Baylor Hosts 13th Annual Willow Creek World Leadership Summit

Media contact: Denise Corley
Baylor University Marketing and Communications
(254) 710-6274 or Denise_Corley@baylor.edu

by Lauren Venegas, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805

For the fourth consecutive year, Baylor University will serve as the satellite host for The Leadership Summit 2008, an annual global gathering of 100,000 church and business leaders in more than 230 cities worldwide from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7, and Friday, Aug. 8, in Waco Hall on the Baylor campus. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. Thursday and at 8 a.m. Friday.

The Leadership Summit, which originates from Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., will be beamed live via satellite to more than 100 locations in North America and will be videocast to more than 100 cities worldwide in the fall.

Speakers at The Leadership Summit will present motivation and innovative principles on topics that are applicable in the boardroom, church and ministry settings including leadership challenges, team building, implementing strategy and conducting leadership through social justice and compassion. Speakers include:

? Brad Anderson - CEO of Best Buy and director of the Best Buy Childrens Foundation and the national Junior Achievement organization
? Chuck Colson - former legal counsel to President Richard Nixon and founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries
? Bill Hybels - international leadership expert, presidential counselor, founder and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., rated the "Most Influential Church" in the U.S. in 2007 by The Church Report; author of Courageous Leadership and Axiom: The Language of Leadership
? Craig Groeschel - senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv, one of the country's first multi-campus churches and recently rated as the Most Innovative Church in the U.S. by Outreach Magazine
? Bill George - Harvard Business School professor and former CEO of Medtronic, the world's leading medical technology company; author of the best-selling books True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership and Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value
? Wendy Kopp - founder and CEO of Teach for America, and recently named in Time magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world
? Catherine Rohr - CEO and founder of the nonprofit Prison Entrepreneurship Program, a one-of-a-kind program providing training, mentoring, and support to prison inmates resulting in a 98 percent employment rate and the launching of 40 entrepreneurial businesses
? Gary Haugen - founder and CEO of International Justice Mission (IJM), an international agency that rescues victims of violence, sexual exploitation, slavery and oppression worldwide, that has been featured on "Dateline NBC" and "The Oprah Winfrey Show"

Now in its 13th year, The Summit's principles of dynamic leadership have exceeded church walls as companies now routinely send teams to The Summit and use it as one of their core annual training events. The event assembles a mix of church, business and social sector leaders.

For more information on the national Willow Creek Association and The Leadership Summit 2008, contact Paul Braoudakis at (224) 512-1362. For local information, contact Denise Corley at (254) 710-6274 or Denise_Corley@baylor.edu.