Chief Executives of International Dairy Queen, Auto-Owners Insurance, Act·1 Group and L.L. Bean to Speak at UT Fellows Forum March 21

The leaders of International Dairy Queen, Auto-Owners Insurance, Act·1 Group and L.L. Bean are slated to speak at The University of Tampa’s Fellows Forum on Tuesday, March 21, at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Ferguson Hall. A continental breakfast will be served at 7:15 a.m., and the program will run from 8–9:30 a.m.

Speakers include John Gainor, president and CEO of International Dairy Queen; Jeffrey Harrold, chairman and CEO of Auto-Owners Insurance; Janice Bryant Howroyd, founder and CEO of Act·1 Group; and Stephen Smith, CEO of L.L. Bean.

John Gainor is president and CEO of International Dairy Queen Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company. Gainor is responsible for overseeing more than 6,800 restaurants in the Dairy Queen, Orange Julius and Karmelkorn systems throughout the U.S., Canada and 28 other countries.

Jeffrey F. Harrold is chairman of the board and CEO of Auto-Owners Insurance, a mutual insurance company that offers auto, home, business and life insurance to policyholders exclusively through independent agents. Auto-Owners Insurance has been ranked among the Fortune 500 every year for the past 14 years.

Janice Bryant Howroyd is the founder and CEO of The Act·1 Group, the largest privately held, woman- and minority-owned workforce management company in the U.S. Founded in 1978, the Act·1 Group provides employment, workforce management and procurement solutions to a wide range of organizations, companies and government agencies in 19 countries.

Stephen Smith is president and CEO of L.L. Bean, an American, privately held e-commerce, mail-order and retail company founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean. The company, based in Freeport, ME, has grown from a one-man operation to a global organization with annual sales of $1.6 billion.

The forum will be moderated by Stacie Schaible of WFLA News Channel 8.

Tickets are $40 and may be purchased through the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce’s website at www.tampachamber.com. Proceeds from the event go toward the Board of Fellows Endowed Scholarship, which supports students in the Sykes College of Business.

Since 1987, the Fellows Forum has been the annual flagship event for The University of Tampa Board of Fellows, bringing nationally recognized executives to Tampa to share their business experiences. Last year’s forum attracted more than 1,000 attendees.

This year’s presenting sponsor is Verizon. Platinum sponsors include the Straz Center, Design Styles Architecture, United Healthcare, Beck, UBS, Phelps Dunbar, Clark Capital Investments, Brown & Brown Insurance, Hill Ward Henderson, Harden, Jabil and Auto-Owners Insurance.

For more information, go to www.ut.edu/FellowsForum or contact Niti Shah, director of Fellows and Counselors, at (813) 257-6220 or nshah@ut.edu.

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