For Immediate Release
August 19, 2008

Ethos Water founder, Starbucks Vice President to speak at Best Practices Conference hosted by UCR Extension

RIVERSIDE, CALIF. — Three top international business leaders — Peter Thum, Vice President of Starbucks and founder of Ethos Water; W. Paul Worstell, a 2007 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient; and Michelle Marquard, director of Worldwide Learning for Cisco Systems — will speak this September at UCR Extension.

Thum, Worstell and Marquard are the keynote speakers for this year's California Council for Excellence (CCE) Best Practices Conference. The conference begins Wednesday, September 24, 2008 and ends Friday, September 26, 2008. The theme for this year's conference is "Mission: Continuous Improvement." All sessions will be held at UCR Extension, 1200 University Ave., Riverside.

Thum will share his entrepreneurial vision that by selling expensive bottled water in developed countries, partial proceeds from those sales can help people in underdeveloped nations who are dying because of unsanitary water conditions. Thum's goal is to contribute more than $10 million to safe drinking water projects around the world by 2010. Thum speaks at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 26.

Worstell, president of PRO-TEC Coating Company, will talk about the leadership management and business strategies that enabled his small business to win the Baldrige Award. Criteria for the award include: leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; human resource focus; process management; and business results. Worstell will speak at 8:45 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 26.

Marquard, Worldwide Learning director for Cisco Systems, has implemented innovative techniques for professional development, which include the use of Web 2.0 technologies and social learning theory. Marquard will speak at 12 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 25.

Participants in the three-day conference will learn about: the Baldrige Award; ISO 9000; Continuous Process Improvement; the California Team Excellence Award; Six Sigma; Ownership, Responsibility and Accountability; and Project Management.

For detailed information about CCE's Best Practices Conference, call (800) 442-4990. Lodging for out-of-town guests has been arranged at the historic Mission Inn in downtown Riverside. Call (800) 843-7755 to make room reservations.

To receive a free UCR Extension catalog, call (951) 827-3806. To register for classes, visit www.extension.ucr.edu or call (951) 827-4105 or toll-free at (800) 442-4990.

UCR Extension is the continuing education division of the University of California, Riverside. Extension offers more than 3,800 courses and 90 certificate programs in a variety of academic programs, including agriculture and landscape, arts and humanities, business and management, education, teacher's credentialing, English, environmental management, forensic investigations and public safety, geospatial analysis and technology, health services and behavioral sciences, information technology, languages, law and public policy, Native American studies, natural sciences and yoga.