I would like to welcome you to Webster University. We are pleased that you made the extra sacrifice to be here so early for the inaugural human resource forum, a series of engaged discussion on issues of importance and substance facing managers and leaders in the very important field of human resource.

I want to thank my friend, and our neighbor, Donna Martin, Senior Vice President of Ameren for participating with us in making this forum a reality. We are honored by the presence of two outstanding alumni and leaders, Ann Marr of WorldWide Technology and Mary Ann Wagner of May Corporation.

I must add that one area where the school of business firmly believes we have a competitive advantage is our innovative curriculum in human resource and human resource development. Our competitive advantage is gaining significance because we have an outstanding faculty, represented by two of our best – Dr. Jeff Haldeman and Dr. Nic Dimarco.

In closing, I recall the great Peter Drucker’s admonition, “they’re not employees, they’re people.” I believe that the people of any organization are the organization’s greatest assets. I hope we can take some time to reflect on the biggest challenge of all – the importance of communication. Communication is not saying something, communication is being heard. One sentence, one paragraph, one page – connecting, helping, inspiring, being heard. We now need more communicating more than ever before.

And perhaps most importantly the ability to see what is visible but not yet seen.

With this said, I welcome you again to Webster and welcome Dr. Jeff Haldeman to get the discussion started.

"Consistency ensures that the curriculum in all of our programs is validated for substance and outcomes across the institution. "

- Dr. Benjamin Akande