Facilitator

Earning leadership’s invitation and delivering on its promise depend not on whom our teachers are or what books we read, but on what we do with the lessons we learn.

Henry S. Givray

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 achieved unprecedented success since its founding in 1949, including client satisfaction and retention, employee engagement, company growth, and financial performance. Fulfilling his vision and dream to make Smithbucklin a 100-percent-employee-owned company, Henry led the transfer of the company’s ownership from its financial investors to its more than 700 employees in 2005. The Smithbucklin Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) allows every employee, regardless of position, tenure or compensation, an equal opportunity to acquire ownership in the company.

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.

Henry is a dedicated, ongoing student of leadership, committed to speaking and writing as a way to teach and give back. 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 Henry’s most enduring achievements has been his 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 varies 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.