FORTUNE” Senior Editor is UMaine “Paper Days” Speaker
Contact: Faye Woodcock, 581-2296; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — FORTUNE magazine senior editor-at-large Geoffrey Colvin, a leading thinker and commentator on today’s business trends and issues, will speak at the University of Maine during “Paper Days 2006,” a two-day forest products industry symposium hosted by the UMaine Pulp & Paper Foundation.
Colvin’s address, “We’re Not Ready: How America Must Meet Globalization’s Challenge,” is from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. April 5, in Hauck Auditorium. Attendance is by invitation.
Colvin will outline some of the reasons why many American businesses are loosing ground in a global competition for jobs, and will lay out his ideas for reversing the trend. Colvin warns that Asian firms are bidding, not just for United States companies, but also for the nation’s top university graduates, at a time when the nation’s worldwide lead in science and technology is shrinking.
Globalization, he says, is eroding America’s preeminence and even its standard of living. The U.S. economy is growing, but average wages are not, he observes. Whether the nation can rise up again to meet the challenge will mark a turning point in its history, according to Colvin.
Colvin’s business feature articles and column, “Value Driven,” in FORTUNE have an estimated audience of five million readers. His business commentary additionally is heard by seven million people on the CBS Radio Network. A regular presenter at the magazine’s prestigious Global Forums and the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum in London, Colvin has interviewed such leaders as Jack Welch, Rudy Giuliani, Steve Case, Meg Whitman and Donald Trump.
“He walks with the most powerful people in the world, with business-related people like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Steven Jobs, and he goes to China and does the same thing there, and he goes to India and he does the same thing,” says Peter Duncan, executive director of the Maine Pulp & Paper Foundation at UMaine. “He’ll really bring that whole global perspective to us. It can help Maine understand how we can compete in the long-term.”
Dan Innis, dean of the College of Business, Public Policy and Health, and the Maine Business School, which is cosponsoring Colvin’s appearance with the Maine Pulp and Paper Association, says that the university is fortunate to host a speaker of Colvin’s caliber.
“Geoffrey Colvin’s insights will change the way we think about globalization,” Innis says. “I am absolutely looking forward to hearing his perspectives on the big picture. We’re also pleased that the Maine Business School was able to contribute to this critically important symposium.”
Paper Days is set around the Pulp & Paper Foundation’s annual meeting and brings in a slate of state and national speakers, presenters and panelists – all respected leaders and policymakers – to offer expert assessment and ideas about improving Maine’s forest products and paper industry.
“This year Paper Days will focus on ways that Maine can meet the global economic challenges we face in the forest products industry,” says John Williams, executive director of the Maine Pulp and Paper Association. “Maine’s mills must adapt if we are to stem the tide of plant closures and machine shutdowns. This symposium will offer meaningful ideas on ways to meet our challenges.”
Sponsors of Paper Days 2006 include Northeast PIMA (Paper Industry Management Association), Maine Forest Products Council, the UMaine School of Forest Resources, and Maine/New Hampshire TAPPI (Technical Association of the Pulp & Paper Industry), in addition to the Pulp & Paper Foundation and Maine Pulp and Paper Association.