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Saturday, November 16, 2019 @10am
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Guest:
Curtis Picard
CAE, President and CEO
Retail Association of Maine
Curtis Picard joined the Retail Association of Maine (formerly the Maine Merchants Association) in November of 2007.
Prior to his current position, Curtis was Vice President of Business Development and International Trade for the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. He was responsible for the chamber’s International Trade Program with offices in Shanghai, China and Taipei, Taiwan. Additionally, he coordinated the annual VT Business and Industry EXPO, the largest Business to Business tradeshow in Northern New England and managed the Vermont Aerospace and Aviation Association (VAAA), a group formed to support the aviation industry in Vermont and an affiliate of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.
Picard serves on the board of directors of the Maine Tourism Association, Topsham Development, Inc., and the Maine Society of Association Executives. He has previously served on the boards of the Council of State Retail Associations, National Retail Federation and InforME. He was appointed by the DECD Commissioner to the Maine Small Business and Entrepreneurship Commission. In 2018, he was honored with the J. Thomas Weyant Award by the National Retail Federation recognizing the state retail association executive of the year.
He graduated from the University of Vermont in 1991 with a B.S. in Business Administration and he received a New York University Certificate in Sports and Event Management in 1993. He is a 2008 graduate of the U.S Chamber’s Institute for Organization Management and earned his Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation in January of 2012.
Picard is a runner who has completed four marathons and a former volunteer firefighter. He is married with one son and lives in Topsham.
Saturday, November 9, 2019 @ 10am
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Guest:
 David McNeff, CEO
Peak Consulting Group
Author
The Work Life Balance Myth
Allow me to introduce Dave McNeff this morning. Some of you may know Dave already but here is a brief review of his activities, since not many of us really know what he does all day…
Turns out, Dave does a number of things in his professional life, all of which have something to do with working with people and their interesting behaviors most days of the week.
His primary focus is spending a great deal of time with Corporate clients and their key executives and their management teams – across a wide number of sectors including Pharma, BioScience, Private Equity, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Technology etc . Most of this work involves focusing on executive talent development with teams looking to improve performances in growth environments.
In addition, he spends time in Conflict Resolution work – primarily in the M&A and International corporate space. The focus here is getting executive teams to get along when they don’t want to after a significant organizational change, which is always a challenging exercise for everyone involved.
Finally, he does Trial Consulting in the Federal Courts, primarily for Patent Litigations in the Pharmaceutical sector. This involves profiling Juries, profiling Judges and Judge Panels and coaching Expert Witnesses for trial. Though, it might sound tedious, it has been said “… you can’t pay for that kind of entertainment…!”
Dave has known GSN through his introduction to us by Peter Blacklow, lo those many years ago, and he has a historical perspective that we think will be helpful as we meet here today.
Saturday, November 2, 2019 @ 10am
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Guest: Lindsay Skilling
CEO
Gifford’s Ice Cream
Lindsay and her husband live in Gray, Maine with their two children; Ava (6 years old) and Jacoby (3 ½ years old). Lindsay is currently the CEO of Gifford’s Dairy, Inc. in Skowhegan, Maine. Lindsay grew up around the family business and spent her summers working in the office throughout high school and college. Lindsay started working fulltime after college graduation in 2006. She started as the assistant to the controller and worked a variety of positions for the family businesses which also included VP of Sales and Marketing.
Lindsay graduated from Bryant University in 2006 with a BS in Businesses Management and minor in Psychology. Upon graduation she joined the family business.
Lindsay has served on the Institute for Family Owned Business Board (IFOB) for the last 9 years. She is currently the Vice Chair of the board. Through this board she has been a part of the Women in Family Business Forum, CEO Central as well as actively involved with the Next Generation Affinity Group. Lindsay currently serves on the Educate Maine Board of Directors. She recently became a Corporator for Skowhegan Savings Bank. Lindsay also served on the Skowhegan Chamber of Commerce Board. Lindsay has and continues to gain insight and leadership experience through serving on these boards.
In Lindsay’s spare time she likes spending time with her family, cross country skiing, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, biking, hiking and running.
Saturday, October 26, 2019 @ 10am
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Guest:
 Steven Borne
Author
Consuming Government
Flywheels, Ideas, and Individual Actions to Better Manage the Government Services You Buy
For most Americans, their largest annual purchase is government services. Yet we are irresponsible consumers!
If we chose to invest comparable time and effort,  we could reap better value at less cost year after year. Furthermore, the United States could enjoy a global economic competitive advantage once our actions led to the most cost effective and efficient government among developed nations.
The keystone of this transformation rests with individual citizens and not elected officials or political parties. Our challenge is to motivate ourselves to initiate a cultural shift toward greater civic responsibility. The secret sauce is to start locally on the smallest levels of government services, then, as our management skills, tools and habits grow, expand upwards to broader layers of government services. Solutions can be driven upwards through communities versus the current stagnation from our oscillating political party control.
The multitude of ideas introduced in this book can serve as a catalyst to align interests, talents and passions of our citizens for this civic culture transformation. The book’s “Flywheel” ideas may come to fruition as described, or evolve in other ways once more and more citizens contribute. What’s most important is that we all choose to actively better manage government services to ensure ever-increasing value at lower costs.
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