A brilliant bipartisan statesman respected for his adroit leadership in both the private and public sectors, Michael Leavitt deftly illuminates the challenges and solutions of today’s most pressing issues.   Having served as Secretary of Health and Human Services, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, a three-term governor of Utah and chief executive officer of the nation’s second largest, privately-held insurance firm, Leavitt’s distinguished career earned him the reputation as a skilled coalition-builder, able to form unprecedented partnerships with diverse stakeholders to achieve extraordinary results.

Currently, Leavitt is the founder and Chairman of Leavitt Partners, a strategic advisory firm specializing in the areas of health and food safety that offers new solutions for solving the health care crisis, advocating fiscal responsibility and higher standards for quality care.  Renowned for his strategic reasoning, incisive intellect and profound acuity, Michael Leavitt captivates audiences with his mastery of global health, commerce and policy issues and translates them into powerful, pragmatic perspectives in a compelling, straight-forward style.

SPEAKER TOPICS
ABOUT The Honorable Michael O. Leavitt   (+/-)

Savvy Business Leader

Mike Leavitt devoted the first chapter of his career to building successful businesses where he learned to identify comparative advantage and earn a profit. He specialized in risk management and served as the chief executive of The Leavitt Group, a family-led insurance business that is now the nation’s second largest, privately held insurance brokerage in the country.

Dedicated to the Greater Good

In 1993, Leavitt was elected governor of Utah, serving three consecutive terms and gaining national prominence as an innovative problem-solver who put the best interests of the state above politics. In 2003, he joined the Cabinet of President George W. Bush, serving in two positions: first as Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and then as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Effective Health Care Innovator and Reformer

At HHS, Leavitt administered a $750 billion budget — nearly 25 percent of the entire federal budget — and 67,000 employees.  During his tenure, he led the implementation of the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program, which required the design, systematization and implementation of a plan to provide 43 million seniors with a new prescription drug benefit. By the end of the first year, enrollments exceeded projections, prices were lower than projected and seniors expressed high levels of satisfaction.

A Mission to Improve Living Conditions for All Worldwide

As founder and Chairman of Leavitt Partners, Leavitt brings together partners from across governments and global industry that share his vision and passion for making a difference.  Adept at navigating deep complexity and assembling skilled teams to tackle tough problems, Leavitt is dedicated to resolving issues with deep and far-reaching implications for the human condition in the U.S. and around the world.

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SPEAKER TOPIC DESCRIPTIONS    (+/-)

The Impact of the 2010 Elections on Health Care Reform

As the 2010 election approaches, health reform continues to be an important topic with voters, and certain scenarios regarding the future congressional makeup could have a material impact on the timing and nature of the implementation of the recently passed health reform legislation and its related efforts.

As former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary and a current strategic advisor on health issues to both the private and public sector, Governor Mike Leavitt is uniquely qualified to identify and analyze provisions within the new health reform law that are subject to potential disruption.  In this dynamic and illuminating presentation, Governor Leavitt examines and interprets six substantive areas of health reform that could be significantly affected by the mid-term elections including: individual mandates, 
employer penalties, premium subsidies, Medicaid expansion, medical loss ratio, and Medicare funding cuts.

Within each area, Governor Leavitt offers penetrating insight and perspective on the likelihood of change, the type of disruption – stall, modify or repeal – and its ultimate impact on organizations, individuals and the nation as a whole.

Value Nets: The Gold Standard of Collaboration

The formula for success is undergoing a sea change.  In our increasingly interconnected world, the biggest or best-managed organizations don’t always win.  Instead, it’s the best-networked groups that triumph—that move faster and more innovatively than stand-alone competitors toward ambitious objectives.  Individual excellence is being replaced by collaborative excellence.

Unfortunately, few know how to collaborate in a high performance way.   Typically, collaboration is viewed as simply having a cooperative attitude.  In the world of low-level tasks, this perspective is fine.  However, if the stakes are high, the partners are diverse and success requires a network among unnatural collaborators, a more sophisticated approach is required.

A savvy negotiator and skilled consensus-builder, Governor Leavitt will inspire and teach audiences to build and join high performance collaborative enterprises he terms “Value Nets.”  This engaging, invaluable discussion centers on the elements required in constructing productive Value Nets and how to create, use and leverage them for business and personal success.

Health Care: Evolution or Revolution?

Though there is much to be proud of in American health care, our society is increasingly recognizing an alarming lack of organization and alignment that pervades our health care infrastructure and delivery. Our health care “system” isn’t really a system at all. Information doesn’t move with patients, quality and cost information is far from transparent, and stakeholder incentives often run contrary to achieving real value. It is not unreasonable to categorize this dysfunction and its accompanying cost escalation as the most serious economic threat facing our nation in the coming decade.

In this compelling presentation, Governor Leavitt identifies for audiences the core themes, structural shifts and evolving models that characterize the changing marketplace.

Step-by-Step: Protecting the U.S. Food Supply Throughout the Provider Chain

Governor Leavitt provides audiences a holistic approach to addressing modern day food safety and food defense challenges. Regardless of where organizations operate in the food supply chain, they are vulnerable to factors that are difficult to, and often beyond, control. Recent outbreaks and recalls have illustrated the fragility and vulnerability of brands and even entire businesses. Governor Leavitt urges organizations to recognize that as times have changed, so must the food and related industries if they are to stay ahead and alive. Governor Leavitt effectively addresses food safety and food defense problems wherever they may exist in the supply process.

Import Safety: The Most Urgent Threat You Don’t Know About

The United States has one of the safest food supplies and among the highest standards of consumer protection in the world. However, the rapid growth in the volume of exports, as well as the number of importers and exporting countries, present challenges that require urgent attention.

Americans want to enjoy fresh produce year-round, wear low-cost clothing, drive foreign-made cars, use electronic products designed and built off our shores, purchase affordable furniture and otherwise participate in the bounties of a global economy. This is the value of global trade. The challenges we face are the result of a global market beginning to mature.

Just as the volume of trade has changed, so must the strategies to regulate safety. Simply scaling up our current inspection strategy will not work. We need to develop new tools and strategies equal to the new challenges we face.

With an in-depth knowledge of international and domestic regulatory processes and first-hand experience in dealing with unsafe imported goods, Governor Leavitt provides audiences strategic counsel regarding the complexities and on-going changes related to imported foods and medical products, including pending legislation, product tracking and regulatory expertise.

Global Health and Diplomacy

The language of health is heard by the heart. The richest and poorest of us are bound together by the uncertainty of our mortality, the health conditions of those we love and, in some cases, the desperation of our pain. Said another way, global health is the common thread that binds all of humanity together. If we succeed in global health, we increase our chances of succeeding globally.

In geopolitics, there is a constant struggle to win the hearts of the people. In that battle, actions speak louder than words. On the Richter scale of deeds, health makes the needle within a person’s heart move more than anything else. We must invest in and succeed in global health diplomacy as a means to improve international relations and conditions in the world.

America needs to embrace health diplomacy and craft a unified policy around this important issue.  In this enlightening presentation, Governor Leavitt helps audiences understand how global cooperation and collaboration around the issue of health can lead to improved economic, security and overall diplomatic relations.

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