The first annual Corporate Leadership and Sustainability Summit (CLASS) will be held October 23rd and 24th, 2008 at the Hagerty Center in Traverse City.

The summit is sponsored by The Utopia Foundation, the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce and Northwestern Michigan College. It's designed to provide for-profit and non-profit business leaders, managers and social entrepreneurs the opportunity to learn practical methods of turning good ideas and intentions into solutions that support corporate values and address global economic, social and environmental challenges in our communities and around the world.

CLASS will lead off with Chris Laszlo, Ph.D, whose topic is "Sustainable Value: How the World's Leading Companies Are Doing Well by Doing Good!" Other presenters include author James C. Hunter, Chandran Nair, CEO of Global Institute for Tomorrow, Matthew Neagle (the Community Affairs Lead at Google) and Evan Thomas, NASA Aerospace Engineer and founder of the Engineers Without Borders - Johnson Space Center chapter.

Utopia Foundation Chairman Paul Sutherland says "We believe the first annual Utopia Foundation CLASS will set the stage for decades of profitable and humanitarian collaboration, investment ideas, opportunities and charitable activities. This seminar will be profitable for corporate and social leaders who want to ensure that they have their fingers on the pulse of opportunities that yield both profit and humanitarian good."

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