Who better to help guide a major aspect of Fisher’s commitment to understanding leadership than a group of established and successful leaders? That’s the purpose behind the creation of the Fisher Leadership Initiative’s (FLI) Corporate Advisory Council (CAC).

“The CAC is working to understand how the business community views the FLI and the many ways it is impacting leadership development beyond campus,” said Joseph A. Alutto, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of management and human resources and a founding member of the CAC. “We’d like to get feedback from firms about whether the programs we are designing are valuable and attractive, while still meeting their needs in this rapidly changing environment. We're offering programming that has value not just in Columbus, but literally around the world.”

That programming is designed to shape business practices, help firms become more resilient and effective while also and increasing employee satisfaction — motivations that inspired Alutto’s desire serve on the CAC.

“I've always been involved in leadership development, from a research perspective and in terms of teaching the basics of leadership through a variety of different groups, including students and senior executives,” said Alutto, who served as dean of Fisher College of Business for 16 years before becoming executive vice president and provost, and two-time interim president of The Ohio State University.

Another founding member of the Council is Will Shepherd, chair of the CAC and director of talent and organizational effectiveness at The Wendy's Company. Shepherd believes that while business is always changing, there is a constant need for effective leaders who can provide direction, create progress, build relationships, and serve as role models for others.

“In addition to leadership development programming for Fisher students and available tools like its BUILD leadership assessment, workshops, and its Lead Read Today leadership blog, the FLI provides evidence-based research that can help organizations foster the leaders who will ultimately drive business change, as well as important social change,” Shepherd said. “Most in the business community are focused on improving their diversity, equity and inclusion programming and the representation of diverse employees among their organizations. The FLI uses a science-based approach to determine how leaders can be most effective, which in part means minimizing their unconscious biases and filters prevent all employees from reaching their full potential.”

Other members selected to serve on the CAC include:

• Vinita Clements, executive vice president and chief human resources officer at Nationwide Financial Services
• Veronica Knuth, vice president, human resources at CoverMyMeds
• Clare Miller, chief talent officer at Huntington National Bank
• Sarah Pohmer, senior vice president and head of HR business bank at JPMorgan Chase
• Ola Snow, chief human resources officer at Cardinal Health
• Michelle Wood, director of talent management at AEP

Tim Judge, executive director of the FLI, said the CAC members are the “who’s who” of the local leadership community.

“They are responsible for leadership development within their organizations, and I can’t think of a better set of people to advise us on this,” Judge said. “They know Columbus, they lead nationally prominent organizations, they have an affinity for Ohio State and they have deep investment in what their organizations have done in this area.”