Keynote-Speaker's Biography

Stedman Graham, Best-Selling Author, Diversity Leaders, Not Labels, Educator and Entrepreneur

	Stedman Graham is chairman and CEO of S. Graham & Associates (SGA), a management and marketing consulting company that specializes in the corporate and educational markets. Clients have included Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo, Georgia Pacific, Pro-Line International, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Manpower, CNN, GlaxoSmithKline, Plains Capital Corporation, American College of Sports Medicine, YMCA, U.S. Olympic Committee, U.S. Department of Labor’s Job Corps, Credit-Suisse First Boston, Harvard and Wharton business schools and the U.S. Department of Education.
As a businessman, educator and speaker, he presents, consults and conducts training with corporations, organizations and nonprofits on the topics of maximizing leadership, achieving success, growing a business, embracing diversity, achieving optimal health, and personal and professional branding. His corporate seminars are driven by his proprietary Nine-Step Success Process™. In addition, Graham educates individuals and industries on using Success Circles™ a work-life balance tool he developed to make information and experience relevant to personal, professional and business growth. Graham has authored ten books, including two New York Times bestsellers, You Can Make It Happen: A Nine-Step Plan for Success and Teens Can Make It Happen: Nine Steps to Success. Build Your Own Life Brand explores the concept of personal and professional branding. Move Without the Ball is a collection of principles that teaches students that sports are a part of life, not life itself. Who Are You? Building Your Life’s Foundation focuses on success through self-discovery. His latest release Diversity: Leaders not Labels includes his unique approach to eliminate barriers to success. Actively involved in education, Graham is a former adjunct professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago where he taught a leadership course based on his Nine-Step Process. At the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, he taught a management strategy course entitled “The Dynamics of Leadership.” He also founded and directed George Washington University’s Forum for Sport and Event Management and Marketing – the first of its kind in the country. Graham has shown a lifelong commitment to youth and community. In 1985, Graham founded AAD Education, Health and Sports, a nonprofit organization of athletes and other civic leaders committed to developing leadership in underserved youths. An organization with over 500 professional athletes, AAD has served over 15,000 students through education and scholarships. Graham serves on several boards to include the national board of Junior Achievement (JA) and the 7-Eleven Education Is Freedom Foundation, and he is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago. Graham holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Hardin-Simmons University. He received a master’s degree in Education from Ball State University and an honorary doctorate in Humanities from Coker College, where he is also a distinguished visiting professor.