Keynote Speakers

Leadership is... "Defining and communicating the mission; providing guidance as to how it might be accomplished; equipping people with the proper tools (information, training, etc.); motivating and inspiring through selfless dedication and respect for others; providing both positive and negative feedback, including recognition for achievement; and, ultimately, getting out of the way and giving people the ability and authority to accomplish the mission, with the full confidence they will be supported." --Jim Parker

TITLE: Jim was Southwest's Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, June 2001 - July 2004.

JOB DESCRIPTION: Jim directly oversaw management, leadership, and budget responsibilities for the following areas/groups: President and Chief Operating Officer, Chief Executive Office Staff, Labor Negotiations, Executive Vice President-Chief Financial Officer, and Vice President Revenue Management.

LENGTH OF SERVICE AT SOUTHWEST: Started February 1986.

EXPERIENCE: Prior to joining Southwest, Jim worked as an attorney with the San Antonio law firm of Oppenheimer, Rosenberg, Kelleher & Wheatley. He also worked as Assistant Attorney General of Texas. Most recently, Jim held the position of Vice President General Counsel for Southwest Airlines Co.

EDUCATION: Jim earned a J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Texas at Austin.

FIRST PAYING JOB: Working the drive-thru at Sandy's Hamburger Stand in Fort Worth, Texas.

MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: "I will only disclose this information after consuming several cocktails."

PROUDEST MOMENT: "Watching my son graduate from college and my daughter graduate from high school."

BEST ADVICE EVER RECEIVED: "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."

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Ronald A. Williams


Ronald A. Williams is President of Aetna Inc. and a member of the company's Board of Directors. As President, Mr. Williams is responsible for all of Aetna's business operations, including information technology, customer sales and support; service; product development; health care cost and quality initiatives; strategic marketing; network development; and physician, hospital and health care professional relations.

Mr. Williams joined Aetna in March 2001 as Executive Vice President and Chief of Health Operations. He was named President in May 2002. Mr. Williams is a member of the Office of the Chairman - the company's most senior management governing body.

In October 2003, Mr. Williams was elected to the Board of Directors of Lucent Technologies Inc. and to the Board of Trustees of The Conference Board. Mr. Williams sits on the Dean's Advisory Council and the Corporate Visiting Committee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Prior to joining Aetna, Mr. Williams was Group President of the Large Group Division at WellPoint Health Networks Inc. and President of the company's Blue Cross of California subsidiary. Mr. Williams joined Blue Cross of California in 1987 and accepted a series of increasingly prominent roles.

Previously, Mr. Williams was a Senior Vice President at Vista Health Corp., group marketing executive at Control Data Corp., and President and co-founder of Integrative Systems.

Mr. Williams is a graduate of Roosevelt University and holds an M.S. in Management from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Dan Carp


In 1986, Mr. Carp was named assistant general manager of the Latin American Region. In September 1988, he was elected a vice president and named general manager of that organization. Two years later, Carp moved to London to take up the position of general manager of the European Marketing Companies. He was appointed general manager, European, African, and Middle Eastern Region in October 1991. Mr. Carp was elected executive vice president and named assistant chief operating officer effective November 1, 1995. On January 1, 1997, he was elected president and chief operating officer.

He was elected to the company's Board of Directors on December 12, 1997. Before serving in his current position as chairman and chief executive officer, Mr. Carp was president and chief executive officer (from January 1, 2000 through December 8, 2000); chairman, president, and chief executive officer (from December 8, 2000 through April 16, 2001); and chairman and chief executive officer (from April 16, 2001 through January 4, 2002); chairman and chief executive officer and president and chief operating officer (from January 4, 2002 until April 2, 2003).

Mr. Carp is a member of the board of directors of Texas Instruments Incorporated. He is also a member of The Business Roundtable and The Business Council. During the 2002 - 2005 International Consultative Conference on the Future Economic Development of Guangdong Province, China, Mr. Carp will serve as Economic Advisor to the Governor of Guangdong, China. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the National Urban League and the board of trustees of the George Eastman House.

In February 2004, Mr. Carp received the PhotoImaging Manufacturers & Distributors Association Person of the Year Award. He was a recipient of the Diversity Best Practices 2003 CEO Leadership Award. In 2001 he received the Photographic & Imaging Manufacturers Association Leadership Award. Mr. Carp was selected as one of the first members of the Alumni Hall of Distinction of the New York State Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities in 2000. He was also a recipient of the 1997 Human Relations Award of the American Jewish Committee Photographic Imaging Division.

A native of Wytheville, Virginia, Mr. Carp received an MS degree in management as a Sloan Fellow at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Earlier, he earned a BBA degree in quantitative methods from Ohio University and an MBA degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

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Dr. Peter Senge (Moderator)


Peter M. Senge is a Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also Founding Chair of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL), a global community of corporations, researchers, and consultants dedicated to the "interdependent development of people and their institutions." He is the author of the widely acclaimed book, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (1990) and, with colleagues Charlotte Roberts, Rick Ross, Bryan Smith and Art Kleiner, co-author of The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization (1994) and a fieldbook The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations (March, 1999), also co-authored by George Roth. In September 2000, a fieldbook on education was published, the award winning Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education, co-authored with Nelda Cambron-McCabe, Timothy Lucas, Bryan Smith, Janis Dutton, and Art Kleiner.

Dr. Senge has lectured extensively throughout the world, translating the abstract ideas of systems theory into tools for better understanding of economic and organizational change. His areas of special interest focus on decentralizing the role of leadership in organizations so as to enhance the capacity of all people to work productively toward common goals. Dr. Senge's work articulates a cornerstone position of human values in the workplace; namely, that vision, purpose, reflectiveness, and system thinking are essential if organizations are to realize their potentials. He has worked with leaders in business, education, health care and government.

The Fifth Discipline hit a nerve deep within the business and education community by introducing the theory of learning organizations. Since its publication, more than 750,000 copies have been sold. In 1997, Harvard Business Review identified it as one of the seminal management books of the past 75 years. There have been feature articles in Business Week, Fortune, Fast Company, Sloan Management Review and other leading business periodicals regarding the work of Dr. Senge and his colleagues at MIT and SoL.

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (over 270,000 copies sold) was developed in response to questions from readers of The Fifth Discipline who wanted more help with tools, methods and practical experiences in developing enhanced learning capabilities within their own companies. The Dance of Change is based on more recent experiences of companies developing learning capabilities over many years, and the strategies leaders develop to deal with the many challenges this work entails. Dr. Senge has also authored many articles published in both academic journals and the business press on systems thinking in management.

The Journal of Business Strategy (September/October 1999) named Dr. Senge as one of the 24 people who had the greatest influence on business strategy over the last 100 years. The Financial Times (2000) named him as one of the world's "top management gurus." Business Week (October 2001) rated Peter as one of The Top (ten) Management Gurus. Accenture's Outlook magazine (January 2003) ranked him 6th among the top 50 leading business gurus.

Peter Senge received a B.S. in engineering from Stanford University, and M.S. in social systems modeling and Ph.D. in management from MIT. He lives with his wife and their two children in central Massachusetts.