9.05.2006 - 12:01pm ET

(CSRwire) Roseland, NJ - Two blockbuster keynotes lead off the 2006 FAO World Conference, with the promise to answer Financial and Administrative Outsourcing skeptics' big question--where are FAO's next successes coming from?

Leading off the conference will be Wayne Mincey, President of The Hackett Group, a strategic advisory firm and a world leader in best practice research, benchmarking, and business transformation services that enable executives to achieve world-class enterprise performance. Mincey's speech, "$116 Million Reasons to Believe the World Really is Flat" will present new Hackett perspectives that will address the issue directly. For over three decades, Hackett's data has been recognized as representing the most authoritative business process operational benchmarks. Hackett backs up its research and advice across SG&A and supply chain activities with performance metrics obtained through 3,500 benchmark studies over 14 years at 2,100 of the world's leading companies, including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials.

The second keynote slot is filled ably by Galen Johnson, Global Corporate Controller of Cargill, the $71 billion, 149,000-employee food, agricultural and risk management giant. As America's largest privately-held company, Cargill has also maintained stellar credit ratings and set industry standards for corporate reporting. Galen Johnson, to whom all of Cargill's operating company controllers report, has also set new standards for operating efficiencies and effectiveness in his outsourced relationships with FAO providers. Johnson's presentation, "FAO's Illusive Tri-Fecta: Control, Transparency, Cost-Effectiveness," gives Johnson's practical advice for sourcing success in a private company, debt-issuer setting. Many of Johnson's lessons also apply to public companies.

The 2006 FAO World Conference takes place on October 31, 2006 at the Marriott Financial Center New York, just blocks from Wall Street. Registration information and a full agenda of speakers and features can be found at www.FAOWorld.com.

The 2006 FAO World Conference is paired up with The CRO Conference, which will take place in the same hotel on the following day, November 1, 2006. The CRO Conference will be attended by members of The CRO, the organization for business leaders who believe that Corporate Responsibility is good for company's financial health, and will address the state-of-the-art in compliance, sustainability, ethics and governance. Members of The CRO gain admission to both FAO World and The CRO Conference. Cost-effective membership and conference admission information can be found at www.TheCRO.com. The CRO Conference is chaired by Michael Connor, Executive Editor and Publisher of The CRO Magazine (which includes the contents of Connor's Business Ethics Magazine), with 20,000 subscribers. The CRO Conference's agenda can be found at www.TheCRO.com.

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