Frank Helle, CEO of Axian, Inc., will lead an interactive discussion that will help entrepreneurs gain some insightful perspectives on Boards of Directors. Come share your challenges, observations and successes with other CEOs of emerging businesses. The group will discuss strategies for selecting, structuring and making your board more effective. You will also receive a high-level recap of the discussion from Frank.

Open only to CEOs or Presidents of currently operating companies that have employees. Box lunch will be served. This program is limited to 12 participants, and is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Speaker: Frank Helle, Axian, Inc. - www.axian.com

Frank Helle is CEO of Axian, Inc., a 20-year old privately-held web-services company creating collaboration portals and business intelligence (software & data). Prior to 2002 he was a senior global manager at Monsanto Company. During that career he lived in Brussels Belgium for 5 years managing manufacturing, engineering, and supply chain for Europe, Middle East, and Africa. He then lived in Singapore for 5 years as Asia-Pacific Managing Director for 3 Monsanto Divisions.

Frank's leadership helps organizations realize more of their full potential, and often focuses on turnarounds and turbo-charging growth.

Aside from positioning Axian to be "built to last," Frank mentors and coaches local CXOs to help them compete in the global marketplace and create more jobs in Oregon. Frank is an active Board Director of Oregon's Association for Corporate Growth as Chair Emeritus & Past-President, is an active Board Director of Oregon’s high tech trade association,Tech America, and is an active volunteer with the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network - chairing the CEO Roundtable.

About the Event: Given the current great recession, the standard strategic planning process may not be enough. Many leaders are after superior resources, speed, and a deeper understanding of the underlying forces in the business environment. Those that have these capabilities in their planning are likely in the lead or will emerge leaders.

What is the new normal? Join a panel of directors and strategists as they discuss the following:

• Today’s strategic environment
• The role of the board in strategic planning today
• Quarterly vs. annual planning cycles
• Capability logic (resources)
• Guerrilla logic (speed)
• Complexity logic (business climate)
• Aligning the entire organization to the strategic plan
• Recent best practices

Panelists: - L.B. Day, President, LB Day and Company, Inc. , current board member, Microchip Technology and Lynguent Technology L. B. Day and Company, Inc. is a strategic planning and organization design consulting firm. Mr. Day’s specialty areas include strategic planning, executive development, and organization design.

• Rick Wills, former CEO & Chairman, Tektronix, Inc., current board member, FEI Company Mr. Wills joined Tektronix in 1979 and has held a variety of positions during his tenure. In January 2008, after eight successful years leading the company, Mr. Wills was named Chairman of Tektronix. Mr. Wills transitioned from day-to-day operations to a consulting role, providing strategic guidance to senior management of Tektronix and the Danaher Test and Measurement platform until June 2008.

• Scott Grout, President and Chief Executive Officer, RadiSys Corporation Scott joined RadiSys in 2002. Prior to joining RadiSys, Scott was President and Chief Executive Officer of Chorum Technologies, Inc., a privately held company based in Richardson Texas, where he was responsible for the company's expansion efforts including initiatives for accelerating business development, technology research, product manufacturing and talent recruitment (more).

Moderator: - Scott Demorest, Principal and co-founder of ACME Business Consulting, LLC ACME is a Portland based management consultancy. Their core competency is managing the execution of the elements within a corporations strategic plan.

Event Details: When: September 23, 2010 Time: 7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Where: The Heathman Hotel, Portland, OR Cost: $100 TechAmerica members, $150 nonmember

Register: (503) 624-5715 or at http://www.techamerica.org/september2010bod

Thank you sponsors: The Brentwood Group, KPMG LLP, Stoel Rives LLP