Henry S. Givray is former Chairman, President & CEO of Smithbucklin Corporation, the world’s largest association management and services company. The company offers full-service management and outsourced services to trade and professional associations, technology user communities, industry consortia, charitable organizations, corporations and government institutes. Henry served as President & CEO from 2002 to 2015 and Chairman of the Board (non-executive) from 2016 to 2020. He previously worked for the company between 1983 and 1996, having served as chief staff executive for multiple client associations in addition to handling other corporate responsibilities.

During Henry’s 13 years as CEO, Smithbucklin shattered every performance record since its founding in 1949, including company growth, financial performance, client satisfaction and retention, and employee engagement. His success in ensuring all employees embrace a well-articulated culture that guides, inspires, and enables extraordinary service and value creation is prominently featured in the 2006 book by Randy Pennington, Results Rule! Build a Culture that Blows the Competition Away.

In 2005, Henry led the transfer of the company’s ownership from its financial investors to its more than 720 employees. The two private equity firms earned 4x their investment in fewer than three years. The Smithbucklin Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) allows every employee, regardless of position or tenure, an equal opportunity to acquire ownership in the company. An employee’s investment in 2005 was worth 7x in 2015..

Henry is a dedicated, ongoing student of leadership, committed to speaking and writing as a way to serve others. His insights and ideas on leadership have been prominently featured in business books and national news media. Henry has been invited to share his unique leadership perspective through keynote speeches at numerous association conferences, corporate meetings, and educational forums. One of his most enduring achievements has been the creation of comprehensive, high-impact leadership learning programs. Beginning in 2011 with the Smithbucklin Leadership Learning Forum for top-performing employees at various levels within the company and followed two years later with the Smithbucklin Leadership Institute for board members of client associations, the programming has evolved to include two offerings under the brand Leadership’s Calling®. The Diverse Cohort Program is for CEOs and other C-suite executives, vice presidents, directors and managers at all levels, business owners, entrepreneurs, individual practitioners and high-potentials from all types and sizes of organizations representing varied industries and professions. The second offering is an exclusive program for a CEO (or head of an organization) and members of his/her senior management team, participating together.

In addition to his extensive body of knowledge and practice around effective, consequential leadership and management, Henry has developed a set of tools, techniques, frameworks, and processes that provide clarity, consistency, and accountability ensuring top performance from individual executives and executive teams. Henry’s CEO Tool Box includes: strategic thinking and action taking, setting and evaluating executive objectives, ongoing and end-of-year executive performance evaluations, quarterly board reporting, succession planning, and much more. 

In 2018, Henry was inducted into the prestigious Events Industry Council Hall of Leaders. In 2013, he was named the TSNN Industry Icon Award honoree by Trade Show News Network. Henry was honored with the 2008 Samuel B. Shapiro Award by the Association Forum of Chicagoland. The award is the Forum’s highest honor and is presented each year to a chief executive officer for his or her outstanding service and accomplishments. He was selected as one of the 18 Best Bosses for 2006 by Winning Workplaces, a national non-profit with the mission of helping leaders of small and midsize organizations create great workplaces. Also in 2006, the Destination Marketing Association International Foundation honored Henry and Smithbucklin with the prestigious Spirit of Hospitality Award, which is widely regarded as one of the highest honors in the hospitality industry. Tradeshow Week named Henry as one of the 100 most influential people in the tradeshow business in its October 2, 2006 edition.

Prior to rejoining Smithbucklin as CEO, Henry served as chairman, president and CEO of CourtLink Corporation, an online service for retrieving court records and electronically filing legal documents to and from our nation’s courts. He also earlier served as president and COO of Giga Information Group, an IT services company founded by Gideon Gartner, founder and former chairman of The Gartner Group.

Henry holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and both a B.S. and M.E. in operations research from Cornell University.

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