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ENTREPRENEURSHIP SPEAKERS JAN. 29, THROUGH WINTER |
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January 09, 2008
GROVE CITY, Pa. – The Grove City College Department of Entrepreneurship’s final four presentations of the 2007-08 Visionary Entrepreneurship Speaker Series begins with Prudential Financial executive Scott Sleyster on Jan. 29. All presentations will be at 7 p.m. in Sticht Lecture Hall in the Hall of Arts and Letters on campus and are free and open to the public.
Sleyster will present “Entrepreneurship and Innovation in a Corporate Setting.” He is the domestic chief investment officer for Prudential Financial and is responsible for asset/liability management and portfolio construction for Prudential’s domestic business operation and the investment strategy organization supporting Prudential’s investment operations on a global basis. Prior to this position, Sleyster was responsible for the leadership of Prudential’s Full Service Retirement and Institutional Investment Products businesses.
Since joining Prudential, Sleyster has served in a variety of leadership positions including head of Prudential’s Full-Service Retirement business, president of Prudential’s Guaranteed Products business and chief financial officer for Prudential’s Employee Benefits Division, in addition to other roles in the treasury, derivative and investment management units.
Sleyster has played an active role in the development of U.S. retirement policy and has supported legislative efforts to promote the formation of new retirement plans, expand coverage under existing plans and increase overall levels of retirement savings. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and U.S. Congress as a delegate to the National Summit on Retirement Savings in both 2002 and 2006. In 2003, he presented testimony to the Congressional Committee on Education and the Workforce at a public hearing on The Pension Security Act: New Pension Protections to Safeguard the Retirement Savings of American Workers. In 2005, he was named a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging.
He is a member of The New York Society of Security Analysts, Inc. and the Association for Investment Management and Research. He has an M.B.A. from Northwestern University and earned a finance degree, with distinction, from the University of Missouri. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Norm Sonju, founder and retired president and general manager of the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Sidekicks, will present “Pursuing Your Dream: Found the Dallas Mavericks,” on Feb. 6. Sonju announced the creation of the Dallas Mavericks, the National Basketball Association’s 23rd franchise, in 1980. He negotiated the NBA expansion terms, first Reunion Arena lease and oversaw the naming of the team, the creation of the logo and the hiring of all staff. Under his leadership, it was the only expansion team in NBA history to be profitable every year in its existence. Sonju helped with the sale of the Dallas Mavericks to Ross Perot, Jr., and officially retired in club history in 2006. Since then he has concentrated on helping non-profit organizations, ministries and schools.
Prior to founding the Mavericks, Sonju was president and general manager of the Buffalo Braves from 1976-1978. In July 1978, Sonju directed the merging of the Boston Celtics and Buffalo Braves franchises. Sonju also directed the relocation and start up of the San Diego Clippers franchise, now the Los Angeles Clippers. In 1984, he led the founding of the Dallas Sidekicks, an indoor soccer team.
Sonju was chairman of the NBA Marketing Committee and served on the NBA Expansion Committee, which added Charlotte, Miami, Orlando and Minnesota in 1987 and 1988. He was twice runner-up for “NBA Executive of the Year.” For 18 years, he hosted the “Norm Sonju Show,” a weekly radio sports show heard in over 35 states.
An accomplished speaker, author and teacher, Sonju, with his wife, Carole, helped found the West Dallas Community School in 1994. Currently, Norm serves as chairman of CAMP-of-the-WOODS, a large Christian family resort located in upstate New York, after handing over the director reins in August 2005. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Grinnell College in Iowa, and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.
Sean Ammirati ’02 will present “Why Now is a Great Time to Start a Company” on Feb. 13. Ammirati is vice president of business development and product management at mSpoke, a Web start-up based in Pittsburgh, Pa. Previously, he was director of business development at Peak Strategy where he oversaw sales, marketing and channel partnerships for the company’s quantitative alpha modeling tool, Strategy Shaper.
Ammirati regularly contributes to the influential “Read/WriteWeb” blog. He has served on the editorial advisory board and was a columnist for “Information Week.” Before he joined Peak Strategy, Sean was a research fellow at Carnegie Mellon University’s Sloan Software Industry Center. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems from Grove City College.
John Ladley ’78, president of IMCue Solutions, a new firm offering services related to deploying and developing data governance solutions, will be on campus Feb. 19 to present “Big Things, Flat Worlds and Tipping Points – And Why Dr. Sennholz Was Right.” Ladley is a business technology thought leader and executive with 30 years experience in planning, project management, improving information technology organizations and successful implementation of information systems.
He is a data warehouse pioneer and a recognized authority in the use and implementation of business intelligence, information architectures and knowledge management. Ladley is also an authority on collaborative applications, business intelligence architectures, methodologies, data quality and tools.
Ladley’s experience includes working as a management consultant where he specialized in the healthcare, retail, insurance, defense and consumer products industries. He has served as a META Group research fellow and was a board adviser to DAMA International. He is widely published, co-authoring a data warehouse methodology and trademarked process for data strategy planning. He frequently writes and speaks on a variety of technology and information management topics.
Ladley also serves on the board of Care and Counseling, a St. Louis-based charity offering a broad range of counseling and psychological services available to those unable to afford the full cost of psychotherapy. He is a board adviser to Presbyterian Children Services.
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