Keynotes

SBA students regularly attend keynote speeches. This page includes some examples of recent keynotes.

Upcoming Academic Year 2024-2025

The Third Annual Jud Regis Endowed Chair of Accounting Lecture
Oct. 23, 2024
John Howell, a passenger on U.S. Airways Flight 1549, famously known as the “Miracle on the Hudson,” shared valuable lessons on resilience, values, and living a life of purpose.

The 16th Annual Aram Lecture on Business Ethics
Oct. 22, 2024
Dr. Thayne McCulloh, president of Gonzaga University, spoke on “If You Only Knew: Ethical Leadership & The University Presidency.” You can see the speech here.

Academic Year 2023-2024

Pigott Entrepreneurship Lecture: A Conversation with Women Entrepreneurs
April 11, 2024
A panel discussion with five business founders from the Spokane community covered unique experiences with starting businesses in five very different industries, the opportunities and challenges female entrepreneurs face, and how we can better embrace and nurture would-be women entrepreneurs and champion their successes. You can see the panel presentatoin here. Panel members included:

  • Dr. Rachae Bell, Clear Chriopractic (LinkedIn)
  • Tayna Starkle, Avenue Stone Real Estate (LinkedIn)
  • Julie Pannell, Fleet Feet Spokane
  • Maisa Adubdayha, Feast World Kitchen and PantryFuel
  • Jenny Stuchell, Founder – PantryFuel and Gonzaga Instructor (LinkedIn)
  • Moderator: Dr. Christopher Stevens, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship

Phyllis and Angelo Mozilo Chair of Business Administration Panel
March 27, 2024
A panel discussion on Housing Affordability: Understanding this Important Issue was held in Wolff Auditorium. The event brought together experts from various fields to address the pressing challenges and potential solutions surrounding housing affordability. Panel members included:

  • Matthew Anderson: Jeffers W. Chertok Memorial professor and director of the Urban and Regional Planning Program at Eastern Washington University
  • Daniel Ramos: Data Asset Manager, King County Regional Homelessness Authority
  • Dawn Kinder: MSW , City of Spokane , Neighborhood, Housing, and Human Services Director
  • Jonathan Mallahan: Vice President Housing, Catholic Charities Eastern Washington
  • Moderator: Adriane Leithauser, Senior Lecturer of Business Ethics

The 28th Annual Economics Symposium
Feb. 29, 2024
David Autor, Ford Professor of Economics at MIT, spoke at the 28th Annual Economics Symposium. Autor is a recognized authority on how technological change, globalization, and trade agreements affect labor markets. Autor also researches the causes of inequality and its remedies, including the effects of education and disabilities. Autor’s latest book, The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines, is on why the United States lags behind other industrialized countries in sharing the benefits of innovation with workers and how we can remedy the problem.

The 15th Annual Aram Lecture on Business Ethics
Feb. 7, 2024
Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D., spoke on “What’s Missing in Contemporary Approaches to Business Ethics? The Devaluation of Principles, Conscience, and Faith.” Spitzer is a Jesuit priest and President of the Magis Center and the Spitzer Center. He was president of Gonzaga University from 1998 to 2009. You can see the speech here.

Second Annual Jud Regis Endowed Chair of Accounting Lecture
Oct. 26, 2023
Cynthia Cooper gave the keynote speech at the Regis Lecture. More than 475 students attended. Cooper was named one of Time Magazine’s Persons of the Year in 2002 for her role in reporting the fraud at WorldCom. She visited several classes, met with the accounting advisory board, and met with faculty, staff, and students.

Canfield Lifelong Learning
Sept. 29, 2023
The SBA’s Canfield Lifelong Learning Series was held for about 70 alums and friends in San Francisco. Inspirational speaker and author John O’Leary, who also spoke at the SBA’s Regis Lecture in the Fall 2022, provided the group with his Live Inspired message.

Academic Year 2023-2024

The Pigott Entrepreneurship Lecture
April 5, 2023
Larry Simkins recently retired after 21 years as the President and CEO of the Washington Companies. He continues to serve as a Director of Atlas Corp (NYSE: ATCO). The Washington Companies are an international group of private companies owned by industrial entrepreneur Dennis Washington based in Missoula, Montana transacting business in rail and marine transportation, shipyards, mining, environmental construction, heavy equipment sales, and aviation products. Since first joining the Washington Companies in 1988, Mr. Simkins was involved with a number of the companies including Envirocon, Washington Construction Group, Kasler Corporation, and Westran.

The 14th Annual Aram Lecture on Business Ethics
Nov. 3, 2022
Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, developer of the “Truly Human Leadership” management movement and author of the WSJ bestseller Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family. Bob was recently named #3 CEO in the world by Inc. magazine article and a Top 10 Social Capital CEO by International Business magazine. Bob spoke about how business can make the world a better place by adopting humanistic management practices.

Academic Year 2022-2023

27th Economics Symposium
April 13, 2022
David Card, the 2021 Nobel Prize winner in Economic Sciences, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Labor Studies Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research spoke to students and community members at the Davenport Grand.