2008 CEO Series
Stimulating Success
Stimulating Success is the theme for this year's extremely popular CEO Series. Leaders provide insight into how they motivate and align their employees to foster success for their organizations.
CEO Series programs begin at 11:45 a.m. and are held at The CX Downtown.
No charge/CX members; $35/non-members.
Jonathan Thomas
President & CEO
American Century Investments
Wednesday, January 16
As president and CEO of American Century Investments, Jonathan Thomas is responsible for all aspects of the 50 year-old investment management firm. Prior to joining American Century in 2005 as chief financial officer and executive vice president, Thomas, a Kansas City-area native, was a managing director and global chief operating officer of the investment division at Morgan Stanley in New York City.
Doug Ketterer, a managing director at Morgan Stanley, was recently quoted in the Kansas City Business Journal as saying that Thomas “ . . . is a real find for American Century. He’s one of the most strategic thinkers I know and is always thinking ahead.”
Previously, Thomas worked in a variety of senior leadership roles for Bank of America, Boston Financial Services and Fidelity Investments. Thomas was promoted to CEO of American Century in January 2007.
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Michael Chesser
Chairman & CEO
Great Plains Energy
Wednesday, February 13
Mike Chesser joined Great Plains Energy in October 2003 as Chairman and CEO after a distinguished career in the utility industry. He previously served as President and Chief Operating Officer at Atlantic Energy, Inc. and President and CEO at GPU Energy, an electric utility serving New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
At Great Plains, Chesser has been instrumental in developing Winning Inspirations – a corporate culture philosophy which is designed to inspire active participation of all employees at all levels. According to Chesser, Winning Inspirations “has become the center of everything we do as a company.”
Active in the business community, Chesser serves as a director of the UMB Financial Corporation, a trustee of the Midwest Research Institute (MRI) and the Committee for Economic Development (CED) in Washington D.C., and co-chair of the CED’s Sub-Committee on Education.
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Steve Bernstein
President, Bernstein-Rein
Wednesday, March 12
Kids want to see something when they are eating – that is what ten-year-old Steve Bernstein taught his father, advertising legend, Bob Bernstein. Intrigued by the fact that Steve stared at the same cereal box every morning as he ate breakfast, Bob was inspired to create The Happy Meal for McDonalds.
Today, Steve Bernstein is president of Bernstein-Rein, one of the eight-largest independent U.S. advertising agencies and the agency that has built some of the world’s best known brands for clients such as Wal-Mart, Blockbuster and, yes, McDonald’s. In addition, he is president of Serendipity Entertainment, the world’s largest Blockbuster Video franchise.
While Bernstein may have inspired a fast food favorite of children around the globe, today he works to keep the office systems – and people systems – running smoothly; on time and on budget as well as overseeing new–business development.
He has served on the board of directors of Village Shalom, the Jewish Community Center and the Epilepsy Foundation of Kansas and Western Missouri. Recently he served as president of the Genesis School board. He has been named to Kansas City Tomorrow, Centurions, Up & Comers and Ingram’s magazine’s “40 Under Forty” leadership classes.
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Maxine Clark
Founder, Chief Executive Bear & Chairman
TBuild-A-Bear Workshop®
Wednesday, April 2
If a book were to be written about Maxine Clark – and we are certain one will be – it could be entitled, “How to Build-A-Sensation”.
During her 30–year career in the retail industry, Clark’s rare ability to spot emerging retail and merchandising trends and insight into the desires of the American consumer generated growth for retail leaders, including department store, discount and specialty stores.
In 1997, she founded Build-A-Bear Workshop, a teddy-bear themed experience retail store. Today there are more than 300 Build-A-Bear Workshop stores worldwide. In 2005, the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies (NASBIC) made Build-A-Bear Workshop Portfolio Company of the Year, it was named one of the International Council of Shopping Centers “Hottest Retailers of 2004” and the Retail Innovator of the Year for 2001 by The National Retail Federation.
Maxine is a member of the Board of Directors of The J.C. Penney Company, Inc., and serves on the Board of Trustees of Washington University in St. Louis. In 2006, her first book “The Bear Necessities of Business: Building a Company with Heart” was published.
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The CEO Series is sponsored by The Central Exchange Education Foundation and made possible through a gift from Right Management.
