Former IBM vice president, Michael Markovits, gives free public lecture on global leadership

UAA's Polaris Lecture Series will host Michael Markovits for a free public lecture on global leadership on Tuesday, Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m. in UAA's Fine Arts Building, Room 150. Markovits, who recently retired as vice president for IBM, will address issues such as how to be an effective leader; how to lead during tough economic times and how to lead diverse teams. Markovits will share his perspective on global leadership and will discuss the characteristics that will most distinguish global leaders into the future.

As IBM's vice president of business and technical leadership, Markovits was responsible for succession planning, leadership development (including management and executive development), technical and business leadership pipeline management and executive recruiting. Before coming to IBM, Markovits was at General Electric (GE) for 19 years. In his most recent role, he was at GE Crotonville, responsible for GE's leadership and executive education activities. Prior to that, he led GE Capital's Center for Learning and Organizational Excellence where he was responsible for training, education and change management globally for GE Capital. Mike has a B.A. from Oberlin College, a master's in education from Harvard, and an M.B.A. from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

In addition to the free public lecture, Markovits will be on campus for a week-long fellowship to meet with students and faculty as part of the Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows program, which is administered by the Council of Independent Colleges in Washington, D.C. This program brings prominent artists, diplomats, journalists, business leaders and other nonacademic professionals to campuses across the United States for a week-long residential program of classes, seminars, workshops, lectures and informal discussions. For 35 years, the Visiting Fellows have introduced students and faculty members at liberal arts colleges to a wide range of perspectives on life, society, community and achievement. The Visiting Fellows program, available to all four-year colleges and universities, has placed more than 3,500 Fellows at more than 250 public and private colleges, many of which are in remote locations.

Michael Markovits's visit is sponsored by the Executive in Residence Philanthropic Fund and UAA.