John D. Beckett, Chairman, R.W. Beckett Corporation, Ridgeville, OH 
Author, Loving Monday: Succeeding in Business Without Selling Your Soul

The company, www.beckettcorp.com, with its affiliates, currently has sales exceeding $100 million, with some 600 employees, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of residential and commercial heating systems. He has been named the oil heating industry's "man of the year" and Christian Broadcasting Network's "Christian Businessman of the Year."  He was also named manufacturing “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Ernst & Young in 2003. In 1995 he and his company were featured on ABC News with Peter Jennings discussing his commitment to integrating faith in the workplace.  
Beckett is also a co-founder of Advent Industries, a manufacturing company that provides job training for those who are hard to employ. He helped found Intercessors for America, a national prayer organization, and serves as its board chairman.  His first book, Loving Monday: Succeeding in Business Without Selling Your Soul, was published in 1998 by InterVarsity Press.  His second book, Mastering Monday: A Practical Guide to Integrating Faith and Work, was released in July 2006. www.masteringmonday.com  

In His book, Mastering Monday, John writes about Mondays carrying special challenges. For most, Monday is the unwelcome transition from the weekend to the workweek. It is the launching pad for the next five days.  He shares insights from his own personal journey in the workplace, gives Biblical role models for us to emulate in our own workplaces, and then concludes with a focus on five themes where Biblical truths and business realities intersect, giving practical ideas from his own experience and wisdom.  Mastering Monday will help you see your Mondays as the anticipated first day of a rewarding, purpose-filled workweek.

 

Robert Fraser, author, Marketplace Christianity
Director, The Joseph Company & CFO, International House of Prayer, Kansas City, KS

A businessman and entrepreneur, he founded NetSales, Inc. a back-office e-commerce provider for business customers including Xerox, Chase Manhattan Bank and Samsung. He raised $44 million in investment capital and guided the company to an average of 20 percent month-to-month revenue growth over 6 years becoming the Kansas City Metro area's fastest growing company between 1997 and 1999. In 2000, Fraser received the Midwest Region Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Today, Fraser is director of the Joseph Company , a ministry dedicated to restoring a vision for the marketplace. He also serves as Chief Financial Officer at the International House of Prayer, a 24/7 prayer ministry in Kansas City.

In his book, Marketplace Christianity, he asks if you’ve longed to do more for God in "real" ministry? Do you wonder how to fulfill your spiritual calling and lay up heavenly rewards, even though little of your time is devoted to church activities? In this paradigm-shattering book, Fraser writes to the 97 percent of Christians not called to full-time vocational ministry but called by God to the workplace. In practical everyday language, Fraser shares insights from his experience running a 250-employee software company that experienced sustained revival and business success during his tenure as CEO.

 

Linda Searcy, author, Pay Day Principles – Does What I Do Really Matter?
President, Building Better Tomorrows (BBT), Houston, TX

BBT is a company that provides wellness plans and consulting services to the business and government community.  In addition, she is Vice-President of Sales and Estimating for Devolve Corp., a large telecommunications provider giving leadership to the overall direction of the company.   She has 20 years experience in the networking and infrastructure industry and has also been a business owner.   

In Pay Day Principles: Does What I Do Really Matter? Linda Searcy reveals biblically-based principles that will revolutionize your thinking about the workplace. She encourages and inspires readers, solidifying the belief that God is supremely interested in what goes on in your professional life.  You can embrace your profession, your career, and the talents that lie within your grasp and know that your success in the professional world is one of the greatest representations of His power to a world so desperately in need of Him.

 

Jerre Stead, Retired Chairman and CEO, Ingram Micro, Santa Ana, CA
Co-author of, Seize Tomorrow, Start Today: Renew Your Vision, Revitalize Your Organization,  and Stay Ahead of the Future.

Ingram Micro is the world’s largest distributor of technology products and is the largest public company headquartered in Orange County, CA.  The technology distributor currently has a market value of $2.8 billion with revenues of $35 billion last year, and over 15,000 employees worldwide.  Mr. Stead retired as Chairman and CEO of Ingram Micro in May 2000.  When he took Ingram Micro public in 1996, it was the largest technology IPO in history.  Under his four-year leadership, Ingram Micro’s revenues grew from $8 billion to $30 billion.  He is now an active investor in start-ups and has been chairman of two other companies.

 

Ron Wagley,   Transamerica, Chairman, CEO, & President, retired

Ron recently retired from Transamerica after some forty years in the corporate trenches and recently retiring as head of one of the nation’s largest financial services firms.  Transamerica is a nationally recognized and highly ranked financial services and insurance corporation. The Transamerica companies are dedicated to the level of service they originated over  100 years ago-providing individuals, families, and businesses with life insurance and investment products designed to help build, protect, and preserve hard-earned assets.  From its beginnings as a small California life insurance company, TOLIC now has $760 billion of insurance in force (as of Jan. 1, 2006). The company continues its tradition of innovation and commitment with its expansion into new domestic and Pacific Rim markets. Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Company is a member of the AEGON Group, a multinational insurance organization headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands. The AEGON Group is one of the world’s leading life insurance and financial services organizations.

Wagley is active in The CEO Forum, an organization of Christian CEOs from many of our nation’s largest and well-known businesses.   He is active in various church ministries, Bible study discipleship groups, and direct a foundation for helping abused women and children.  Ron speaks regularly to university students and business groups on leadership lessons learned from over forty years of corporate life.  


Topic: “A Corporate Christian: An Oxymoron?”
Mr. Wagley will share his spiritual journey while meeting the ever-present challenges in a fast-paced and secular corporate world so often contradictory to living out one’s Christian faith.  Ron shares his experiences of moving from “churchianity” to bringing his growing faith into the corporate culture.  His journey deals with the difficulty and success in applying Biblical principles to such real-life workplace issues such as ambition and advancement, career direction, compensation, office politics, morality, quality of work, ethics, and many other topics common to every business person.