PROGRAM'S GENESIS

The idea for CEO Perspective originated from Sheila Penrose and Cheryl Francis, co-founders of Corporate Leadership Center (CLC). Having worked in senior management roles, they recognized the tremendous opportunity for leadership development for senior management from major corporations.

In 2002, Sheila and Cheryl started to discuss their ideas with key CEOs of major corporations and found a good amount of enthusiasm and acceptance. Subsequently, they approached the Kellogg School of Management, and Dean Dipak Jain, with their ideas for a program that would combine Kellogg's best thinking and research with the experience and expertise of real-world CEOs and Board Chairs from multi-billion dollar corporations, to create a unique experience for senior level participants.

Dean Jain was very intrigued and recognized the possibilities and challenges involved in creating a unique offering of this type. He asked Dr. Rajinder (Raj) Gupta, a Kellogg faculty member and the former Executive Director, to work with Sheila and Cheryl to determine the long-term viability of the program, as well as to start enlisting the key academic faculty needed to consider the innovative curriculum that would be required for this venture. The team worked together for the next year, talking and meeting with a number of major CEOs and influential leaders, which helped determine the shape and structure of the program. During this process, many key leaders were of great help, including John Madigan, Andy McKenna and Bill Osborn.

Also during this time, the team worked together with Dean Jain and other key faculty, helping to define the parameters of the curriculum. At this time, Dean Jain and Raj Gupta approached Professor Daniel Diermeier, Ph.D., the IBM Professor of Regulation and Competitive Practice, to join the team as the Academic Director. Daniel worked very closely with Sheila, Cheryl and Raj to develop the detailed academic program over the next few months.

This exclusive program began with its first class in 2005. It included: 22 senior management-level participants; Kellogg's world-class, most senior-level faculty; and the program's hallmark – its CEO & Board "Faculty" from Fortune 100 companies. Together, they launched this unique program, CEO Perspective, which is now in its sixth, very successful year.