Weeks

Wendell P. Weeks, chairman and CEO of Corning Inc., will deliver the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management’s 27th Durland Lecture Monday, Nov. 17, at 4:30 p.m. in the Bill & Melinda Gates Hall auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public with limited seating.

Corning is one of the world’s leading innovators in materials science. For more than 160 years, Corning has applied its expertise in specialty glass, ceramics and optical physics to develop products that have created new industries and transformed people’s lives. Corning succeeds through sustained investment in research and development, material and process innovation, and close collaboration with customers to solve technology challenges. Corning’s businesses and markets are constantly evolving. Today, Corning products enable diverse industries such as consumer electronics, telecommunications, transportation and life sciences.

Weeks’ career at Corning has spanned 31 years of working in financial, business development, commercial and general management roles, including strategic positions in the company’s television, specialty glass and telecommunications businesses. Weeks was named Corning CEO in 2005 and chairman of the board in 2007. Previously, he served as chief operating officer and helped lead the company’s restructuring and return to profitability following the telecom industry crash. Weeks is a graduate of Lehigh University and earned a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University as a Baker Scholar.

The Durland Lecture series was initiated in 1983 by Roy H. Park and a group of supporters. Durland lecturers have included Thomas W. Jones ’69, co-chairman and CEO of Citigroup’s SSB Citi Asset Management Group; Abby Joseph Cohen ‘73, managing director of Goldman, Sachs and Co.; Mark Bertolini, MBA ’84, CEO of Aetna; and Lucio A. Noto, MBA ’62, chairman and CEO of Mobil Corp.