:: Leadership Keynote Speaker Gordy Curphy's Bio ::

Biography

Gordy Curphy is the President of Curphy Consulting Corporation (C3), a leadership and organizational change consulting firm. Since 2002 Gordy has been helping clients such as Molson-Coors, Toyota, BP, Merck, Andersen Corporation, Pentair, DSW Shoe Stores, Telwares, Waste Management, New York City Public Schools, MassMutual, Ariba, Wheelabrator Technologies, CH Robinson Worldwide, Husky Energy and others to develop a new organizational vision, gain alignment around the strategies needed to support the vision, and identify and develop the talent and teams needed to make the vision become reality. Prior to starting his own company, Gordy spent a year as the Vice President of Institutional Leadership for the Blandin Foundation in Grand Rapids, MN. In this position Gordy was responsible for the design, delivery, and evaluation of comprehensive leadership and organizational development programs for school districts and health care providers in rural Minnesota communities. In 2006 he co-authored The Community Leadership Handbook as part of his continued association with The Blandin Foundation.

Before joining the Blandin Foundation, Gordy spent eight years working as a Vice President and General Manager for Personnel Decisions International (PDI). He was responsible for successfully starting up PDI’s Denver Operating Office and running PDI’s $17,000,000 office in the Twin Cities. As a consultant, Gordy helped companies such as HP, Saudi Aramco, Boeing, Oppenheimer Funds, Janus Funds, American Stores, The Home Depot, US West, Carlson Companies, Corporate Express, Brown-Forman, Anheuser Busch, Johns-Manville, Citigroup, and other Global 1000 clients to attract, identify, develop, and retain leadership talent and drive large-scale organizational change initiatives. He has extensive expertise in strategic planning and organizational alignment, executive coaching and team building, succession planning, performance management, leadership training and development, management and executive assessment, and team and organizational survey design.

Gordy attended the United States Air Force Academy as an undergraduate and spent 15 years of active duty in the United States Air Force. During this time he did a two-year exchange assignment with the Royal Australian Air Force and spent six years as a Tenured Associate Professor at the Air Force Academy. While at the Academy, Gordy won several teaching awards and co-authored the leadership textbook, Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience. To date, over 450 colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, and Europe have adopted this number one selling textbook. Gordy also worked as an adjunct faculty member for the Center for Creative Leadership during this period.

A native of Two Harbors, MN, Gordy earned his M.A. from St Mary’s University in San Antonio, TX and his Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Minnesota. His hobbies include ice hockey, hunting, fishing, international travel, and leadership and organizational research.

Books

Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience, 6e (Hughes, Curphy, et al) New York: NY MacGraw-Hill, 2008

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The number one selling leadership textbook in the US for the past fifteen years. This book has been adopted by the USAF Academy, the US Military Academy, the US Naval Academy, the US Coast Guard Academy, the US Merchant Marine Academy, and over 450 other schools around the world. The book also comes with the most complete Instructor's Manual in the industry and consists of lesson plans, case studies, over 150 experiential excersises and assessments, and a test bank.

The Community Leadership Handbook (Krile, Curphy, and Lund) St Paul: MN Fieldstone Alliance, 2006.

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The power of this book is about leading groups of volunteers to drive change in communities. This significant guide puts the tools of democracy into everyone’s hands. Based on the best of Blandin Foundation’s 20-year experience in developing community leaders, it gives community members—like yourself—the tools to bring people together to make changes. Whether you are an active community member who wants to make a difference, a nonprofit leader serving the community, a leadership advisor, a government liaison called on to convene the community, a business leader, a public servant, or a foundation program officer specializing in community needs, you will find in this book the tools and theories essential to getting your work done.

The Impact of Leadership (Clark, Clark and Campbell) Greensboro, NC: The Center for Creative Leadership, 1992.

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Written and Published as part of the the Center's research, and has developed into an important program. Since the 1970s, the Center for Creative Research has built its portfolio of programs, products and services on a solid foundation of behavioral science research. The research we do seeks to advance the understanding of leadership and includes a diverse array of designs and multiple methods. Research discoveries are incorporated into our leadership courses and assessment tools. In turn, classroom experiences and assessment data inform or initiate research projects, thus "turning ideas into action and action into ideas."

The Successful Mangager's Handbook Personnel Decisions International. Minneapolis, MN: Personnel Decisions International, 1998.

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Based on extensive research on hundreds of managers across a variety of industries, this program focuses on the key skills and behaviors that contribute to the success of today's managers and leaders. This program addresses managers' needs for understanding their roles as leaders, applies sound leadership principles, and provides participants with the skills, behaviors, and tools for success. A new feature of this program includes a 360° assessment of each participant.

The I/O Consultant: Advice and Insight for Building a Successful Career (Jerry W. Hedge and Walter C. Borman), 2008.

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Consulting is one of the fastest growing occupations in the United States. This innovative volume offers basic guidance on the fundamentals of consulting with authoritative essays by leaders in the field. The editors and their colleagues guide their readers through a career continuum, beginning with learning about potential employers to creating and maintaining a business and watching it grow and thrive. In chapters readers hear of the extraordinary breadth of consulting experiences in the private and public sectors, the military, and academia. The authors consider such topics as strategic planning, points of entry into the field, ethics and networking, and the advantages and disadvantages of joining a large firm versus starting up one's own consulting practice.

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