Inforum presents four women bringing "Extreme Change" in vital areas

In 2010 and beyond, business as usual won’t cut it. Surviving and thriving is all about bringing on the change. So, who’s bringing it? Inforum has the answer at its opening event for its 2010-11 program year, to be held, starting at 11:30 a.m., Friday, Sept. 17 at MotorCity Casino Hotel in Detroit.

The event, called “Extreme Change: Four Women, Four Sectors, Total Transformation," will feature four women leaders in very different fields. Each has been quietly, but fearlessly, leading transformations that could change the evolution of southeast Michigan’s economy. In the fields of health care, media, law and philanthropy, these leaders are tearing down old expectations, altering the embedded cultures of their organizations and building something better prepared to succeed in the world as it is now.

The speakers will be:

• Susie Ellwood: Newspapers must embrace new technologies to meet changing reader and advertiser needs. Ellwood, CEO of Detroit Media Partnership, is facing the challenge head-on. She is leading DMP – which runs the business operations of The Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press and a growing array of electronic information products – to be more nimble and creative than ever before. Ellwood will share how she is transforming Michigan’s most respected and widely used news and information sources in a rapidly changing environment.
• Carol Goss: Everybody says education reform in metro Detroit should be a top priority. Goss, president and CEO of The Skillman Foundation, is doing a lot to make it happen. Through its Good Schools program and other initiatives, Skillman is identifying, supporting and creating high-quality schools – public or charter – ones in which the majority of students graduate, attend college, and lead prosperous lives. Goss will talk about what’s worked, what hasn’t and the challenges involved in working with passionate stakeholders who have very different solutions in mind.
• Barbara L. McQuade: Left, right or center, everyone agrees that political corruption and misbehavior should never be tolerated. U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan McQuade has made it clear that she will hold public officials accountable. She also is leading a thorough reorganization of the local U.S. Attorney’s Office. McQuade will discuss her priorities for the region, her philosophy of law enforcement and her goals for her office, which oversees 34 counties in the eastern half of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.
• Mary Zuckerman: As chief operating officer of the Detroit Medical Center, Zuckerman is helping to lead one of the region’s biggest health care systems into the for-profit world. Being successful will require more than just a change in ownership and a huge capital investment. The new DMC will have to think differently about itself and its place in the marketplace. Zuckerman will tell how she is working to transform the culture of a huge, vitally important regional asset.

“These are women you might not know much about – yet – but they are changing the world,” said Terry Barclay, president and CEO of Inforum. “Each has tackled game-changing challenges in their industry or organization and led the kind of radical innovation necessary to reposition for a successful future.”

Moderating the September 17 event will be Emmy Award-winning journalist Carol Cain. Cain writes a business and politics column for the Detroit Free Press, and is the host of two television programs: “Michigan Matters," 11 a.m. Saturdays on WWJ-TV CBS Detroit, and "Street Beat" 11:30 a.m. Sundays on CW50 (WKBD-TV).She is also anchoring WWJ-TV’s “Eye On The Future” effort with prime time TV specials.

Register now at InforumMichigan.org.