ERAPPA 2009 - Portland

59th Annual Conference
October 4 - 7, 2009
Portland, Maine
Keynote Speakers
Monday Keynote Speaker

noel.jpgJeff Noel
Program Facilitator: the Disney Institute

 

Jeff began his Disney experience as College Program intern “Jungle Jeff” on the world-famous Jungle Cruise attraction. He left Disney later that year to pursue his dream of riding a bicycle across the United States.

Jeff returned to the Walt Disney World Resort in 1984 and held various front-line roles in Theme Parks and Resorts and also taught the Disney Traditions orientation program. In 1988, he began his leadership experience in Resort Operations and eleven years later he accepted the invitation to become a Disney Institute facilitator. Here, he works hard to excite, inspire, and motivate others. “To teach is to learn twice,” you’ll hear him say. And this is why his 20-plus years in Walt Disney World operations is such an asset in the classroom.

Spanning his career, Jeff managed our Corporate VIP department, working directly with Michael Eisner’s office in Burbank. He opened Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club Resorts, managed Concierge operations at Disney’s flagship Grand Floridian Resort, and served on the Disney Institute advisory team while managing Front Office operations for Disney’s Village Resort. He returned to the Grand Floridian in a unique role as Guest/Cast Satisfaction Manager. His passion was dedicated to developing the Cast while providing exemplary service to our Guests.

Prior to Disney, Jeff worked in manufacturing, residence hall operations, public recreation, and hospitality in his home state of Pennsylvania, as well as New Jersey, Idaho, and Washington State. Personally, he doesn’t wear a wristwatch, watches the sun rise and set every day, drives the speed limit, and strives to become the kind of person his dog thinks he is! He’ll tell you his greatest accomplishment and gift is his young son.

Jeff received his Bachelor of Science degree in corporate recreation and fitness from West Chester University in Pennsylvania. He attended the University of Idaho as a National Student Exchange Program participant and is a graduate of the North Carolina Outward Bound School.

 
Tuesdays Keynote Speaker

king.jpgAngus King
Former Governor of Maine

Bowdoin College Distinguished Lecturer since 2004

Angus S. King Jr. served two four-year terms as Maine's 71st governor. He took office in 1995 as the only independent governor in the country. His 1998 reelection was one of the largest margins of victory in Maine's history. He left office in January 2003.

During his term as Maine governor he focused on economic development and job creation, education, mental health services, corrections, land conservation and environmental protection, and improvements in service delivery by state government.

Governor King's administration accomplished a total rebuild of the state's mental health and corrections systems, major improvements in the state's service capability, a substantial increase in the state's commitment to research and development, the largest increase of lands in conservation in the state's history, and the nationally recognized program to provide laptop computers to every seventh and eight grade student in the state.

Governor King graduated from Dartmouth College in 1966 and earned a law degree at the University of Virginia Law School in 1969. He began his career as a staff attorney for Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Skowhegan, Maine. In 1972 he became chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Narcotics in the office of then-Senator William D. Hathaway. In 1975 he returned to Maine to practice law. In the same year he began his almost 20-year stint as host of the television show "Maine Watch" on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network.

In 1983 he became vice president and general counsel of Swift River-Hafslund Company, an alternative energy development company based inPortland and Boston. In 1989 he founded and served for five years aspresident of Northeast Energy Management, Inc., a Brunswick-basedcompany specializing in the development of large-scale energyconservation projects at commercial and industrial facilities in central and southern Maine.

He has served as Distinguished Lecturer at Bowdoin since January 2004. In addition to teaching the class "Leaders and Leadership," he has participated in lectures and discussions hosted by various campus groups, offering students insight into the worlds of public service and politics. In May 2007, he received an honorary doctor of laws degree at Bowdoin's 202nd Commencement exercises.

He recently served as Visiting Fellow, Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Angus King has taken the unusual step of becoming a wind power developer. Drawing on his diverse past (lawyer, U.S. Senate staffer, hydroelectric and biomass power plant developer, energy efficiency entrepreneur, PBS-radio and TV commentator, and teacher), Governor King co-founded a wind development company in early 2007. Independence Wind was formed with Robert Gardiner, a former director of Maine's Bureau of Public Lands and former Maine Advocacy Center Director for the Conservation Law Foundation. Independence Wind is actively working on developing a commercial wind farm in Western Maine.

 
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