Business

Prominent industry leaders to speak at Miami Business School

The Distinguished Leaders Lecture Series brings leaders from various industries to speak throughout the year on relevant topics in their respective fields.
Miami Business School environmental

The Southern Glazer’s Distinguished Leaders Lecture Series brings prominent leaders from a variety of businesses and industries to the University’s Coral Gables campus. Photo: TJ Lievonen/University of Miami

Trained in pulmonary and critical care medicine, Dr. Rajeev Venkayya has overseen U.S. preparedness for bioterrorism and biological threats as special assistant to the President for biodefense at the White House. Now with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Venkayya will speak Thursday at the University of Miami Business School at the first of this year’s Distinguished Leaders Lecture Series.

Rajeev Vankayya
Venkayya

The Southern Glazer’s Distinguished Leaders Lecture Series brings prominent leaders from a variety of businesses and industries, to the University’s Coral Gables campus. All lectures will be held at Storer Auditorium. They start at 6 p.m. and are free and open to the University community and the public.

Announced speakers include:

Oct. 3: Rajeev Venkayya, president of the Vaccine Business Unit at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Asia. Register here: https://www.bus.miami.edu/events/2019/10/rajeev.html 

Oct. 24: Carlos Rodriguez, chief executive officer and president of Automatic Data Processing Inc., or ADP. He has served in this position since 2011 and has worked in the company since 1999.

Nov. 12: Women on Boards—Betsy Atkins, CEO of Baja Corporation, a three-time CEO and a serial entrepreneur, and Lisa Hook, former president and CEO of Neustar, a global information and analytics services company, will discuss the role of women on company boards.

Dec. 13: Robert Shiller, Yale economist, Nobel Prize winner and best-selling author. Since 2018 he has served as a Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University and is a fellow at the Yale School of Management's International Center for Finance. (This lecture begins at 5:30 p.m.)

Jan. 15, 2020: Morris Saffer, founder of American Retail Advertising and Marketing Association. Saffer is a retail-marketing icon and his peers have referred to his career’s work as legendary. While at Harvard, Saffer published his pioneering philosophy “The Store is a Brand” and based on this strategic approach, founded Saffer Advertising in 1968, which grew to be North America’s largest agency specializing in retail advertising and marketing.

Feb. 12, 2020: Mahesh Madhavan, chief executive officer of Bacardi. A more than 20-year veteran of Bacardi, Madhavan most recently led Europe for Bacardi as its regional president, where he was responsible for commercial operations. During his tenure with Bacardi, he has held leading roles within various emerging markets including regional president of Asia, Middle East & Africa (AMEA), managing director of India, managing director for Thailand and the Philippines, and managing director of South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Feb. 19, 2020: Ken Chenault, chairman and managing director of General Catalyst and former chairman and CEO of American Express.   

April 8, 2020: Robert Isom, president of American Airlines Group Inc. Isom began his career at Northwest Airlines in 1991. He was selected to become chief operating officer of American Airlines in 2013 after the merger of American and U.S. Airways. As president, Isom oversees the airline’s operation and assumes all revenue responsibilities for the airline.

April 15, 2020: Patricia F. Russo, chair of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. She served as CEO of Lucent Technologies from 2002-2008. Russo began her career at IBM where she was known for a customer-oriented management style that still characterizes her.

April 30, 2020: Sam Chamberlain, chief operating officer of Five Guys, the popular fast-casual chain focused on hamburgers and hot dogs. He joined the firm, which employs more than 25,000 people, in 2005.