Your New Leadership Imperative: Managing the Stakeholder Matrix across Government, Employees and the Public

Torie Clarke’s career spans leadership roles across the media, defense, technology and manufacturing sectors in public and private arenas. Throughout those roles, she emphasized collaboration with operational leaders to ensure that public affairs, brand strategy and business execution work in concert to achieve measurable results. She applied this model at the U.S. Department of Defense, ComcastNBC Universal, SAP and 3M, aligning enterprise-wide efforts to deliver cohesive strategies that support performance and business expansion. As assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, she directed global communications for the Department of Defense during periods of war and historic transformation. In the private sector, she has advised Fortune 100 companies and boards on reputation, policy and strategy as executive vice president and chief public affairs officer at 3M, head of global corporate affairs at SAP and senior advisor at Comcast. Torie is also the author of “Lipstick on a Pig: Winning In the No-Spin Era by Someone Who Knows the Game and A Survivor’s Guide to Washington.”

Mike Prokopeak is director of learning and council content for Ragan Communications, and the former vice president and editor in chief of Chief Learning Officer, Talent Management and Workforce magazines.

Ragan Communications is the industry leader in providing industry intelligence, professional development and training to professional communicators and marketers. In his current role, Mike directs content for Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council and Ragan Training.

Prior to joining Ragan, Mike served as vice president and editor in chief at Reworked, a digital native publication covering employee experience and the transformation of the workplace. As editor of Chief Learning Officer, he directed content for the company's award-winning magazines as well as online and in-person events including the CLO Symposium and CLO Breakfast Club and the CLO Learning Elite, the industry's leading benchmark program. Under his direction, the editorial team won more than three dozen awards for editorial excellence. He has been a featured speaker on issues of management, leadership and workforce development at a number of industry conferences.

Mike has also held a number of roles with leading publishing companies including Houghton Mifflin Co. and the Great Books Foundation. He began his journalism career in Flagstaff, Ariz., where he was an editor for Mountain Living Magazine and its sister publication, Flagstaff Live, both owned by Pulitzer Newspapers Inc. A former high school teacher and U.S. Peace Corps volunteer, Mike has deep experience in publishing, education and human resources.