[Note that there will be limited seating at this event. If you would like to attend, please reserve your seat early.]

On Friday, November 11th, join us for lunch at Wharton West and a talk by Michelle Kristula-Green, President, Asia Pacific of Leo Burnett Worldwide.

Michelle Kristula-Green has spent her entire career at Leo Burnett working first in Taiwan for four years and then in Japan for 15 years, where she was the first woman to run a multinational ad agency. She now manages Burnett's Asia Pacific operation from Hong Kong and has 23 business/country heads from 16 different countries reporting in to her. Michelle is the only agency President who speaks both Mandarin and Japanese.

She'll be discussing with us topics that Wharton alumni don't necessarily hear often, including:

- the advantages and disadvantages of building a career with a single company,
- what it takes for a foreigner to be successful in Asia, and
- some perspective on how to avoid career limbo when you are 7,000 miles away from the head office.

With over 20 years spent navigating in a world of Asian business practices, translators and nuanced cultural context Michelle will share her own experiences of how distinguishing honne from tatemai, becoming an expert in nemawashi, and "Japanese listening" have helped her rise to the top of a multinational company.

Click here to register for this event

Date. Friday, November 11th, 2005
Time. 11:45am - 12:00pm. Check-in and lunch pick-up
12:00pm - 1:15pm. Presentation, Q&A
Place. Wharton West (at the corner of Howard and Spear Streets)
101 Howard Street, Suite 500, San Francisco, 94105. Tel: 415-777-1000
Cost. $20 for current WCNC members and their accompanied guests. $30 for non-member alumni and other guests. $20 for current members of affiliate clubs/organizations.
$10 additional fee for registrations--if available--after 5:00pm Wednesday, 11/09/05.
No charge for current Wharton West students, but seating is limited--register early to reserve your seat.

Michelle Kristula-Green
Michelle Kristula-Green is president of Leo Burnett's Asia Pacific region, managing the activity of the unit's 23 offices comprised of 1,500 employees in 16 countries.

Before assuming that post in February 2004, Michelle served as president and representative director of Beacon Communications, the highly successful partnership with Dentsu resulting from the merger of Leo Burnett and D'Arcy's operations in Japan. She was responsible for the integration of these Publicis Groupe sister companies into one cohesive agency, which now has become part of the Leo Burnett family of companies and continues to report in to Michelle.

The first woman to run a multinational agency in Japan, and one of the only non-Asian agency heads to have proficiency in both Chinese and Japanese, Michelle began her career at Burnett more than 20 years ago and has worked in Chicago, Taiwan, and Tokyo on a wide range of multinational clients as they expanded their businesses into Asia. Under her direction, Beacon continued to grow even in the toughest of economic times, expanded to include both Japanese and multinational clients, and developed into an ideas-centric, creative powerhouse peopled with some of the brightest young talent in Japan.

Michelle has worked with a wide range of multinational clients as they expanded their businesses into Asia, helping businesses effectively localize global brands and globalize local brands.