Foundation, KU School of Business cohost Executive Leadership Summit

Maj. Gen. John S. Kem, provost of Army University and CGSC deputy commandant, addresses attendees at the 2017 Executive Leadership Summit.

The 2017 Executive Leadership Summit cohosted by the KU School of Business and the CGSC Foundation, Inc., was conducted Feb. 17, 2017 at the BEST Conference Center at the University of Kansas Edwards Campus in Overland Park, Kansas.

The summit was themed “Developing the Leaders of Tomorrow” and brought together leaders in defense, business and academia to address key leadership challenges in a dynamic and complex world. Maj. Gen. John S. Kem, Army University provost and CGSC deputy commandant, was one of the key speakers in the morning session and Dr. Ted Thomas, director of the CGSC Department of Command and Leadership, presented in the afternoon.

Other notable speakers in the morning session included Dr. James Guthrie, interim dean of the KU School of Business; Keith White, president of CLARCOR Industrial Air Group; and Terry Bassham, chairman/president/CEO of Great Plains Energy and Kansas City Power and Light Company. Each spoke about their successes and challenges as the leaders of their respective organizations and how they viewed leadership and leader development.

In the afternoon session kicked off by remarks from CGSC Foundation CEO Doug Tystad, Dr. Thomas presented his leadership concept of “Head, Hands and Heart.” Col. John Bircher, director of U.S. Army Information Operations Proponent Office at Fort Leavenworth, participated in a panel discussion entitled “Mentoring the Next Generation of Leaders” alongside Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Mike Rounds, the associate vice provost for human resource management at the University of Kansas, and Katie Ervin, the Midwest regional director of the office of military affairs for Webster University (Ervin is also a Foundation trustee).

Col. John Bircher from Fort Leavenworth, Mike Rounds from KU and Katie Ervin from Webster University address mentoring issues during the Executive Leadership Summit.

The second afternoon panel consisted of Col. Scott King from Fort Leavenworth, Dr. Michael Hoeflich from the KU School of Law, and Col. (Ret.) John H. Campbell, owner/president of Studdard Moving Group in Leavenworth, Kansas. Their panel topic was “The Role of Self-Development in Shaping the Leaders of Tomorrow” and brought up many interesting and sometimes humorous aspects of developing leaders in military, academia and business environments respectively.

This is the second annual Executive Leadership Summit cohosted by the KU School of Business and the CGSC Foundation. The intent of the summit is to bring together defense, business and the academic community to expand and enhance leader dialog across a unique grouping of industries.

For more information on the summit, contact the CGSC Foundation.

Visit the CGSC Foundation Flickr site for more photos from the summit.