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October 1, 2008
For Immediate Release

Leadership Excellence
Honors Top Programs

For the third year, Leadership Excellence magazine has released its ranking of the best Leadership Development (LD) programs in the country.

"Every organization benefits from developing its people through some program or process," says Ken Shelton, editor since 1984. "The best programs are designed to deliver outcomes aligned with the vision and strategy. They build bench strength-a pipeline of people who are prepared to step up and lead out when the calls comes or the opportunity arises."

Selection Criteria
Considering hundreds of programs, Shelton selected 160 based on seven criteria:
1. Vision/mission. Are these statements linked to strategy, meaningful to participants, and focused on target outcomes?
2. Involvement and participation. How broad is the involvement and how deep the participation?
3. Measurement and accountability. What ROI measures are made and reported and to what degree is accountability for performance and results part of the program?
4. Design, content, and curriculum. How well designed is the program? How credible is the content? How relevant is the curriculum? How customized is the program?
5. Presenters, presentations, and delivery. What are the qualifications of the presenters, how effective are their presentations, and how is the program delivered?
6. Take-home value. What do participants take away and apply to improve themselves, their families, their teams, and their volunteer work?
7. Outreach, outcomes. What is the impact of the program on the organization and its various stakeholders?

"Having this criteria," says Shelton, "helps us to weed out those programs that may be well intentioned but lack substance and fail to deliver promised results."

Winners in Seven Categories
Divided into seven different categories, the top programs in LD for 2008 are:

Small to midsize organizations
1. Triage Consulting Group
2. Badger Mining
3. Carnival Cruise Lines
4. Wieland (Homes) University
5. Americredit Financial Services
6. Container Store
7. Equity Residential
8. Johnson Controls
9. Carilion Health System
10. InsureMe
11. Analytical Graphics
12. Simonton Windows
13. Acuity
14. Vulcan Materials Co.
15. Genecor International
16. Saltwater Institute
17. Conway Transportation
18. Cross-Country Healthcare

Large organizations
1. Ritz-Carlton Hotels
2. General Electric
3. Procter & Gamble
4. Boeing
5. General Motors University
6. Wachovia Corp.
7. Fed Ex/ELI
8. McDonald's/HU
9. Microsoft
10. Qualcomm
11. Yahoo
12. Caterpillar University
13. Chevron
14. AXA Equitable
15. Farmer's Insurance
16. MasterCard
17. Northrop Grumman
18. Direct Energy
19. Schwan Food Company
20. Allied Barton
21. AmTrust Bank
22. Bank of New York Mellon
23. Goldcorp
24. UBS
25. Black & Decker
26. Archer Daniels Midlalnd
27. Textron
28. Amazon
29. Disney
30. Medco

Education/universities/schools
of management and business
1. Univ. of Michigan/Ross
2. Center for Public Leadership, JFK
School of Government, Harvard
3. Univ. of Chicago/GSB/Leadership
 4. UCLA/Anderson
5. USC/Marshall/CEO
6. Northwestern/Kellogg
7. Pennsylvania/Wharton
8. MIT/Sloan
9. Harvard Business/True North
10. Utah Valley Univ./CAL
11. Duke/Fuqua
12. Yale Leadership Institute
13. Stanford/GSB Leadership
14. Emory Univ.
15. BYU/Marriott/Leadership
16. Pepperdine/Graziadio/SBM
17. Carnegie Mellon/Tepper/Leadership
18. Alliant/MGSM
19. Ball State Univ./Ed. Leadership

Non-profit organizations
1. ASTD
2. SHRM
3. American Management Assoc.
4. HCI
5. NYC Leadership Academy
6. ISPI
7. HR.Com
8. IQPC/Corporate University
9. National Management Assoc.
10. Manchester Bidwell
11. Conference Board
12. Berkana Institute
13. Leader to Leader Institute
14. CAEL
15. Baptist Leadership Institute
16. SoL
17. Healthcare Businesswomen Assc.
18. Addison Ave. Fed. Credit Union
19. Rush University Medical Center
20. Best Practices in LD

Government/military
1. Defense Acquisition University
2. U.S. Marine Academy
3. U.S. Air Force Academy
4. U.S. Army/Westpoint
5. FBI Academy
6. U.S. Navy Naval Academy
7. NASA/Leadership Alchemy
8. U.S. Army Rangers
9. ASQ Baldrige Award
10. U.S. Coast Guard
11. FAA
12. U.S. National Guard
13. National Defense University
14. U.S. Tactical/Seals
15. Naval Undersea Warfare Center

Consultants/trainers/coaches
1. Zenger/Folkman
 2. Goldsmith/Katzenbach Partners
3. Korn/Ferry/Leadersource
4. Jim Collins
5. Bluepoint Leadership
6. Ninth House
7. Human Performance Institute
8. Synthesis/Leaders Toolbox
9. Marcus Buckingham Company
10. Tom Peters Company
11. Guttman Dev. Strategies
12. Strategos
13. Maxcomm
14. Josh Bersin & Assoc.
15. Lebow Company
16. Liminal Group
17. Benchmark Communications
18. Table Group
19. Chip Bell Group
20. Leadership Challenge/KP
21. Authentic Leadership Institute
22. Leadership Development Services
23. iLeadUSA
26. Arneson Consulting
27. Sensei International
28. Right Management
29. ISB Global
30. The Prosen Center

Large consulting groups
1. Linkage/GILD
2. Results-Based Leadership
3. Accenture
4. Center for Creative Leadership
5. Senn-Delaney Leadership
6. McKinsey/Leadership
7. HSM/World Business Forum
8. Vital Smarts
9. DDI
10. Lee Hecht Harrison
11. Adizes Institute
12. Richard Chang Assoc.
13. Dialogos
14. Booz Allen Hamilton
15. Hewitt/Leadership
16. Plante & Moran
17. BlessingWhite
18. Franklin-Covey
19. Ken Blanchard Companies
20. Integro Leadership Institute
21. Forum Leadership Development
22. Personnel Decisions Intl. (PDI)
23. Human Potential Project
24. Crowe Horwath
25. International Leadership Assoc.
26. Leadergrow
27. Kepner-Tregoee


Each top program selected will receive a certificate honoring their achievement. For more information on the 2008 leadership rankings, visit www.leaderexcel.com or call 877-250-1983.