Welcome to our Speaker Series! We have dedicated several blogs to informing you about our administrative assistant conference speaker line-up. With each message we'll introduce a speaker and share with you a little bit about them as well as why we chose them to be a presenter at the 19th Annual Conference for Administrative Excellence.

Annette Brown, Learning & Business Consultant

Annette Brown is a learning and business consultant with thirty years’ proven experience. She started her career as a co-op business student for a Division of General Motors and then worked in administrative and education roles for world renowned ophthalmologists at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. When her husband was transferred to the Cincinnati area, Annette began working as the Assistant to the Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of Luxottica, the parent company of well-known organizations LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sunglass Hut, Sears Optical and Target Optical, EyeMed and OneSight/Gift of Sight. She was promoted into project management and development specialist roles in the Leadership Development and Talent Management team, where she was responsible for curriculum and development for managers and administrative professionals in the Luxottica North American Headquarters.

After twenty-four years with Luxottica, Annette left to form her own consulting firm, Moving Forward Faster Business Solutions, LLC, where she enjoys providing learning solutions and designing and facilitating think-tanks to help leaders tap into and enable their greatest assets—their people! She believes in identifying a higher purpose to her work, and in her careers across the Eye industry, it was “helping the world see.” As a consultant, she continues to identify with a higher purpose… she still helps the world see—see pathways to possibilities™.

Annette holds a business degree from the University of Cincinnati and is certified as a Star Achievement Series® Master Trainer for Levels I & II, and a certified trainer for the Star Manager® Program. She is also certified in Compression Planning®, FranklinCovey’s Writing Advantage®, Situational Leadership® and The Advantage Way Learning Impact Processes®. Annette is a member of the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD). Annette led Luxottica’s LEAP team to two Office Dynamics Awards for Office Teams, and her work in Luxottica’s Talent Management Team has been recognized with national and international awards, including the ASTD BEST Award, Bersin Learning Leaders Award and the NetGlobal Illuminati Award for Learning Program Marketing.

Annette will be presenting the concurrent session:

The Leadership Challenge:

Bold Practices of Exemplary Leaders

Leadership is a behavior, not a title! Regardless of our title, we are all called to be leaders within our circle of influence. Based on the popular book, The Leadership Challenge, by Kouzes and Posner, we’ll explore five bold practices exemplary leaders consistently demonstrate, and we’ll consider ways to build them into our daily routines.

In this session, you will:

• Consider a new way of defining and looking at leadership
• Explore your own circle of influence and identify opportunities to expand it
• Be introduced to The Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders®
• Reflect on ways to apply The Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders within your circle of influence