BOWLING GREEN, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--One of the most significant and pioneering leadership training experiences in the Greek-letter fraternal world will receive a major transformation thanks to the vision and generosity of one of the Sigma Chi International Fraternity's long-time visionaries.
Keith Krach, PURDUE 1979, the Fraternity's 64th Grand Consul and world-renowned entrepreneur made a major commitment to the Fraternity's future during the 2018 Balfour Leadership Training Workshop at Bowling Green State University. He announced an endowment-level lead gift that will perpetuate the event for decades to come, the Sigma Chi Foundation announced Monday.
Order of Constantine, Significant Sig and a 1979 International Balfour Award Winner himself, Keith Krach unveiled the Krach Transformational Leaders Workshop, which will replace the previously-pioneering Balfour LTW event as the largest leadership training event in the Greek-letter fraternal world in 2019.
"My Workshop experience sparked my passion for leadership and played a pivotal role in my Sigma Chi journey. And that journey has profoundly impacted my life—from my values to my leadership style, to my best friends, to my companies, to my spirituality, to my Sig sons and even to my dear Sweetheart Metta," said Krach. "I feel so blessed to be able to give back to the fraternity I love so much and that has given so much to me. It is a great honor to pay it forward to this generation of transformational leaders who will in return mentor the next generation. That, in essence, is what Sigma Chi is all about."
Krach's gift specifically affects Workshop but also serves as a springboard for an endowment that carries Sigma Chi's leadership vision far beyond a three-day annual event and onto campuses and communities across the United States and Canada.
"Brother Krach's gift will be the engine that enables Sigma Chi's efforts in creating a transformative leadership experience for our members," said Sigma Chi Executive Director Mike Church, ILLINOIS 2005. "We are blessed to have his pay-it-forward leadership making such an enormous impact on the hearts and minds of future generations of Sigma Chis. I am beyond humbled and honored to call him a brother and a friend."
Sigma Chi Foundation President & CEO Ashley Woods, EAST TENNESSEE 2000, said: "As a volunteer, most notably as a transformational Grand Consul, Keith has been a long-time catalyst for the leadership development of our undergraduate brothers. Keith's generosity today helps ensure that the world's largest training workshop for Greek leaders will continue for generations to come."
Transformational leadership has been a recurring theme in the life of Krach, both professionally and in his life as a Sigma Chi, dating back to his first workshop experience at the University of Wyoming in 1976. The leadership lessons learned and mentors gained at his three Leadership Training Workshops as a Purdue undergrad inspired decades of volunteer work within the Fraternity that culminated in his election as 64th Grand Consul in 2005.
During his six-year term as Chairman of the Leadership Training Board, of which he was a pivotal member for 10 years, Krach, alongside past Sigma Chi Foundation President Frank Raymond, PENN STATE 1971, helped secure funding from the L.G. Balfour Foundation to endow the Leadership Training Workshop in 1997. Under Krach's leadership, the LTB led the development and launch of the Horizons Leadership Summit in Snowbird, Utah, and he endowed a session of the six-day retreat in 2002.
Upon his election as Grand Consul in 2005, Krach unveiled the 150th-anniversary strategic plan that pivoted Sigma Chi's vision to become the preeminent collegiate leadership development organization.
"It was really the success of Horizons coupled with the broad impact of Workshop that inspired our strategic planning team to focus almost exclusively on leadership development," Krach said.
Professionally, outside of Sigma Chi, the Fraternity's leadership lessons helped guide and mold the direction of world-renowned companies such as Ariba and DocuSign under Krach's leadership.
Conversely, the company playbook model used by Krach to build his companies, including mission, vision, long-term goals, strategy, and execution, served as the framework for developing Sigma Chi's strategic plan.
"The values for all the companies I helped build were always based off the principles of Sigma Chi. I drew on the ideals of Sigma Chi to empower high-performance teams with different temperaments, talents, and convictions who weren't afraid to challenge the status quo. The innovation and results just naturally followed. I believe that the Sigma Chi formula combined with diversity-of-thought is the catalyst for genius and the secret sauce for transformational change," Krach said.
"Everybody asks me, 'Where did you learn that? How did you learn to build disruptive companies with such great value-based cultures? Did you learn it at Harvard Business School?' I always smile and proudly say, 'No, the Sigma Chi Fraternity.'"
Eleven years after his term as Grand Consul came to an end, the impact of Krach's transformational leadership and vision is felt today in Sigma Chi in its Leadership Learning Continuum, highlighted by Sigma Chi U and an array of programs whose development was eventually orchestrated from that initial strategic plan.
The inaugural Krach Transformational Leaders Workshop will launch on August 1, 2019.
ABOUT SIGMA CHI:
SIGMA CHI is one of the largest collegiate fraternities with undergraduate chapters at 242 universities and colleges and more than 250,000 living alumni members. Sigma Chi provides a welcoming environment for young men of different temperaments, talents, and convictions to enjoy a unique lifelong bond that extends far beyond college. Through world-class leadership training, extensive mentoring programs, and a strong focus on academic achievement, Sigma Chi sets itself apart as the preeminent collegiate leadership development organization, challenging its members to live by its core values and exemplify character-in-action™ in every aspect of their lives, and the lives of others.
ABOUT THE SIGMA CHI FOUNDATION:
THE SIGMA CHI FOUNDATION is a charitable and educational tax-exempt organization, separate and independent from the Sigma Chi Fraternity, whose express purpose is to serve as an educational funding resource for the undergraduate and graduate student members of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. Through leadership initiatives such as Sigma Chi U, the new Krach Transformational Leaders Workshop (KTLW), Huntsman Horizons Leadership Summit, the Sigma Chi Foundation is preparing our young men to be the value-centered leaders to guide us in the 21st century.