Global Commerce Will Never Be the Same Say Nation's Corporate Leaders at The Yale School of Management

New Haven, CT, May 28, 2002 - In response to the nation's current leadership crises over trust, accountability, and security, 100 of the nation's top corporate leaders will meet at the Yale School of Management (SOM) this week with top policy makers and leading educators. The 45th CEO Leadership Summit is sponsored by United Parcel Service, Bloomberg News, The Gallup Organization, and PRG-Shultz International.

Participants in the closed-door session are: U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao; Deputy Secretary of State Charlotte Beers; and U.S. Postmaster General John Potter. Others include: Douglas Conant of Campbell Soup; David Brown of Owens Corning; John Eyler of Toys "R" Us; James Hagedorn of Scotts; Joseph Brown of MBIA; Bernard Marcus of The Home Depot; Thomas Weidemeyer of UPS; Craig Weatherup of the Pepsi Bottling Group; Richard Teerlink of Harley-Davidson; John Ward of Russell Corp; William Zollars of Yellow Freight; William George of Medtronic; Rick Goings of Tupperware; Edward Mathias of the Carlyle Group; and James Clifton of The Gallup Organization.

Leaders from government and the private sector will join with non-profit sector thought leaders including Marsha Johnson Evans, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America; James Firman, CEO of the National Council on Aging; and Maxwell Anderson, Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art; Dean Jeffrey E. Garten of Yale SOM along with distinguished academics from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Fordham, Emory, and other top universities.

The conference is entitled: Global Commerce Will Never Be the Same: Risks, Retreats, & Resilience. The CEOs will debate topics including Are Global Risks Overstated?, Restoring Trust in the Information Infrastructure, and Are Corporate Boards Irrelevant? The Home Depot's Bernard Marcus will present the Legend in Leadership Award to Bill George of Medtronic for his leadership in biotechnology and board governance. Past award winners have included Roger Enrico of PepsiCo; James Kelly of UPS; Robert Crandall of American Airlines; Charlotte Beers of JW Thompson; and the music industry's Quincy Jones.

The event organizer and host is The Chief Executive Leadership Institute of Yale SOM, the nation's first CEO college. Institute founder, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Associate Dean of Executive Programs at Yale's business school commented, "This historic gathering of the nation's leadership will provide more than the hand-wringing intellectual catharsis in the media, but rather will develop actionable solutions."

For more information or for an interview with Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, contact Media Relations at the Yale School of Management, 203-432-6010.