SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Franklin Covey Co. (NYSE: FC), a global performance improvement company that creates and distributes world-class content, training, processes, tools, and services that organizations and individuals use to transform their results, announced today the appointment of Derek C.M. van Bever to its Board of Directors, effective immediately.
“I am so pleased and honored to be asked to join the Franklin Covey board,” said Mr. van Bever. “We were blessed at the Advisory Board Company to discover Stephen Covey's work and insights at a pivotal time in our history, and I look forward to helping Franklin Covey achieve this same level of impact with the leadership teams of forward-thinking organizations worldwide.”
Mr. van Bever is a Senior Lecturer in the General Management Unit at the Harvard Business School. Derek teaches courses in the Harvard MBA program, including “Leadership and Corporate Accountability” and “Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise,” and he is the faculty lead for Dr. Clay Christensen’s Executive Education course entitled “Disruptive Innovation.” Mr. van Bever is also the Director of the Forum for Growth and Innovation, a research project sponsored by Professor Christensen that is focused on discovering, developing, and disseminating predictive theory on management and innovation.
In 1983, Derek co-founded The Advisory Board Company (NASDAQ: ABCO), a global research, consulting, and technology firm serving hospital and university executives, and was a member of the founding executive team of The Corporate Executive Board (NYSE: CEB), a global thought leadership and advisory network, which spun out of the Advisory Board Company in a highly successful 1999 Initial Public Offering. In his role as Chief Research Officer for the Corporate Executive Board, Derek directed teams studying best practices in strategy, innovation, talent management, finance and governance in the large-corporate sector worldwide. Following the IPO, Mr. van Bever oversaw the development and launch of Corporate Executive Board’s new practice areas and he led the development of the firm’s internal corporate academy. Derek also co-authored the book Stall Points, an analysis of the growth experience of the Fortune 100 across the past half-century, which was published by Yale University Press in 2008. Bob Whitman, Franklin Covey’s Chairman and CEO, said, “We are thrilled to welcome Derek to our Board of Directors. We believe Derek’s experience, thought leadership, and expertise in business growth, innovation, subscription businesses and strategy will be an extremely valuable addition to our Board of Directors and to the direction of our Company.”
Mr. van Bever received his Masters of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School in 1988, and is a 2011 graduate of Harvard Divinity School. His divinity school thesis, “A Mission Beyond Commerce,” examines the challenges to personal and corporate mission posed by pivot points such as a change of ownership or leadership transition and suggests practices and disciplines for retaining a sense of perspective in the “high hurry” of business life.
Derek has been appointed to Chair the Company’s Innovation Committee and to serve on the Company’s Growth Committee and on its Nominating and Governance Committee.
About Franklin Covey Co.
Franklin Covey Co. (NYSE:FC) (www.franklincovey.com) is a global, public company specializing in organizational performance improvement. We help organizations and individuals achieve results that require a change in human behavior. Our expertise is in seven areas: leadership, execution, productivity, trust, sales performance, customer loyalty and education. Over its history, Franklin Covey clients have included 90% of the Fortune 100, more than 75% of the Fortune 500, thousands of small and mid-sized businesses, as well as numerous government entities and educational institutions. Franklin Covey has more than 100 direct and partner offices providing professional services in over 150 countries and territories.
