2006 News Release
CCL President John Alexander Announces Retirement

June 2006 - Greensboro, N.C. - John Alexander, president of the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL^®) since 1997, has announced that he will retire effective March 31, 2007.

"It has been a high honor and privilege to serve as president of this wonderful and unique institution," Alexander said. "The Center is in a strong position and getting stronger. We have a talented and experienced staff at all levels. But I have been president for nearly 10 years, and there are other things that I would like to do. As difficult as it is to leave, the timing is right for me to step down."

Alexander, 60, joined CCL in 1990 as the Center's assistant vice president, and later vice president, responsible for communications, media relations and fund-raising. He was promoted to president in 1997. Under his direction, CCL has seen a 55 percent increase in its annual operating revenues, which reached $79 million this year, and has significantly expanded its operations in Europe and Asia, where it opened a campus in Singapore three years ago.

In recent years, the Center for Creative Leadership has ranked three times as the world's No. 1 provider of leadership education in BusinessWeek's biennial executive education survey. In May 2006, the Financial Times rated CCL among the world's Top 5 providers of executive education.

The Center for Creative Leadership's Board of Governors will create a timeline and process for selecting Alexander's replacement over the next few weeks.

"We hate to lose John Alexander as our president," said Thomas Hearn, Center for Creative Leadership Board Chairman. "John has been a great leader and a good friend. Thanks to John's leadership, we have a strong staff, a global reach, exciting research being published and a reputation that ranks us among the top in our field. It will be difficult to replace him."

Other organizational highlights during Alexander's tenure include:

• Growth in customized programs and research and publication activities
• A strengthened focus on organizational leadership development to complement CCL's longstanding expertise in individual leadership development
• Numerous awards for high-quality and innovative work in both research and teaching

As CCL's president, Alexander has published widely and been quoted frequently in the media on topics related to leadership, executive development and governance. He is the co-author of recent book chapters on executive coaching, leadership development in Asia and integrity and leadership. He serves as a feedback coach to executives in select CCL open-enrollment and custom programs and has been a speaker and panelist at numerous conferences, including the World Economic Forum.

"John is an impressive person on so many fronts," said Peter L. Richardson, a member of CCL's Board of Governors and president of the Smith Richardson Foundation, which founded the Center as a nonprofit, educational institution in 1970. "Beyond his many academic and professional accomplishments, he cares deeply about the people he knows and serves, and he strives for honest and high ethical standards in all the decisions he makes. There are too few 'good guys' in our turbulent world. CCL has been fortunate to have one of them as our leader."

Before he arrived at CCL in 1990, Alexander had spent 18 years as an award-winning journalist at TIME Magazine and newspapers in Charlotte and Greensboro, NC. In 1979, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing. A Rhodes Scholar, Alexander received his B.A. in English with Highest Honors from Princeton University and an M.A. in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from Magdalen College, Oxford.

Alexander and his wife, Lynne, have two adult children and reside in Greensboro, NC. Following his retirement, he plans to devote his time to writing, teaching and volunteer pursuits.

About the Center for Creative Leadership
The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL^®) is a top-ranked, global provider of executive education that unlocks individual and organizational potential through its exclusive focus on leadership development and research. Founded in 1970 as a nonprofit, educational institution, CCL helps clients worldwide cultivate creative leadership - the capacity to achieve more than imagined by thinking and acting beyond boundaries - through an array of programs, products and other services. Ranked among the world's top providers of executive education by BusinessWeek and No.6 worldwide in the 2009 Financial Times annual executive education survey, CCL is headquartered in Greensboro, NC, with campuses in Colorado Springs, CO; San Diego CA; Brussels, Belgium; Moscow, Russia; India; and Singapore. Its work is supported by more than 450 faculty members and staff.

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