Former Ford CEO Alan Mulally Joins over a Dozen Current and Former CEOs in Leadership Program for New and Seasoned CEOs

June 23, 2015

PHILADELPHIA, PA: The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and CEO Academy have announced a unique learning program exclusively for new and experienced chief executive officers. The day-and-a-half program will be held Nov. 18-19, 2015 in New York City.

The Wharton-co-sponsored CEO Academy builds on the highly successful program that has brought CEOs together to learn from one another since 2001. This year’s program will feature over 16 current and former chief executives from Corporate America, leaders from institutional investment and governance firms, and six of Wharton’s senior faculty members.

The Academy’s executives and faculty collectively have or are currently serving on over 50 major company boards. Among the distinguished group of speakers and faculty including former Ford CEO Alan Mulally and Dean Geoffrey Garrett of the Wharton School.

“This year’s program is the most star-studded cast of operating business executives and academics ever assembled under one roof,” says CEO Academy founder Dennis Carey. “Regardless of whether you are a relatively new CEO or have been serving in the role for many years, you will benefit greatly from this exchange of information and experience.”

As CEOs face increasing economic uncertainty, disruptive innovation and activist shareholders, the time has never been better for a gathering of this kind. Carey says executives will not only share what worked while leading their companies through major change, but also what they would have done differently.

The program agenda focuses on the most critical leadership issues relevant to new and established CEOs. In addition to live case studies of successful companies, the meeting will include current and former chief executives from AIG, Danaher, Ford, Frontier Communications, United Technologies Corporation and Tyco, among other firms.

Session topics include:

  • Why CEO Continuous Improvement is Critical
  • Why Capital Allocation is Strategy
  • Ethics & Integrity — Setting the Tone at the Top
  • Continue to Innovate or Die
  • Placing Your Bets around the World — Risk versus Opportunity
  • How Best to Assess your Team
  • The Changing Landscape of Shareholder Engagement
  • What You Need to Know about All Media
  • Boards — When to Take Charge, When to Partner and When to Get out of the Way
  • Transform your Company

“Wharton faculty will bring a framing of the latest research on a host of issues related to company leadership at the top, and participants will take both that research and the deep experience of seasoned CEOs back to their everyday leadership of their companies,” says Michael Useem, the William and Jacalyn Egan Professor of Management and director of Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change. “The program is designed to touch on all the major challenges a chief executive is likely to face.”

Both Carey and Useem agree that the Academy’s greatest benefits will include the opportunity for newly appointed and current CEOS to connect with other CEOs who have experienced similar leadership challenges — and to combine that with the latest university research on company leadership. The program is limited to 50 attendees. Participants must be sitting CEOs or Chairman or have been publicly announced as CEO designate. The event will be closed to the news media.

For more information and to register, please contact Donna Gregor at dgregor@ceo-academy.com or call +1.215.656.5348.

About The CEO Academy®

The CEO Academy® was founded in 1999 by Dennis Carey, Vice Chairman of Korn Ferry, to facilitate the learning curve for new CEOs of public corporations. The Academy annually hosts a one-and-a-half day “immersion” program taught by experienced CEOs, members of the business press, and professional service advisory firms. In 2015, the Academy and The Wharton School formalized a partnership to jointly develop the program.

About the Wharton School

Founded in 1881 as the world’s first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is shaping the future of business by incubating ideas, driving insights, and creating leaders who change the world. With a faculty of more than 235 renowned professors, Wharton has 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students. Each year 100,000 professionals from around the world advance their careers through Wharton Executive Education’s individual, company-customized, and online programs, and thousands of pre-collegiate students explore business concepts through Wharton’s www.wharton.upenn.edu.

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