Nike, Portland State University, Portland General Electric, and the Oregon Natural Step Network will kick off the second installment of The Millennium Speaker Series: Perspectives on Change on Wednesday, Dec. 6th with farmer, environmentalist and humorist Joel Salatin. The lecture is free, and will take place in room 298 at Portland State University's Smith Memorial located at 1825 SW Broadway in downtown Portland.

As one of America's truly most dynamic and innovative farmers, Salatin has combined science, art and ideas from nature to create a farm that is highly profitable while producing zero waste. His farm, Polyface Inc., is a result of three generations of alternative farming and has been featured in the Smithsonian Magazine and National Geographic as well as countless other radio, television and print media. Profiled on the Lives of the 21st Century series with Peter Jennings on ABC World News, his after-broadcast chat room fielded more hits than any other segment to date.

The concept for the Millennium Speaker Series developed in the spring of 1999 when members of Nike's Corporate Responsibility division began speaking with local partners about the company's Sustainability Initiative, an internal action-learning program that would convene a group of employees with internationally renowned experts in the fields of sustainability and organizational change four times over the course of the year.

The program created a lot of excitement, and prompted the greater question of how companies with the resources to bring in high-profile experts to speak to their employees could turn outward and share those resources with the community for the benefit of even greater learning. From that initial idea came the Millennium Speaker Series, a community speaker series on the global issues of sustainability and organizational change, aptly titled Perspectives on Change.

"The Millennium Speakers Series is a way for Nike, and other organizations, to extend beyond themselves and create a greater forum on issues people care about in our community," commented Sarah Severn, Nike's Director of Corporate Responsibility Development.

How it works and will continue to work, is truly through the goodwill of the speakers themselves: after contracting to speak for Nike or a partnering organization, they then come to speak at PSU that same evening to the greater Portland community – for free.

The first installment of speakers included Dr. Karl-Henrik Robert of The Natural Step and cultural minister to the Republic of Slovenia Miha Pogacnik, visionary architect William McDonough, co-author of Natural Capitalism Paul Hawken, and Boston Pops Philharmonic conductor and co-author of The Art of Possibility Ben Zander.

The goal now is to continue to evolve the Millennium Speaker Series as a community forum on global issues by working closely with our partners – PSU, PGE and the Oregon Natural Step Network – to identify the opportunities.

NIKE, Inc., headquartered in Beaverton, Ore., markets its products in more than 100 countries and is the world's leading authentic sports and fitness company.

Nike Inc.

Nike Inc.

NIKE, Inc. based near Beaverton, Oregon, is the world's leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities. Wholly-owned NIKE subsidiaries include Converse Inc., which designs, markets and distributes athletic lifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories and Hurley International LLC, which designs, markets and distributes surf and youth lifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories. For more information, visit www.nikeinc.com.

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