DRiFT: When leaders Lose their way
FEBRUARY 23, 2023
Fort Collins, CO | 8:00 – 10:30 AM
Denver, CO | 12pm – 2:30pm
There is an unspoken crisis …
that can happen to every Christian leader in the marketplace, political world and non-profit arena. We call it DRIFT.
Every leader and every organization has to guard against losing or even abandoning their God-given moral compass and purpose. This challenge is especially prevalent when being a faith-driven leader is becoming increasingly counter-cultural.
When an entire culture DRIFTS in an un-Christ-like direction, the rip-tide currents of that DRIFT can suck even the greatest of Christian leaders off course with disastrous consequences.
In this common pursuit event co-sponsored by Kingdom Way Ministries and FCCI, you will be incredibly inspired and challenged through the story of Mark Whitacre, the highest-level executive to ever turn whistleblower in U.S. history. His undercover work with the FBI during the ADM scandal was the inspiration for the major motion picture, “The Informant,” starring Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre. Mark provides a one-of-a-kind insight into corporate ethics, greed, and the warnings signs of DRIFT!
At this event, you will be inspired and discover:
1.
The redemptive & restorative HOPE & HELP that is found in Christ regardless of where you find your current life and leadership.
2.
How to protect yourself and your organization from the both MORAL and MISSIONAL DRIFT.
3.
Proven practices and tools for swimming against the cultural tides of today to be intentional about making your work and ministry one through some of the practical examples of the largest Coca-Cola Bottling company in the nation: Coke-Consolidated!
About Mark Whitacre
Mark Whitacre is an Ivy League PhD and is considered by the FBI as the highest-ranked executive of any Fortune 500 company to become a whistleblower in U.S. history, and he was responsible for uncovering the ADM price-fixing scandal in the early 1990s. However, Mark makes it clear that it was actually his wife that forced him to expose the ADM case to the FBI and she is the true whistleblower of the ADM case.
Mark Whitacre has been actively engaged in the Faith at Work (Business as Mission) Movement the past two decades and he is currently the Executive Director of t-factor at Coca-Cola Consolidated, where Coca-Cola Consolidated is actively integrating faith in their workplace in order to be a purpose-driven organization, as described at their t-factor website: https://t-factor.com/
Mark’s undercover work, while in his early 30s, with the FBI during the ADM price-fixing scandal was the inspiration for the 2009 major motion picture, "The Informant," starring Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre, and the 2010 Investigation Discovery Channel documentary that was initiated by the FBI titled, “Undercover”, that is archived on Mark Whitacre’s website, www.markwhitacre.com . The book, "Mark Whitacre Against all Odds", describes the rest of the story about how faith has molded Mark's life the past 25 years since the ADM scandal. Mark’s story is mostly about how God transformed his life, and about redemption and second chances. It is an inspirational story about a family surviving against all odds.
After completing B.S. and M.S. degrees at Ohio State University, Mark then earned his Ph.D. degree at Cornell University in biochemistry (1983). After he completed his Ph.D., he worked for some Fortune 500 companies including Ralston Purina (now Nestle), Degussa (now Evonik), and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). Mark was hired at ADM, the 56th largest company on the Fortune 500 at the time, when he was 32 years of age. As the president of the BioProducts Division from its launch, he was the youngest divisional president in the history of the company. Mark quickly became Corporate Vice President of the company and was in line to be the next COO of ADM prior to ADM learning that he was an informant for the FBI.
Today, the four FBI agents involved with Whitacre's case tout him publicly as a "national hero" for his substantial assistance with one of the most important white-collar cases in history as seen in this short 2-minute FBI media clip: https://www.markwhitacre.com/fbibacksmark-hometown.html . And Douglas Burris, chief of U.S. Federal Probation in the Eastern District of Missouri, has stated publicly, "The story about Mark Whitacre's redemption and second chance is one of the most inspirational stories of our time."
Mark and his wife of 43 years, Ginger, have three grown children.
