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This is our Board of Directors.
But we think that there’s not enough passion in that description. Not enough “we’re-here-because-we-want-to-change-the-way-world-does-business.”
Not enough “mojo.”
What “Board of Directors” doesn’t say is that they are visionaries, authors, inventors, conquerors of adversity, builders of culture and people who are very, very dedicated to running businesses that not only make a profit, but do so by making a difference in the lives of everyone they encounter. People who are not motivated by constant growth, but instead motivated by building great companies. But “Superheroes of Business” or “Champions of Commerce,” sound like the titles of awful comic books. So “Board of Directors” it was.
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Bo Burlingham
Bo Burlingham is the author of Small Giants: Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead of Big (Portfolio, 2006) and an editor-at-large of Inc. magazine.
Bo joined Inc. in January 1983 as a senior editor and became executive editor six months later, a position he held for the next seven years or so. In 1990 he resigned and became editor-at-large for a number of reasons, including his desire to go back to writing. He subsequently wrote two books with Jack Stack, the co-founder and CEO of Springfield Remanufacturing Corp. and the pioneer of open-book management. One of the books, The Great Game of Business (Doubleday/Currency, 1992), has sold more than 300,000 copies. (It explains what open-book management is and how it works in practice at the company that does it best.) The other, A Stake in the Outcome (Doubleday/Currency, 2002), has also done pretty well and gotten great reviews. (It’s a book you should read if you want to know what it really takes to run an employee-owned company.)
Before joining Inc., Bo freelanced for various publications, including Esquire, Harper’s, Boston Magazine, and Mother Jones. Bo was also managing editor of Ramparts magazine. In 1982, he joined Fidelity Investments, where he wrote for Peter Lynch, Ned Johnson, and other honchos until coming to Inc. From 1992 to 1997, he served on the board of The Body Shop Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of the international cosmetics company. He was also a founder, with Tom Peters, of PAC World, a weird international networking group that gave him a chance to meet a lot of zany—and brilliant—people from around the globe.
Ping Fu
Ping Fu is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Geomagic. Before co-founding Geomagic, Ping Fu was Director of Visualization at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, where she initiated and managed the NCSA Mosaic software project that led to Netscape and Internet Explorer. She has more than 20 years of software industry experience in database, networking, geometry processing, and computer graphics.
Ms. Fu has received numerous awards for her management achievements, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Carolinas and worldwide "Fast 50" executive by Fast Company magazine. In 2005, she was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. magazine, the leading publication for American entrepreneurs. She holds graduate and post-graduate degrees in computer science and Chinese literature, and is an adjunct professor at Duke University.
Learn more about Ping Fu in Business Leader. Listen to interviews with Ping Fu for National Public Radio and The National Center for Women & Informational Technology
Steven K.N. Wilkinson
Steven Wilkinson is Managing Partner of the value-based investment boutique Buchanan in Munich. Buchanan develops and manages innovative entrepreneurial investment concepts in a variety of areas such as Venture Capital, Real Estate, Energy, Infrastructure and Agricultural Commodities and operates as a passionate mediator between entrepreneurs and investors. As a recognised expert in asset management and business financing, Steven Wilkinson has advised numerous medium-sized firms as well as developing a number of alternative asset management businesses over the last 13 years. Before this, the British national worked for Merrill Lynch International Bank and Hartz, Regehr & Partner and gained extensive international experience. In addition, Steven Wilkinson is an active director of a number of companies: among others as Chairman of the Board of Corona Equity Partners and member of the Advisory Board of FIO Partners AG. Steven Wilkinson is a Chair of the Commission for Standards and Ethics within Financial Experts Association e.V. and an Advisory Board member in the German chapter of the world's largest support network for social entrepreneurs, Ashoka.
Paul Spiegelman
Paul Spiegelman is founder and chief executive officer of The Beryl Companies, which includes: Beryl, a technology-focused patient experience company dedicated to improving relationships between health care providers and consumers; The Beryl Institute, a research and educational entity that publishes information about improving the patient experience and how that activity links to better financial outcomes for health care providers; The Circle, a training company that helps businesses enhance employee engagement and develop more positive workplace cultures; and The Small Giants Community, a global organization that brings together leaders who are focused on values-based business principles.
Paul is leading a unique, people-centric culture that has remarkably high employee and customer retention rates. Beryl has won “best place to work” awards, including being voted the #2 Best Medium Sized Company to Work for in America. Recently, Spiegelman was honored with the Ernst & Young 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Paul is a sought-after speaker and author on executive leadership, entrepreneurship, corporate culture, customer relationships and employee engagement. His views have been published in Entrepreneur, The Dallas Morning News, Inc., Healthcare Financial Management, Leadership Excellence and many other noteworthy publications, as well as in hisfirst book Why is Everyone Smiling? The Secret Behind Passion, Productivity and Profit. His next book, written by Beryl employees, is called Smile Guide: Employee Perspectives on Culture, Loyalty and Profit.
Paul practiced law for two years prior to starting Beryl. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California Los Angeles and a law degree from Southwestern University in Los Angeles. He mentors MBA students at Texas Christian University and Southern Methodist University, as well as nurse executives in the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows Program. He also is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and on the board of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of North Texas.
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