Linkage Announces Douglas R. Conant, President and CEO of Campbell Soup Company, to Keynote 9th Annual Summit on Leading Diversity

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Linkage, Inc. (http://www.linkageinc.com), a global leadership and organizational development company, today announced Douglas R. Conant, President and Chief Executive Officer of Campbell Soup Company, will deliver the keynote address at its ninth annual Summit on Leading Diversity being held on April 28-30, 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia.

“Linkage prides itself on the quality and depth of the Summit’s program and remains committed to showcasing a collection of the most vital tools, strategies, and best practices available in the diversity field”

As the nation's premiere diversity event, The Summit on Leading Diversity plays an integral role in creating and sustaining inclusive work environments that enable organizations to operate more effectively in a global marketplace. This year’s Summit will focus on business excellence through diversity and inclusion, with an agenda designed to demonstrate the tangible business benefits companies can realize through diversity and inclusion programs.

In his keynote address, Conant will share the progress of Campbell’s transformation and how diversity and inclusion practices are integrated throughout Campbell and have contributed to revenue growth, culture change, and innovation. Conant is Campbell’s 11^th leader in the company’s nearly 140 year history. Under his leadership, Campbell has reversed a decline in market value and employee engagement. The company has made significant investments to improve product quality and packaging, to strengthen the effectiveness of its marketing, and to develop an innovation pipeline.

“Linkage prides itself on the quality and depth of the Summit’s program and remains committed to showcasing a collection of the most vital tools, strategies, and best practices available in the diversity field,” said Todd Langton, President of Linkage. “Each year, the Summit takes diversity work to new levels by building on the concepts presented the previous year and challenging presenters and participants to be visionary in their thoughts and actions.”

The Summit’s content is designed to appeal to a broad range of business executives, including Diversity and HR practitioners seeking to gain insight into best practices on diversity and inclusion, and line leaders and business unit heads wanting to learn more about how to be an inclusive leader and how to drive talent management, strategic growth, and operational excellence through diversity.

In addition to Conant’s keynote, Summit highlights include 5 other world-class keynote speakers; 32 skill-building breakout sessions highlighting best practices in diversity and inclusion; facilitator-led peer discussion groups; and an online mentoring community. For the first time, Linkage presents Diversity in Action: Practical Application for Line Leaders and Business Unit Heads with content specific to business leaders and managers, including focused sessions on how to become a more inclusive leader and how to leverage diversity as a business driver.

For program details, including information on available group discounts, visit http://www.linkageinc.com/div or contact Linkage at programs@linkageinc.com or 781-402-5555.

About Linkage, Inc.

Linkage, Inc. is a global organizational development company that specializes in leadership development.

The Company provides clients around the globe with customized leadership development and strategic change solutions that include and integrate consulting, training, assessment, coaching, and benchmark research.

With a relentless commitment to learning, Linkage also offers a full range of conferences, institutes, summits, public workshops, and distance learning programs on leading-edge topics in leadership, management, human resource management, and organizational development. More than 200,000 leaders and managers have attended Linkage programs since the Company's founding in 1988.

Linkage http://www.linkageinc.com is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts with operations in Atlanta, Minneapolis, San Francisco and outside the U.S. in Brussels, Bucharest, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo.