Photo Album

We met:

Thanks to Karie Willyerd's imagination - and the support of her assistant, Sabreana Beard - we met outside the usual corporate setting.

The Mirassou Champagne Cellars were very informal, in keeping with STEP's tradition of kitchen-table informality.

Our meeting room featured the huge ends (versus big butts) of old oak casks as part of the decor.

Karie led off the presentations with a description of Solectron's Leadership Talent Initiatives - framed by the Leadership Talent Model on this slide.

Wayne Hays (pictured), Judy Issokson, and I chimed in to describe portions of the initiative we supported. Other participants offered relevant parallel experiences to make this a wide ranging discussion.

Clockwise from the center front are Mastercard's Susan Burke, Sempra Energy's Phyllis Huckabee, HP's Judy Allen, alumna Judy Issokson, FreddieMac's Pat Golden, The Scooter Store's Mike Dickinson (formerly of USAA), Heinz's Karen Clarke, and Bank of Montreal's Russ Sharp.

Mike Dickinson and Karen Clarke.

Pat Golden and Mike Dickinson.

Break time and cell phones at the ready.

Our guest speaker was VitalSmarts' Kerry Patterson, primary author of the NY Times best seller "Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes are High."

Fascinating stuff!

We sipped:

After our excellent catered lunch, we were invited to taste the Mirassou Champagne and learn the steps in its production.

I was surprised to learn how infrequently the plant was in operation. Most of the process is waiting for the product to age.

After our tour we returned to the tasting room to sample the full range of Mirassou products.

Curiously, we learned that Galo had just purchased the Mirassou name - though not their products. In the future, the Mirassou name will be applied to Gallo products, while the champagne produced here will be marketed under a new name.

You might be tempted to think that the rest of our meeting was a blur... but I assure you this image is just the result of low-light photography, not over indulgence.