Director’s Message

In 1983, a group of leaders at the Greater Baltimore Committee concluded that our region needed a new generation of leaders to confront the challenges that surrounded us.

Complex, interrelated problems were arising with swift vengeance: the deterioration in the quality of graduating students; the influx of drugs, with a corresponding rise in crime; the growing split between the interests of the city and its surrounding suburbs; the significant loss of city population; and our region's de-industrialization.

On top of this were the early signs that the CEOs of the five or so largest corporations were not going to be a viable tool for effective action as they had been in the past.

Motivated by that awareness, the GBC board formed the first class of The Leadership in 1984. The purpose of the class was to create a mixture of accomplished individuals from business, nonprofits and government who would normally not interact. This new crew hopefully would create breakthrough thinking and synergetic alliances.

A curriculum was developed that gave a broad introduction to many aspects of life in the Baltimore region. Some topics included were: economic development, public education, health care, the arts, crime, poverty, regionalism and the racial divide in Baltimore. What has the outcome been 24 years and 1000 graduates later?

A new type of leadership.

Yes, we still have the CEOs of a few of the largest corporations that have not been merged and have "bought" a major role in our community. Now we also have hundreds of senior-level people who have participated in The Leadership and have permeated numerous nonprofit boards and government commissions. In these roles, they have initiated multiple initiatives that have raised millions of dollars, created efficient mergers of nonprofits, partnered businesses with schools and so on. Additionally, many have brought back a consciousness to their workplaces that have created companies with an ever-larger sense of corporate responsibility.

It was never the intent of The Leadership founders to carry our projects in itself. On the contrary, there was a sentiment that The Leadership should not be project-operational. The organizations for those purposes such as the GBC and other nonprofits were abundant. The true challenge was to increase their capacity with a highly knowledgeable, motivated group of a new generation of leaders.

This has happened. There is not a day that the local newspaper does not include the name of a Leadership graduate who is making a difference.

The people who have gone through The Leadership are fulfilling the promise of the early founders, and we are all the better for it.

-- Jan Houbolt
    Executive Director