Previously, we briefly mentioned (in the Sept. 30 edition of Mendoza Exchange) Executive Education’s recent three-day Growth Leaders Forum with LPL Financial, a retail investment advisory firm and independent broker-dealer based in Charlotte, NC. The program was a great success. The participants even got to run around on the football field. The program illustrates an important point in real terms – the value of collaboration.

When LPL first contacted them, the Stayer team quickly realized the significance of the opportunity not just their department, but the College, University and wider community. They involved faculty members Chris Adkins, Viva Bartkus and Peter Kelly in planning the program. The cross-functional team meeting before the event included 26 people from six different departments. All told, the economic impact of this one conference was estimated at more than $500,000, which doesn’t include any dollars spent at the local restaurants, the bookstore and other area businesses.

There is a larger impact here as well. Programs such as this or our academic conferences are excellent opportunities to introduce people to Notre Dame who have never been here and share with them our commitment to contributing to human flourishing, cooperating with solidarity and competing with excellence. In LPL’s case, the program also was an opportunity to help develop a sense of ethics and social responsibility in some of the top financial advisers in the country, who have the potential for tremendous economic impact.

I’m thankful to the Stayer team, who embody the mission of service to our visitors and our broader community in their programs: Robin Kistler, Sue Callaghan, Cleo Thanos, Ryan Retartha, Pasha Luber, Kalynda Hamilton and Sabrina Brown, as well as Chris Adkins, Viva Bartkus and Peter Kelly.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn