Rudy Giuliani, Andy Stanley, others to headline LEADERCAST 2015
June 12, 2015
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
The Columbia Rotary Club will host LEADERCAST 2015 at the Darla Moore School of Business, Thursday, June 18.
Leadercast 2015 – a day-long leadership-building seminar – will feature a slate of nationally acclaimed leaders including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Pastor Andy Stanley (author and founder of Atlanta-based North Point Ministries), U.S. Navy SEAL Commander Rorke Denver (New York Times bestselling author), and Bill McDermott (CEO of SAP, a multinational software corporation) among others.
With this year’s theme and billing – “The Brave Ones” – Leadercast 2015’s goal is to inspire and challenge “leaders to focus on the courage necessary to lead.” The event will also serve as “Columbia Rotary’s major fundraiser for the year,” says Columbia Rotary’s President-Elect Mark P. Sullivan, a financial advisor with Wells Fargo.
As of Wednesday this week, nearly 400 tickets had been sold, and net proceeds will be used to provide scholarships for local high school students.
“Columbia Rotary’s scholarship program is an extension of the club’s commitment to building leaders going forward,” says Sullivan. “So this is both an exciting event and an important effort.”
John Johnston, Columbia Rotary’s current president, agrees.
“I personally received a college scholarship from Rotary my freshman year in college,” says Johnston, the chief operating officer of Ed Robinson Cleaners, a former U.S. Army captain and Iraq war veteran. “The sense of accomplishment instilled in a young individual through a scholarship granted by proven professionals is immeasurable. Equally immeasurable is the benefit of a maturing adult being able to tell his or her parents that they have earned a financial gift to assist with higher education.”
Each year, a selection committee chooses the award recipients, awarding two $5,000 college scholarships to area high school students. Those two scholarships – combined with the previously awarded and ongoing annual scholarships – equals approximately $40,000 annually for the Columbia Rotary Club in support of eight college students.
Leadercast 2015 will open its doors at the Darla Moore School of Business, 1014 Greene St., on the USC campus, Thursday at 8:30 a.m. The programming will run through 5:00 p.m.
Founded in 1916, the 300-plus-member Columbia Rotary Club is today the largest Rotary Club in S.C. The transition from Johnston to Sullivan will take place in July.
[For more information visit http://columbiarotaryclub.us/leadercast-2015/]
