Keynote Speaker, Donna A. James

Lardon & Associates, LLC

Donna James is the managing director of Lardon & Associates LLC and a corporate director for three Fortune 500 public companies. As the former president of Nationwide Strategic Investments and a former executive vice president for Nationwide Insurance and Financial Services, Donna has over 25 years of diverse business leadership experience at the highest corporate levels. A formal education and beginning as an accounting professional with PricewaterhouseCoopers provided the foundation for her effectiveness in both business and community endeavors. During her corporate career, she had a unique opportunity to link financial decisions and business initiatives to well-defined people strategies as the senior vice president for human resources. She gained broader experience in global administrative services before becoming president of a diversified financial services division.

As president of Nationwide Strategic Investments, she had direct responsibility for five U.S and global based affiliates, plus a venture capital fund. She also led a new business innovation team with responsibility for discovering, analyzing, and commercializing emerging opportunities. Prior to this assignment she was an executive vice president and chief administrative officer, which included global responsibility for human capital management, corporate real estate, procurement, security, technology, public relations, advertising, brand management, and aviation.

In her roles as a corporate director for Limited Brands, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Conseco Inc, Time Warner Cable, and previously Intimate Brands, she has experience serving on the governance, audit, affiliated transaction, compensation, and inclusion committees. She currently chairs the audit committees for Limited Brands and Coca-Cola Enterprises, and previously chaired the special committee for Intimate Brands recombination with Limited Brands. As the managing director of Lardon & Associates LLC, she provides advice and counsel to businesses through their board of directors and senior leadership on governance, new business development, strategy, financial oversight, and organizational leadership development.

In her community, Donna is the founder and chair of the Center for Healthy Families, a non-profit focused on transforming the lives of pregnant and parenting teens and their children. She is also a board member for Ohio Health, the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, and the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio. She serves as an advisor to the North Carolina A and T State University School of Business and as Program Director for the African American Leadership Academy. Past community roles include: United Way of America Board of Governors; Bennett College for Women Board of Trustees; chair of the YWCA of Columbus; I Know I Can Board of Trustees; Nationwide Federal Credit Union; and the Wexner Center for the Arts.

She has received several recognitions – 2008 Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame Inductee; elected to the National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Hall of Fame in 2007; named in 2005 by Black Enterprise Magazine as one of the top 75 in Corporate America; received the national Beta Gamma Sigma Business Achievement Award; recipient of an honorary doctorate from Tiffin University, and the YWCA Women of Achievement Award.

Donna is the wife of attorney Larry James, partner with Crabbe, Brown, & James in Columbus, Ohio. They have two adult children, Christopher and Justin, and five grandchildren.