Conference Program
| 8:00 a.m. | Registration & Breakfast | |
| 8:30 a.m. | Words of Welcome | H. Fenwick Huss Dean J. Mack Robinson College of Business |
| 8:35 a.m. | Evaluating Your Firm's Brand Value Index » Ms. See will go over the importance of knowing the value of your company's brand and how this can hit your bottom line. She will outline ways to evaluate and improve it. |
Karen See Chief Executive Officer Abovo Group |
| 9:00 a.m. | Globalization: A Threat to the U.S. Labor Market? » Globalization in general and the large trade deficit in particular have been blamed for job losses in the U.S. I take a closer look at labor market data. Contrary to common belief, trade deficits spur record employment growth. Moreover, manufacturing job losses around the world are mostly a result of higher productivity rather than foreign competition. |
Karsten Jeske Economist Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta |
| 9:25 a.m. | Competing in the Luxury Auto Market in the US and Southeast » Dr. Lindheim will discuss Porsche's performance within the US auto market, touching on how the Southeast and Atlanta compare to other markets. He will also describe the strategies that Porsche is using to compete in today's automotive environment. |
Wolfgang Lindheim EVP & CFO Porsche Cars North America |
| 9:50 a.m. | Understanding the Dynamics of the Atlanta Region » Mr. Alexander will explain how the historical patterns of growth are yielding to a more dynamic and diverse pattern of regional growth which will have broad ramifications for regional prosperity. |
Mike Alexander Chief of Research Atlanta Regional Commission |
| 9:50 a.m. | Q & A | |
| 10:05 a.m. | Refreshments Break | |
| 10:30 a.m. | Forecast of the Nation, State and Region | Rajeev Dhawan Director Economic Forecasting Center J. Mack Robinson College of Business Georgia State University |
| 11:40 a.m. | Q & A Conclusion | |
| 11:50 a.m. | Light lunch & Networking |
Cancellation Policy: To cancel your registration and be eligible for a refund, call the Economic Forecasting Center at 404-413-7260 before 4pm the day before the conference. A stop payment of a check does not constitute a formal cancellation. Registrants who do not attend the conference and have not cancelled one day prior to the conference are liable for the entire registration fee but will be mailed conference materials.
Substitution Policy: If an annual subscriber cannot attend the conference, another person from the same company can substitute in the subscriber's place.
Industry Speakers
| Karen See Chief Executive Officer Abovo Group  |
As founder and Chief Executive Officer Abovo Group, Karen See leads the creative strategy team and has helped over 100 companies through the transformation process. Abovo Group provides marketing services to companies in need of business transformation, whether through market expansion, product innovation, corporate development or brand promotion. Before founding Abovo, Karen held Executive Marketing positions at Crescent, KPMG, First Data, Gerber Alley and Xerox. She has been been a Finalist for Woman of the Year in Technology as well as Catalyst magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year. Karen is very active in the Atlanta and high-tech communities and has served on the board of the many distinguished organizations. Karen received her B.S. from Kansas State University. |
| Karsten Jeske Economist Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta  |
Dr. Karsten Jeske is an economist in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta where he helps prepare FOMC briefings for the bank president. He is also a visiting economics professor at Emory University. Dr. Jeske's academic research has analyzed the viability of social security in the long run, the optimal supply of health care and implicit government guarantees in the mortgage finance market. He has published in the Economic Review of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the Journal of Political Economy and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Jeske did his undergraduate degree at the University of Bielefeld in Germany and received an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Minnesota. |
| Wolfgang Lindheim EVP & CFO Porsche Cars North America  |
Dr. Lindheim oversees the Accounting, Finance, Customs, Procurement, Information Technology, and the Porsche Improvement Process functions at Porsche Cars North America. In 1984,Dr. Lindheim was Assistant Professor for Information Technology Management at the Technical University (TU) Graz, Austria. In 1988 he joined the Munich Office of McKinsey & Company as strategy consultant working predominantly on strategic turnaround and profitability improvement initiatives for high-profile German industrial clients. He became Director of Strategy and Business Development at Porsche AG in 1994 and moved to Porsche Cars North America in January 1999. Dr. Lindheim earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering and business administration and his doctorate in management sciences at the TU Graz in Austria. |
| Mike Alexander Chief of Research Atlanta Regional Commission  |
Mike Alexander joined ARC in 2001 and has been the Chief of the Research Division since 2006. Prior to joining the Atlanta Regional Commission staff, Mike worked in Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia in local government planning specializing in growth and development issues. Mike, originally from South Carolina, attended Auburn University where he received a dual masters degree in Public Administration and Community Planning. As Chief of the Research Division, Mr. Alexander manages the annual development of population and employment estimates for the ARC planning area. In addition, he develops long-range growth forecasts for the region and manages ARC's Geographic Information Systems efforts. Mike has been worked on numerous planning efforts for the ARC including the ARC's latest planning process called Envision6 which began in 2005. |
