigations in addition to regulatory and enforcement inquiries, spearheaded quick resolution of potential liabilities, and minimized government levied compensatory damages.
A petroleum engineer by training Sandy spent her early career as one of the first women to work as a drilling engineer and drilling rig foreman at ARCO locations across North America. These roles enabled her to build strong technical knowledge of field operations and provided unique insights into the challenges of management-front line labor relations. Sandy’s subsequent work in managing several of the largest hard rock mine cleanups and natural resource damage lawsuits in the US broadened her experience to include all operational, legal, strategic planning, financial, and government and media affairs aspects of the business. When BP decided to begin operations in Russia, Sandy was asked to serve as the Vice President of Health, Safety and the Environment (HSE) for TNK-BP, the largest privately held oil and gas producer in Russia. In this role, she was accountable for all aspects of HSE – including the introduction of international standards - for a newly formed Anglo-Russian company. From her base in Moscow, she led a functional organization of 1000 people across Russia and the Ukraine. Sandy’s natural energy and enthusiasm and her ability to build teams from the ground up and inspire new ways of doing things made Sandy particularly well suited for this type of challenging international work. She is most proud of the success of the individuals on her staff – and the role she was able to play in coaching and mentoring them.
She has also served on several boards of directors including the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the International Women’s Forum (IWF), the Montana Tech Foundation (as Chairman) and the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC). She also was appointed to serve on several prestigious state and national committees working to improve government and regulations. This extensive work with community and government based organizations allowed Sandy to further foster her strong belief in the power of public-private partnerships – and the necessity of these types of partnerships in today’s business environment. Sandy is a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines and holds PE licenses in both Colorado and Montana. Sandy was honored by the Colorado School of Mines in 2005 as a Distinguished Medalist and by Montana Tech as its 2000 Commencement key note speaker and its 2001 Outstanding Community Leader. Sandy is married to Rob Provan and has two step daughters, Brittany and Mallory.
William O'Rourke, Vice President, Sustainability, Environment, Health and Safety, Alcoa
Bill O’Rourke was named Vice President, Sustainability and Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) for Alcoa in September 2008, responsible for corporate EHS functions, Remediation, EHS services and the company’s Sustainability Function. Previously, he was Vice President of Global Business Services and Chief Information Officer of Alcoa, a position he assumed in January 2008. In this assignment, he was responsible for leveraging global financial and other transactional processes and services for information technology, finance, human resources and environment, health and safety. As CIO, he led the strategic direction and integration of Alcoa’s global information systems and security. Bill has been an Alcoa vice president since 1997.
From the beginning of 2005 to 2008, Bill served as President of Alcoa Russia, a $1 billion revenue business. He was responsible for the substantial manufacturing assets Alcoa acquired in Samara and Belaya Kalitva in the Russian Federation in early 2005. During the three years Bill was in Russia, he spearheaded efforts to bring the facilities up to Alcoa’s world class standards and oversaw an investment program that exceeded $500 million.
Bill joined Alcoa in 1975 as a patent attorney. During his career with Alcoa, he has served in numerous leadership roles , including vice president of Environment, Health and Safety; vice president of Corporate Audit; and head of various corporate staff services including Finance, Procurement, Human Resources and other administrative services. He formed Alcoa’s Business Services organization in the mid-1990s. He also held positions in Alcoa’s Legal Department as Corporate Patent Counsel and as Assistant General Counsel. Bill graduated from John Carroll University in 1970 with bachelor degrees in both the science and the arts. He received a law degree in 1975 from Duquesne University’s School of Law in Pittsburgh. He is married and has two children.
Ben Heineman
Ben Heineman was the Senior Vice President-General Counsel for General Electric. He then served as Senior Vice President for Law and Public Affairs until his retirement at the end of 2005. Mr. Heineman was responsible for managing a team of 1,100 in-house lawyers in over 100 countries around the world. Under his guidance, GE's legal department became world-renowned for its excellence, not only in legal service, but also for the major role that its attorneys play in business and management.
Prior to joining General Electric, Mr. Heineman was a managing partner at Sidley & Austin, focusing on Supreme Court and test case litigation. Previously, he served as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation with the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Carter. Mr. Heineman began his career as a staff attorney for the Center for Law & Social Policy in Washington, D.C., and moved on to become a litigator at Williams & Connolly.
Mr. Heineman is a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Program on the Legal Profession at the Harvard Law School, and a Senior Advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He researches and writes on a variety of topics, including globalization, anticorruption, corporate citizenship, dispute resolution, and the legal profession. Mr. Heineman also serves on the boards of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Transparency International-USA and The National Constitution Center. He is the author of books on British race relations and the American presidency.
Mark Pascal and Francis Schott, "The Restaurant Guys”
Mark Pascal and Francis Schott, aka "The Restaurant Guys", opened Stage Left Restaurant in New Brunswick, NJ in 1992. It received two stars from The New York Times, quickly followed by third star, a 26 food point food rating in Zagat, Wine Spectator and other awards and ratings that placed it at the top of the field in both food and wine. They Opened Catherine Lombardi Restaurant in 2005 to much critical acclaim. Their Radio Show has hosted the best chefs, restaurateurs, winemakers, cocktailians, farmers and foodies in the business. The Restaurant Guys guest list is a veritable "Who's Who" of the food world. They have become unique and influential voices of the independent food movement. There are over 500 shows available for download at www.restaurantguysradio.com.
These two life-long friends spread their message of "responsible, sustainable and delicious" food production and consumption through their own restaurants, their restaurant consulting business, their radio show and public speaking. They were both bartenders at the start, and remain bartenders at heart, serving up great stories along with great food and drink.