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#Gathering2012
We’re committed to bring you relevant, practicing Great Game speakers or subject experts working across a variety of industries.
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Alan Kent
Meadows Regional Medical Center
Alan Kent is the President and CEO of Meadows Regional Medical Center , a rural healthcare organization in Vidalia, GA. With over 700 staff members, it has grown from under $50 million in revenue in 2000 to $300 million in 2011. A multiple All-Star Award Winner at the Gathering, Meadows has been playing the Game for almost a decade. They have also been named three times as one of the Top 100 Hospitals in America and have been recognized nationally for work in the TPS Lean Healthcare process with Georgia Tech, among other honors. The hospital moved into a $92M state of the art replacement facility in 2011 and has already broken ground on a new cancer center. Meadows is a great place to be a patient and a very cool place to work.
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Ari Weinzweig
Zingerman's
Ari Weinzweig moved to Ann Arbor from his hometown of Chicago to attend the University of Michigan. Along with his business partner Paul Saginaw, Ari started Zingerman’s Delicatessen in 1982 with a $20,000 bank loan, a staff of two, a small selection of great-tasting specialty foods and a relatively short sandwich menu. Today, the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses includes seven businesses in addition to the original Deli with a 500-person staff and annual sales approaching $35,000,000. Ari is also the author of several books including his most recent: Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading, Part 1; A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business.
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Bill Collier
Great Game Coaching
Bill is a long-time entrepreneur and Great Game practitioner. His first company, BC Group International (which he has since sold), received Great Game’s “Hall of Fame Award” in 2005. A veteran speaker at most Gatherings since the 1990’s, Bill traveled to Sydney to present at Great Game Australia in October 2011. He is now a Great Game Coach in St. Louis, where he helps companies in a variety of industries implement and benefit from Open-Book management.
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Bill Fotsch
The Great Game of Business
Bill Fotsch is the Head Coach for The Great Game of Business, Inc. He has worked with over 400 different companies, in a wide variety of industries. The companies have ranged from small, privately held companies, to mid-sized companies, to Fortune 500 firms including: Southwest Airlines, Harley Davidson, Roadway Express and Capital One. Although primarily focused on North America, his work has included multiple international projects.
Prior to starting the coaching business, Bill had over 20 years of business experience as a results-oriented manager with a successful track record of improving company sales and profits in a broad array of industries. He also serves on the board of directors of several companies, all of which practice the Great Game of Business.
Bill received his Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from Marquette University and his Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker Scholar. Bill and his wife, Joy, and three children live in the Cincinnati suburb of Villa Hills, Kentucky. Bill’s commitment to faith, family and friends provide a strong motivation for his work, tempered with a sense of humor that helps him avoid taking himself too seriously.
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Keynote Bo Burlingham
Inc Magazine/Small Giants
Bo Burlingham is editor-at-large—and former executive editor—of Inc. magazine and chairman of the Small Giants Community (www.smallgiants.org). His book Small Giants: Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead of Big was a finalist for the 2006 Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year award. His most recent book, co-authored with Norm Brodsky, is Street Smarts: An All-Purpose Tool Kit for Entrepreneurs. He has also written two books with Jack Stack, CEO of Springfield Holdings Corp. and the pioneer of open-book management. One of them, The Great Game of Business, was named one of 100 best business books of all time. The second, A Stake in the Outcome, has been called “the first management classic of the new millennium.” Burlingham is currently working on a book about exits. He lives in Oakland, CA, with his wife of 41 years, Lisa. They have two children and two-and-a-half (soon to be three) grandchildren.
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Keynote Brian Scudamore
1-800-GOT-JUNK?
Brian started his business in Vancouver, Canada at the age of 18, and later went on to franchise 1-800-GOT-JUNK? as a way to expand operations. Today, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? has 1000 trucks on the road throughout some 180 locations in Canada, the United States, and Australia.
Brian has received wide recognition in the media and business community. 1-800-GOT-JUNK? has celebrated appearances on the highly-acclaimed Undercover Boss Canada, Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, CNN, ABC Nightline, the Today Show, The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos, and the View; and Brian was a guest on the Oprah show in 2003. His story has been told in Fortune Magazine, Business Week, New York Times, Huffington Post, and Wall Street Journal, to name a few. 1-800-GOT-JUNK? is currently the starring junk removal attraction on the hit A&E reality show, Hoarders. In addition to interviews and guest appearances, Brian contributes written articles on building a business and entrepreneurism to many national magazines, including a monthly column in PROFIT Magazine.
In 2004, Brian was inducted into the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and served as a board member for the Young Entrepreneurs’ Organization (YEO). In 2007, Brian was honored to have been named the International Franchise Association’s Entrepreneur of the Year. Other accolades include Fortune Small Business’ Best Bosses Award, Globe & Mail’s Top 40 under 40, and a three-time winner of a prestigious “Best Company To Work For” award.
As a public speaker, Brian has brought his entrepreneurial success story to many conference stages, including the Fortune Small Business Magazine’s national conference. A strong believer in personal and professional development, Brian graduated from MIT’s four-year Birthing of Giants program, and has subsequently completed several years of MIT’s BOG’s alumni program, Gathering of Titans. He is also a participant in a nine-year executive education program at Harvard University.
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Craig Durosko
Sun Design
Craig founded Sun Design Remodeling over 20 years ago with one simple philosophy—helping people with their homes. He has been instrumental in growing a one person remodeling practice into a successful design build firm with more than 50 employees. Over the years, Craig has worn almost every hat in the organization. His true passion has always been the role of building and maintaining Sun Design’s culture that is based on providing a great experience for clients as well as employees, vendors and trades. Sun Design is the proud recipient of over 70 Design & Service Awards; INC 5000’s fastest growing companies for the last three years; Washingtonian Top Remodeler for the last 4 years; and ranked #22 on Remodeling Magazines Top 550 Remodelers in the U.S. under the Design/Build category.
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Donna Coppock
The Great Game of Business
Donna Coppock is the Executive Trainer for The Great Game of Business. In that role she designs, develops, and delivers training sessions on The Great Game of Business and a variety of business subjects that support Open-Book Management.
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Ed Dorian Jr.
Dorian Drake International
Ed Dorian Jr. is managing partner of Dorian Drake International, a New York-based export management company. He launched the firm’s successful conversion to Open-Book management in 2002. Ed earned a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and a master’s of journalism degree from University of Missouri. He lives with his wife and two sons in Riverside, CT.
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Eddie Geller
Unique World
Eddie was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Unique World before it was acquired recently by Jacobs. He founded Unique World in January 1999 and was instrumental in steering the business through many ups and downs while growing it to a 22% net margin business before exiting through a successful trade sale in December 2012. Unique World has been playing The Game since April 2010 with enormous success.
In the 12 months leading up to the sale of Unique World, Unique World successfully won the Great Game of Business All-Star award, was selected as a Top 50 great place to work in Australia and the first company in Australia to ever win the Microsoft Global Partner of the Year award for Portals and Collaboration.
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Jack Stack talks about the 20th Anniversary of the Gathering of Games (he kinda wants you to join us!) http://t.co/oXC1SOKy