Brook Manville (bmanville@saba.com) is the chief learning officer and customer evangelist at SABA Corp., a Redwood Shores, California-based company that provides companies around the world with e-learning infrastructures. Before joining SABA, he was a partner at McKinsey & Co.'s organization practice.

Steve McCallion (steve_mccallion@ziba.com) is director of research and design planning at Ziba Design, a design strategy and development firm in Portland, Oregon. Before joining Ziba, he was a designer, architect, and entrepreneur.

Chris Meyer (chris.meyer@ey.com) is a partner at Ernst & Young, as well as director of the company's Center for Business Innovation. He and Stan Davis coauthored "BLUR: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy" (Perseus Books, 1999).

Blake Nordstrom (blake@nordstrom.com) is co-president of Nordstrom stores. He's got retail management in his blood: He represents the fourth generation of his family to operate the Seattle-based department-store chain.

Steve Pontell (pontell@netcom.com) is founder and president of the La Jolla Institute, located in Ontario, California, a nonprofit think tank that focuses on pioneering new communities.

Mary Lou Quinlan (mquinlan@macmanus.com) is vice chairman of the MacManus Group and founder of Just Ask a Woman , a New York City-based marketing firm for companies that are targeting female customers, as well as a resource for female professionals.

Steve Rosenbaum (steve@bnntv.com) is president and CEO of BNNtv.com, a New York City-based company that challenges the way media is created, delivered, and consumed through "participatory storytelling." His team's work can be seen on A&E, CBS, CNN, CourtTV, the History Channel, and MTV.

Bill Strickland (wstricklandjr@mcg-btc.org) is president and CEO of both the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, an arts-education program that he founded in 1968 for at-risk high-school students, and the Bidwell Training Center, a vocational school for adults, in Pittsburgh.

Jeff Taylor (jtaylor@monster.com) is founder and CEO of Monster.com, the Web's leading career hub, and CEO of TMP Interactive, a division of TMP Worldwide, Monster.com's parent company.

Phil Terry (pterry@creativegood.com) is the CEO of Creative Good, a New York City-based consulting firm that specializes in Internet strategy. Previously, he was a technology strategist at Moody's Investor Service, where he helped to launch one of Wall Street's first Web sites.

Chris Turner (cturner@corporateoutlaw.com), a writer and consultant, partners with organizations to create environments that support creative thinking, learning, innovation, fun, and meaning. Before that, she spent 16 years at Xerox Business Services. In addition, she's author of "All Hat and No Cattle: Shaking Up the System and Making a Difference at Work" (Perseus Books, 1999).

Barbara Waugh (barbara_waugh@hp.com) is the worldwide change manager at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, in Palo Alto, California. Her long career as a change agent goes back to the 1960s, when she was involved in the Civil Rights and Women's Rights movements.

Bill Weiss (wcweiss@promar.com) is chairman and CEO of the Promar Group LLC, a strategic-consulting and investment firm based in Cary, North Carolina. He is also a thought leader, future strategist, and technology analyst.

Can Hope Scale Up?

Bill Strickland

A very quick version of my story is this: I am -- or at least I was -- a ceramic artist. I got into ceramics when I was a hostile kid in a predominantly black public school during the time of the riots. This artist-teacher, a white guy named Frank Ross, taught at my school. One day, I was walking down the hall, and I saw a great big plaque that he'd made. I walked into his art room and asked him what it was. He said, "It's called ceramics." I'd never in my life seen anything like Mr. Ross's plaque. So I said, "I want to learn how to do that." He told me that if my homeroom teacher gave me written permission, I could come back for some lessons.

For the next two years, I studied Shakespeare with my English teacher, and I made pots with Mr. Ross. I gave my pots to my other teachers, and they gave me passing grades. As graduation approached, Mr. Ross took me to the University of Pittsburgh to apply for admission. He told me that he didn't want it on his conscience that he didn't give me every possible opportunity for success. Today, I'm a trustee of the University of Pittsburgh. And my message is a simple one: Don't give up on poor kids just because they don't fit a certain profile, or because they look a certain way -- you never know where they might end up.