General Stanley McChrystal

Praised for creating a revolution in warfare that fused intelligence and operations, four-star General Stanley McChrystal is the former commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan and led the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) that captured Saddam Hussein and killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Earlier, during the Persian Gulf War, he served in a Joint Special Operations Task Force and later commanded the 75th Ranger Regiment. In between, he completed year-long fellowships at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Council on Foreign Relations.

No wonder few people can speak about leadership, teamwork, and international affairs with as much insight as General McChrystal!

After 34 years of service, this West Point graduate and former Green Beret retired from the military in August 2010 and now serves on the board of directors for JetBlue Airways and the Yellow Ribbon Fund. He also travels around the country inspiring audiences with stories from his extraordinary career. He'll reveal a four-star management strategy – stressing openness, teamwork, and forward-thinking – when he addresses the Opening General Session at NECA 2011 San Diego.

Pension Plan Burden and Liability

Signatory contractors participating in defined benefit pension plans faced a perfect storm over the last few years, with a volatile investment market, legislative uncertainty, and external accounting organizations offering new rules on financial reporting for these funds. The industry has weathered this round of issues, but there are continuing clouds on the horizon.

Join us for an in depth presentation on the future of the Pension Protection Act (set to expire in 2014); actuarial considerations in the light of the recent Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB)efforts to impose more stringent reporting requirements on contractors; and an update from president-elect Dennis Quebe, chairman of NECA’s Labor Relations Task Force, on what NECA is doing to educate and prepare member contractors about the current and future state of local pension funds and potential options and actions that can be taken to remain competitive.

Steven Farber

An expert in business leadership and a frequent guest on talk shows around the country, Steve Farber is a senior-level leadership coach and consultant to a wide variety of public and private organizations in virtually every arena – from the tech sector to financial services, manufacturing, health care, hospitality, entertainment, retail, and even the U.S. government. He is also president and CEO of Extreme Leadership, Inc., and he'll inspire NECA conventioneers in the extreme at our Closing General Session in San Diego with a style that is part strategist, part social commentator, part comedian, and all energy.

Farber was director of service programs at TMI, an international training consultancy, and then worked for six years as The Tom Peters Company's Vice President and Official Mouthpiece (really) before founding Extreme Leadership and co-founding the Center for Social Profit Leadership. He is also a published author, and his latest work, Greater Than Yourself, has been called "a path-breaking book that brings to life the ultimate leadership lesson – that the highest purpose of our work is the development of other leaders."