The Poole College of Management is holding the first section of their annual Wells Fargo lecture series, which allows students to connect with CEOs of major corporations, later this month.
The series, which begins September 14 and has been happening three times a semester since the mid-90s, provides students with the unique opportunity of hearing a CEO’s success story and being able to ask questions directly after the lecture.
“The series is for students to get the opportunity to hear an executive level speak and to be interactive with them,” Vicki Burrows, the director of events and alumni relations for the college of management, said.
The idea behind the series, according to Burrows, is to give students direct insight to people who have been successful and to be able to ask questions without feeling intimidated by their success.
“Sometimes we build up an image of these people, but they’re just like us. They have worked their way up and that’s what we want our students to learn from this,” Burrows said.
The CEOs who come to speak are chosen from a list that the college of management has on file and they are not paid to give the lecture. Burrows says that she believes they come in order to be able to do something different.
“Presenters come and do this on their own time. It’s an opportunity to do something a little different, to share their experiences and help students out,” Burrows said.
The first speaker for the lecture series this semester will be Chuck Swoboda , the president and chief executive officer of Cree. Each lecture series has a question and answer period at the end of the session for students to ask about anything they might be interested in.
“Seeing CEOs speak like this makes it attainable for our students. They could be the next CEO,” Burrows said.
Trudi Brown, director of development and external relations for the College of Management, said that the series is beneficial because it gives students a good perspective on real-world job experience.
“The main focus of our college is the provide real world experiences and to have these people come and speak is valuable because students get to hear firsthand about their experiences in the real world. We want our students to have a good perspective and this is a good way to do that,” Brown said.
The series is also meant to give students the opportunity to learn about networking and general interaction in the job market, Burrows said. All students who attend are encouraged to ask questions and be vocal with the speakers.
“Students can get a lot of information and insight from these CEOs. It’s a good learning experience, mostly because students get to ask questions,” Burrows said.
The lecture series is held in the auditorium of Nelson Hall, which has a capacity of 392. Burrows said that she has been pleased with the turnout of students at the lectures in the past but would be happy to see more people attend in the future.
According to Brown, attendance is sometimes related to how well-known the CEO who comes to speak is.
“When students are familiar with the company it provides more interest, although we have had some good student response with how impressed they were with unfamiliar CEOs or companies, so it just depends,” Brown said.
The lecture series is open to all students who are interested in attending and no reservation or fees of any kind are required.