From 3:00 - 4:00 participate in an informal discussion centered around different components of leadership with John Brackney, President and CEO of the Chamber, Mark Hopkins, Board President of the Listen Foundation, and Noah, Zach and Matthew, three hearing impaired youth graduates from the foundation.

To learn more about Mark Hopkins, read his introduction below.

For a list and link to past speakers click this Link: Presidents Leadership Forum - Past Speakers

No later than 4:15 we'll transition into social business relationship-building and raise a glass of wine or beer at the Chamber Unplugged - Just plain fun with great business people.... Please sign up for the "Unplugged" separately by clicking this link: Chamber Unplugged hosted by Hollis Moore of Moore From Life and Charlie Fields of Woodmen Landscape Design.

Mark Hopkins
Board President, The Listen Foundation

I was born in London, England in 1955. I graduated a college in south Wales with a degree in philosophy, and wanted to become a musician (don't we all?!). Instead I became a programmer at British Airways, working on their reservations and fares systems. That led to an offer from United Airlines in Denver, and 3 weeks before I was due to leave I met my future wife, Janie. I left for Denver in 1984, and she followed a few months later (in between we were married - over the phone!).

Janie had an 18 month old daughter, Allison, who was deaf. When she and her mother got to Denver, we discovered Hear at Home, whose founder ran the program which taught deaf kids to listen and talk. Allison was one of the first children to be fitted with a cochlear implant and was in the program for 2 years before we sent her to board at a school in St Louis - at the tender age of 5! Sadly, Janie passed away 10 years ago, Allison is now 24 studying at Mesa State, United span off its reservations programming to what is now Travelport, and I remarried and have another daughter, now a tender seven years old.

In 1998 I joined the board of Hear at Home, and in 2000, as board president, decided to seek a merge with the Listen Foundation, since our missions coincided. That mission is provide therapy services that will train deaf children to listen and talk, releasing their full potential to learn in regular classrooms, and socialize with all their peers, without sign language. I have been its board president of Listen since 2004. Through the Mothers and More website, I found Pat Greenway, who as its lively and passionate executive director has steered Listen to great success these past four years. Listen remains the only organization is our community advocating the auditory-verbal method of unleashing the potential of deaf children to listen and speak.