4/29/99

ATHENS, Ohio -- The Ohio University College of Business is sponsoring its first annual Leadership Conference, featuring speakers from private business, state government and the non-profit sector.

Neil Rackham, president and founder of Huthwaite, Inc., will lecture on "Rethinking the Salesforce," at 2:30 p.m, Friday, April 30 in 194 Irvine Auditorium. Rackham has completed extensive research on sales effectiveness and is the developer of Situation Problem Implication Need-payoff or Spin theory.

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell will lecture on "Promoting Diversity by Respecting the Individual," at 7 p.m., Tuesday, May 4 in 194 Irvine Auditorium. As former state treasurer, Blackwell is the first African-American to be elected to either office. He is a former mayor of Cincinnati and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Yvonne L. Gray, vice president and chief operating Officer of the United Way & Community Chest in Cincinnati, will present the lecture "The Importance of Community Leadership" at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 5 in 194 Irvine Auditorium. Gray is the former president of the Board of the Arts Consortium of Cincinnati.

The Leadership Conference is organized and sponsored by the College of Business's Ethics/Diversity/Professional Leadership CIT. The lectures are free and open to the public.