Directors & Boards CEO Succession Webcast

Free online education for directors and board members from Directors & Boards, your trusted independent corporate governance thought leader.

Evaluating Your CEO Succession Plan
November 3, 2010
2:00 pm Eastern/11:00 am Pacific
(One hour)

Register Today (click here)

Increasingly, shareholders are demanding to see evidence that boards have a handle on CEO succession, including a well laid out plan in the event that directors have to name a new CEO unexpectedly.

Tom Flannery, Practice Leader-Board Services at Boyden; John Szold, CEO-Planning for Succession, Inc.; and Gregory Pratt, Chairman of the Board, Carpenter Technology Corporation, will discuss the importance of both short and long term CEO succession planning, the elements that make up a sound plan and the pitfalls and obstacles to avoid along the way. Directors & Boards editor and associate publisher Jim Kristie will moderate the discussion.

Speakers

Gregory Pratt is Chairman of the Board of Carpenter Technology Corporation, a high temperature alloy and speciality steel manufacturer, where he previously held the roles of governance and audit committee chairs, as well as interim president and CEO. In addition, he has served as the company’s lead independent director since 2002.
Throughout his career, Greg has been a leader at companies known for innovative and cutting edge technology. Greg founded software engineering firm, Enterprise Technology Group. Following his success in steering the company through a merger with OAO Technology Solutions, a global leader in IT, he served as vice chairman, CEO and president of the combined organization.

Earlier in his career, Greg co-founded billion-dollar video game pioneer Atari Corp. He then served variously as the company’s CFO, president and general manager. After leaving Atari, he became president and COO of Intelligent Electronics Inc.
Greg currently serves on boards of directors for AmeriGas Propane Inc., where he is Audit Committee Chair, and OAO Technology Solutions. He is also president of the Capital Area Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors, a non-profit organization focused on improving boardroom dynamics.

Before joining Commodore International, Ltd. as CFO and vice president of finance, Greg began his career as an auditor at Arthur Andersen & Co. Greg received an MBA in finance from Wharton School after graduating summa cum laude from Cheyney University in Pennsylvania.

Tom Flannery is the Managing Director of Boyden’s Pittsburgh Office. He is the founder of Boyden’s Interim Management practice in the United States and the initiator of the firm’s proprietary board assessment and evaluation tool, The Model Board, in the Americas.

Tom has executed senior search assignments in a broad array of sectors and currently focuses on Board level assignments for both publicly and privately held companies and organizations. He has managed assignments ranging from CEOs, CFOs, and Board Directors to acquisitions of companies for his clients and considers himself a generalist at a time when most search professionals are calling themselves specialists. He has attained the level of trusted advisor with many of his clients and is heavily involved in succession planning and strategic hiring. When he joined Boyden, he also brought with him a significant amount of international business.

Tom's early career included ten years with Gulf Oil Corporation in Gulf’s domestic refining and marketing group and another seven as President of a distribution company he acquired from Gulf in 1979. Given his experience in both corporate and entrepreneurial environments, he is equally comfortable working with both large and small companies.

In addition to his management responsibilities, Tom is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and serves as a Director for several of his client companies. He has also served on the Board of the Fox Chapel Authority and sits on the development committees for several Pittsburgh-based charitable organizations. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.

John Szold provides succession planning and management services, including CEO assessment, CEO transition, performance evaluation, talent management and leadership development, to boards of directors and senior management teams, as well as to owners of private businesses.

John has helped identify and develop high-potential leaders, and implement effective performance-management processes for a roster of national and international companies.

Previously, he was managing director of Caliper Canada, leading the company’s practice that focused on leadership development, succession planning and talent management.

John also was vice president for Delicious Alternative Desserts, for which he introduced Ben & Jerry’s super-premium ice cream in Canada.

An adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, Mr. Szold has lectured on health-services marketing to master-degree candidates in health science administration and has supervised field studies in marketing-strategy development at the Faculty of Medicine.

He is vice chair of the Canadian MedicAlert Foundation and chairs the finance committee, and is a director of Youth Employment Services, serving on its governance committee.

John holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto.

Jim Kristie is editor and associate publisher of Directors & Boards, the only major independently-owned journal of corporate governance thought leadership in North America. He is the longest-tenured editor (at 30 years) serving this field. In addition to his editorial duties, Jim teaches journalism at Temple University.

Benefits

Succession from a director's perspective, with expert guidance from succession professionals
60 minutes--maximum value for time
Completely free to attend
Time for questions and comments
All participants receive a copy of the webinar materials after the event
Unbiased third party director education

This free webinar is brought to you through the sponsorship of Boyden, Planning for Succession, Inc., and Directors & Boards.