James Burkhard, Managing Director of IHS CERA’s Global Oil Group, leads the team of IHS CERA experts that analyze and assess upstream and downstream business conditions and strategies. His team also develops and maintains detailed short- and long-term outlooks for global crude oil and refined products markets. Mr. Burkhard’s expertise covers geopolitics, world economic conditions, and global oil demand and supply trends. He works closely with IHS CERA clients in assessing how market, economic, and political risks could change the competitive environment. He also works with companies to assess business opportunities in both the upstream and downstream sectors.

Mr. Burkhard was the project director of Dawn of a New Age: Global Energy Scenarios for Strategic Decision Making—The Energy Future to 2030, the most comprehensive study that IHS CERA has ever undertaken, encompassing the oil, gas, and electricity sectors. He was also the director of the IHS CERA Multiclient Study Potential versus Reality: West African Oil & Gas to 2020. He is also the coauthor of IHS CERA’s respected World Oil Watch, which analyzes short- to medium-term developments in the oil market. In addition to leading IHS CERA’s oil research, Mr. Burkhard served on the US National Petroleum Council (NPC) committee that provided recommendations on US oil and gas policy to the US Secretary of Energy. He led the team that developed demand-oriented recommendations that were published in the 2007 NPC report Facing the Hard Truths About Energy.

Before joining IHS CERA Mr. Burkhard was a member of the United States Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa. He directed infrastructure projects to improve water availability and credit facilities. He was a field operator for Rod Electric. Mr. Burkhard holds a BA from Hamline University and an MS from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

At the age of 36, Mike Abrashoff was selected to become Commander of U.S.S. Benfold, at the time he was the most junior commanding officer in the Pacific Fleet. The challenges were staggering with exceptionally low morale and poor performance results.

Few thought that this ship could improve, but Mike only became more resolved. By instilling a sense of urgency and by creating an atmosphere of commitment to excellence, Benfold became the best ship in the Pacific Fleet.

“A lot of people do whatever it takes to secure the next promotion. All I ever wanted to do in the navy was to command a ship. I did not care if I ever got promoted again. And that attitude enabled me to focus solely on results instead of doing the right things for my career. Along the way, it was my people that created the results that ensured my next promotion.”

The solution was a system of beliefs that Mike calls GrassRoots Leadership. A process of replacing command and control with commitment and cohesion, by engaging the hearts, minds, and loyalties of workers – a belief that Mike achieves with conviction and humility. “The most important thing that a captain can do is to see the ship through the eyes of the crew.” This meant interviewing every single person on his ship, from the most senior officer to the lowest recruit. It was an experience that began to generate invaluable ideas, often from unexpected sources.

GrassRoots leadership is a principle that inspires every individual to share the responsibility of achieving excellence. “It’s your ship,” Mike was known to say. To this day, his former sailors still remind him of it.

By every measure, these principles were able to achieve breakthrough results. Personnel turnover decreased to an unprecedented 1% and operating expenses were slashed by 25%. The U.S.S. Benfold became regarded as the finest ship in the Pacific Fleet, winning the prestigious Spokane Trophy for having the highest degree of combat readiness.

Mike’s leadership skills have been honed through a number of challenging roles. Prior to commanding U.S.S. Benfold, Mike served as the military assistant to the Secretary of Defense, the Honorable Dr. William J. Perry. In this demanding role, Mike accompanied the Secretary of Defense throughout the world on critical missions of national security.

Mike’s book, It's Your Ship, is a fascinating tale of top-down change for anyone trying to navigate today’s uncertain business seas. His next book, Get Your Ship Together, was released in January 2005.

Mike is now an experienced entrepreneur having co-founded four companies that are all growing and expanding in these tough economic times.

Mike is originally from Altoona, Pennsylvania, and is a 1982 graduate of the Naval Academy of Annapolis. He currently lives in Virginia.

Steven A. Ballmer is Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of software for personal and business computing. Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 and was the first business manager hired by Bill Gates. Since then, Ballmer's leadership and passion have become hallmarks of his tenure at the company.

Ballmer and the company's business and technical leaders are focused on continuing Microsoft's innovation and leadership across the company's core businesses. Microsoft's goal is to provide an integrated platform to enable a seamless experience across a wide range of computing and non-PC devices and services.

Variously described as ebullient, focused, funny, passionate, sincere, hard-charging and dynamic, Ballmer has infused Microsoft with his own brand of energetic leadership, vision and spirit over the years.

Ballmer was born in March 1956, and grew up near Detroit, where his father worked as a manager at Ford Motor Co. He graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and economics. While in college, Ballmer managed the football team, worked on the Harvard Crimson newspaper as well as the university literary magazine, and lived down the hall from fellow sophomore Bill Gates. After college, he worked for two years at Procter & Gamble Co. as an assistant product manager and, before joining Microsoft, attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business.