The Chair Academy's 17th Annual International Conference: 
			Soaring to New Heights through Exemplary Leadership
Keynote Speakers

Jim Collins, Keynote Speaker
Author and Management Educator

Sponsored by





Jim Collins

Good to Great and the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking is Not the Answer


Jim Collins is a student and teacher of enduring great companies—how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how good companies can become great companies. Jim invests a significant portion of his energy in large-scale research projects, often five or more years in duration, to develop fundamental insights into organizations and then translate those findings into books, articles and lectures. He uses his management laboratory to work directly with executives and to develop practical tools for applying the concepts that flow from his research.

Jim believes that we must reject the idea that the primary path to greatness in the social sectors is to become “more like a business”. Most businesses, like most of everything in life, fall somewhere between mediocre and good. Few are great. When you compare great companies to good ones, many widely practiced business norms turn out to correlate with mediocrity, not greatness. So why would we want to import the practices of mediocrity into the social sectors? The critical distinction is not between the business sector and social sector, but between great and good. We need to jointly embrace a language of greatness.

We can find pockets of greatness in nearly every difficult environment- whether it be the airline industry, education, healthcare, social ventures, or government-funded agencies. Every institution has its unique set of irrational and difficult constraints, yet some make the leap while others facing the same environmental challenges do not. This is perhaps the single most important point in all of GOOD TO GREAT. Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.

Join Jim as he shares his insights, research findings, and great organizations’ best practices found in the social sector and how we can move our institutions from good to great.

Visit Jim Collins' website for more information about him.

Read Jim Collins' biography here.

Attending the Conference? Here is your opportunity to ask Jim Collins a Question! Click here to submit your Question!


Terry Paulson -Keynote Speaker

Psychologist, Columnist & Author

Sponsored by





Terry Paulson

Soaring on the Wings of Change and Taking Others with You


For educational insitutions, the change challenge is just accelerating! This engaging program provides you with practical tactics that will help you make change work. You'll learn how to balance a healthy appreciation for both tradition and strategic change, how to generate and sustain commitment to a compelling vision and how to use best-practice stories to cement cultural changes. While focusing limited resources on the things that matter most, you'll learn how to keep hope alive for yourself and those you lead and how to balance accountability and collaboration. Finally, you will be reminded of the value of a healthy sense of humor by taking your job seriously but yourself lightly in these times of constant change.

Visit Terry Paulson's website for more information about him.

Read Terry Paulson's biography here.


Coen Free - Keynote Speaker

President, Koning Willem I College, The Netherlands

Sponsored by




Coen Free

Living and Learning in a Complicated 3D World


Change is a fact of life, as is innovation. A number of unique and defining revolutionary ‘moments’ can be identified in our centuries-old history. Take, for example, the invention of the printing press in 1450, which led to the Renaissance, and the concepts of Enlightenment, which led to the Industrial Revolution in 1760. Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, we are also at a juncture in which similar changes are in store for us, some of which are already in progress. Our society is under great pressure as a result of globalization, technological developments and changing competitive relationships between the USA, Europe and Asia. Old values, standards and certainties can no longer be taken for granted. Society is constantly evolving. National borders are fading. All kinds of familiar systems seem to be coming to the end of their lifecycle.

One of the greatest revolutions, through technological developments, is the creation of new spaces. For centuries the world has only known one kind of space: the physical space; the world of buildings and spatial planning. A space that gradually offered too little room for the discovering person. Two more spaces have since been added: the mental space - the emerging world of thinking and imagination, and the digital space - the world of cyberspace. Although neither is tangible, they do have a considerable influence on our whole lives, our day-to-day lives, ànd on our learning processes. In this brand new 3D world we have to live and to learn.

What does all this mean for schools and colleges?

Read Coen Free's biography here.



Author & Management Speaker
Sponsored by



John Miller

Personal Accountability and the QBQ!


Have you ever heard questions like these?
  • “Why do we have to go through all this change?”
  • “When is someone going to train me?”
  • “Why can’t they communicate better?”
  • “Who’s going to solve the problem?”
  • “Why don’t they share the vision?”
The lack of personal accountability is a problem that has resulted in an epidemic of blame, complaining, and procrastination. No organization – or individual – can achieve goals, compete in the marketplace, fulfill a vision, or develop people and teams without personal accountability.

John Miller believes that the troubles that plague organizations cannot be solved by pointing fingers and blaming others. Rather the real solutions are found when each of us recognizes the power of personal accountability. John shows how the Personal Accountability and the QBQ! can help each of us eliminate blame, complaining, victim thinking, and procrastination from our lives, both at work and at home.

Visit John Miller's website for more information about him.

Read John Miller's biography here.