Speaker Descriptions

Keynote Speaker

George Barna
A native New Yorker, George Barna has filled executive roles in politics, marketing, advertising, media, research and ministry. He founded the Barna Research Group (now The Barna Group) in 1984 and helped it become the nation’s leading marketing research firm focused on the intersection of faith and culture. The company has served several hundred parachurch ministries and thousands of Christian churches throughout the country. It has also supplied research to numerous corporations and non-profit organizations, as well as the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army. To date, Barna has written 46 books, mostly addressing leadership, trends, church health and spiritual development. They include best-sellers such as “Revolution”, “Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions”, “The Frog in the Kettle”, and “The Power of Vision”. His most recent book is “Revolutionary Parenting”. Several of his books have received national awards. He has had more than 100 articles published in periodicals and writes a bi-weekly research report (The Barna Update) accessed by more than a million people each year, through his firm’s website (www.barna.org). His work is frequently cited as an authoritative source by the media. He has been hailed as “the most quoted person in the Christian Church today” and has been named by various media as one of the nation’s most influential Christian leaders. He is a popular speaker at ministry conferences around the world and has taught at Pepperdine and Biola Universities and several seminaries. Barna served as a pastor of a large, multiethnic church and has been involved in several church startups. Since 2005, he has been leading a house church. After graduating summa cum laude from Boston College, Barna earned two Master’s degrees from Rutgers University. At Rutgers, he was awarded the Eagleton Fellowship. He also received a doctorate from Dallas Baptist University. He lives with his wife (Nancy) and their three daughters (Samantha, Corban, Christine) in southern California. He enjoys reading novels, watching movies, playing guitar, and relaxing on the beach.

Investments Panelists

Candace Cox
Candace Cox is The Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board (MMBB) Chief Investment Officer and is leading the initiative to expand MMBB’s investment capability. She has built a distinguished career in the management of institutional assets, including serving as chief investment officer for some of the country’s largest pension funds. She is perhaps best known for her tenure in government when she was principal investment officer for the City of New York’s nine pension funds. In addition to her government service she has held senior investment positions in the private sector during a career spanning over twenty years.  Additionally, Ms. Cox has extensive investment experience in the not-for-profit sector, including the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association and the Financial Women’s Association. A graduate of Rutgers University, Ms. Cox also holds an M.B.A. degree in finance from New York University.

Celia Dallas
Celia is the Co-Director of Research at Cambridge Associates and a Managing Director. In her role as Co-Director of Research, Celia oversees the firm’s published research. She is responsible for establishing the firm’s view on asset allocation in the current environment and for editing and providing guidance to the various authors of the research reports produced by the firm. Celia specializes in topics involving capital markets and investment planning and has authored a variety of research reports throughout her tenure with the firm. In addition to her research responsibilities, she frequently leads discussions at the firm’s client roundtables, covering areas such as the current investment climate, trends in asset allocation, liquidity management, spending policy, TIPS, commodities, benchmarking, and portfolio risk measurement. Before Celia joined Cambridge Associates, she was a consultant for Harlan Brown & Co, a competitive intelligence consulting firm. In this position, she researched, wrote, and presented market analysis commissioned by Fortune 500 clients on a variety of consumer and industrial products. She also worked for the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), where she conducted research and wrote reports on retirement income security issues. Celia graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and received an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

Ken Leech
Ken Leech serves as the Chief Investment Officer, Emeritus of Western Asset Management Company, an institutional fixed-income manager and a wholly owned subsidiary of Legg Mason, Inc., based in Pasadena, California. Western Asset has $473 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2009. He joined the firm in 1990 and served as CIO from 1998 through April, 2008. Ken was named to the Fixed Income Analysts Society’s (FIASI) Hall of Fame in 2007. From 2002-2004, he served as a member of the U.S. Treasury Borrowing Committee. Ken and Western Asset were named Morningstar’s Fixed Income Manager of the Year in 2004, and one of four finalists in 2003 and 2006. 2009 marks Ken’s 33rd year in the bond market. His money management career has emphasized fixed income strategy and interest rate analysis. He was an early leader in the field of long duration fixed income management as well as in the utilization of futures and options in broad-based portfolios. He joined the firm in 1990 after managing proprietary portfolios for Greenwich Capital Markets and Credit Suisse First Boston and serving as the fixed-income strategist for CSFB’s Research department. In his four years at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Ken obtained three degrees while graduating summa cum laude: a Bachelor of Arts in History, a Bachelor of Science in Economics and an MBA in Finance.

Devotional Speakers

Rabbi Kenneth R. Leitner
Rabbi Kenneth R. Leitner was born and educated in California. He earned a BA in Sociology & Philosophy, received his MAHL and ordination as a rabbi from the Hebrew Union College. Following ordination, he was a Doctoral Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the Department of Talmud and was awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree (H.C.) by the Jewish Theological Seminary. Rabbi Leitner has served pulpits in California, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. In addition, he was the founding rabbi of both a community elementary day school, a supplementary High School for teens, and served on both the Board and Faculty of Lehrhaus Judaica at Stanford University.

Reverend Wayne Cobb
Rev. Wayne Cobb, pastor of The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Savannah, was born and raised in Salisbury, N.C. After serving in the United States Air Force, Pastor Cobb graduated from the University of North Carolina – Asheville in 1982 and then from the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, S.C. in 1986. He has served congregations in Brevard, Hickory, and Concord, North Carolina, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. Married to Ann for 32 years, they have been blessed with two children, Adam, age 25, and Elizabeth, age 22. Pastor Cobb currently serves as the Dean of the Ebenezer Conference of the Southeastern Synod - ELCA. 

Church Alliance Speaker

Judy Woodruff
Exclusively represented by the Washington Speakers Bureau

Judy Woodruff, one of the world’s most prominent female journalists, brings groundbreaking reporting experience, sharing insights into the changing political landscape. Through a combination of hard news and political experience, Judy Woodruff became a trusted voice and an admired broadcast journalist. Today, she is a senior correspondent for PBS’ The Newshour with Jim Lehrer and she has also contributed to a series of national reports on views of young Americans. Her tested experience and tough-minded journalistic acumen help audiences make political sense of the politically insensible. The former host of CNN’s Inside Politics, Woodruff brings decades of broadcast experience and coverage of eight presidential elections to the table as one of America’s most accomplished political journalists. In addition to her work for PBS, Woodruff also hosts Conversations with Judy Woodruff, a news interview program on Bloomberg Television.