Wiley has announced the speakers for its 6th annual The Leadership Challenge Forum (www.leadershipchallengeforum.com) which will be held on Thursday, July 25 and Friday, July 26, 2013 at The Four Seasons Resort in Scottsdale, AZ.  The theme of this year’s conference is “Envisioning the Future to Achieve the Extraordinary.”

The Leadership Challenge Forum, which was named one of the seven “must-consider leadership events” by The Washington Post, has earned a reputation among human resource professionals, training consultants, and chief learning officers for its engaging, intimate, and pragmatic programming. The event showcases the model’s best practices, trends, tools, and insights, which this year will include sessions for professional coaches, trainers, and consultants, drawing leadership development professionals from as far away as Asia, Australia, and Europe. 

The keynote presenters at The Leadership Challenge Forum 2013 (#TLCForum13) will be Alyse Nelson, president and chief executive officer of Vital Voices Global Partnership and author of the book, Vital Voices: The Power of Women Leading Change Around the World, and Steve Uzzell, internationally recognized speaker and top advertising and corporate photographer

In the opening session, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of the seminal work on leadership The Leadership Challenge, the book that is the foundation of the Forum and The Leadership Challenge brand,will present on the second of their The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership: Inspire a Shared Vision, which historically is the lowest scoring of The Practices. In the  interactive, workshop-style presentation Kouzes and Posner will offer the latest data on the current state of Inspire a Shared Vision, share their observations about why this practice scores low, and then engage Forum participants in exploring ways in which all of us can strengthen leaders’ capacities to Envision and Enlist.

The Leadership Challenge 2013 will be two jam-packed days with more interactive experiences than ever before and will fully engage attendees in exploring the changing landscape of leadership development—what that means for one’s own development and practice, and what that means for the legacy we are building together for the next generation of leaders and The Leadership Challenge. For a full program listing you can click here.

The Leadership Challenge Forum 2013 confirmed speaker’s bios:

Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner are coauthors of the award-winning, best-selling book The Leadership Challenge, selected as one of the Top 10 books on leadership of all time (according to The 100 Best Business Books of All Time) and has sold nearly 2 million copies worldwide and spawned an entire franchise of products published by Wiley. The Leadership Challenge is now read in more than twenty languages. Jim and Barry have coauthored more than thirty other leadership books and workbooks and they developed the highly acclaimed Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), a 360-degree questionnaire for assessing leadership behavior, which is one of the most widely used leadership assessment instruments in the world. Among the many honors and awards that Jim and Barry have received are the American Society for Training and Development’s (ASTD) highest award for their Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance. Jim and Barry are frequent conference speakers, and each has conducted leadership development programs for hundreds of organizations, including Apple, Bank of America, Bose, Charles Schwab, Dell Computer, FedEx, Gymboree, HP, IBM, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Merck, Motorola, United Way, Verizon, VISA, and The Walt Disney Company. www.leadershipchallenge.com

Alyse Nelson is president and chief executive officer of Vital Voices Global Partnership. A co-founder of Vital Voices (and author of the book, Vital Voices: The Power of Women Leading Change Around the World), Alyse has worked for the organization for 15 years, serving as vice president and senior director of programs before assuming her current role in 2009. Alyse has worked with women leaders to develop training programs and international forums in over 140 countries and has interviewed more than 200 international leaders, including Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former presidents Mary Robinson and Bill Clinton, as well as Nobel Peace Prize laureates Aung San Suu Kyi, Wangari Maathai, and Muhammad Yunus. Under her leadership, Vital Voices has tripled in size and expanded its global reach to serve a network of over 12,000 women leaders in 144 countries. www.vitalvoices.org

Steve Uzzell is one of the top advertising and corporate photographers in the United States. He started in the photography business 40 years ago as the assistant to the editor of National Geographic and a member of their photographic staff. He loves making images for national and international clients and has garnered worldwide acclaim and won numerous accolades, including ten prestigious Communication Arts awards. As a speaker, his travels are also global – in just the last 12 years he has given his Open Roads Open Minds: An Exploration of Creative Problem Solving presentation to over 400 organizations in 48 United States, 3 provinces of Canada and 5 other countries, including India and China. www.steveuzzell.com

About Wiley 
Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., has been a valued source of information and understanding for more than 200 years, helping people around the world meet their needs and fulfill their aspirations.  Wiley and its acquired companies have published the works of more than 450 Nobel laureates in all categories: Literature, Economics, Physiology/Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Peace. Wiley's core businesses include scientific, technical, medical and scholarly (STMS) journals, encyclopedias, books and online products and services; professional/trade books, subscription products, training materials, online applications and Web sites; and educational materials for undergraduate and graduate students and lifelong learners. Wiley's global headquarters are located in Hoboken, N.J., with operations in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Canada and Australia. The company's Web site can be accessed at www.wiley.com.