Montgomery keynote speaker for leadership, manufacturing, and association events.
Chris Sund is a keynote speaker, Maxwell Leadership Certified Coach, and sitting executive who leads national healthcare staffing organizations. He speaks on workforce motivation, leadership, retention, and human potential for Alabama associations, manufacturers, health systems, state agencies, universities, and employers across the River Region.
Response within one business day.
The Air Force decided a century ago that leadership has to be taught. Most employers in the same city still think you pick it up.
Montgomery is the one place in America where that contrast sits inside a single zip code, and almost nobody says it out loud.
Maxwell-Gunter is the county’s leading employer with roughly twelve thousand seven hundred jobs, and the base supports something like forty two thousand active duty, reserve, civilian, contract personnel, students and families. Its largest tenant is Air University, the Air Force’s center for professional military education, running enlisted and officer PME, professional continuing education, graduate education, and commissioning through Officer Training School and ROTC. Around four thousand military and civilian personnel run it. The Wright brothers opened a flight school on this ground in 1910, and Montgomery has been in the business of teaching people since.
Now drive a few miles. Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama employs around forty two hundred people as the county’s largest manufacturing employer, supporting better than fourteen thousand direct and indirect jobs across the state. Baptist Health, Montgomery Public Schools, ALFA Insurance, Jackson Hospital, Rheem, and the State of Alabama employ tens of thousands more. And most of them promote supervisors the way nearly every civilian employer does, by finding the strongest individual performer and handing them a team, with no training beforehand and not much afterward.
The military figured out a long time ago that leading people is a discipline with content, that it can be taught, and that failing to teach it costs lives. Civilian employers in the same city still largely treat it as a personality trait. That is why the best nurse becomes a charge nurse who cannot run a shift, and the best technician becomes a supervisor who loses three people in a year.
This session is about the part nobody trained them on. Not strategy, not management systems, but what a person actually does on an ordinary Tuesday to make someone want to keep working for them. In a city that already believes leadership can be taught, that argument does not need defending.
Chris is a Maxwell Leadership Certified Coach and runs national healthcare staffing organizations, and has keynoted state association conferences in eleven states, including LeadingAge Illinois and health care associations in Iowa, Montana, South Dakota, and Colorado.
Operator, Not Consultant
President and COO of national healthcare staffing organizations, still making the hiring and retention calls he speaks about.
Leadership Is Trainable
A Maxwell Leadership Certified Coach working from the same premise Air University was built on, that this is content rather than temperament.
Shift-Friendly Formats
Sessions built to run more than once in a day so plant shifts and clinical nights are not left out.
Groups Chris speaks for.
Montgomery combines Alabama state government with a major defense installation, a large automotive manufacturing base, and the region’s hospitals, which puts a wide mix of leadership audiences in one metro.
- Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, the county’s largest manufacturing employer with roughly forty two hundred people, along with Hyundai MOBIS, Lear, DAS North America, Gerhardi, and the supplier network
- Baptist Health System and Jackson Hospital and Clinic, the region’s major hospital employers, for nurse leadership, all-staff, and recognition events
- State of Alabama agencies and departments, concentrated in the capital, along with the Alabama National Guard headquarters, for in-service and leadership development days
- Maxwell-Gunter civilian workforce and mission partners, including the Air Force Business and Enterprise Systems Directorate and the base’s forty-plus partner organizations, for civilian leadership and development events
- Alabama statewide associations in hospital, long-term care, municipal, school board, and manufacturing sectors, which convene members and hold advocacy days in the capital
- Alabama State University, Auburn University at Montgomery, Faulkner University, and Troy University’s Montgomery campus
- ALFA Insurance, Rheem Manufacturing, Montgomery Public Schools, and the city and county governments
Montgomery employers promoting without training.
Healthcare is where Chris operates, but the untrained supervisor is the shared problem across this economy.
Automotive Manufacturing
Hyundai and its supplier network, where team leaders come off the line and inherit a crew with no preparation for leading one.
State and Local Government
Agencies where technical expertise gets rewarded with a supervisory title and leadership development happens through in-service days.
Education
Montgomery Public Schools and the metro districts, where the same pattern turns strong teachers into unsupported administrators.
Insurance and Distribution
ALFA, the regional distribution sector, and the employers staffing the River Region’s wholesale and logistics base.
Montgomery and River Region venues.
- The Montgomery Convention Center and downtown hotel space for statewide association annual meetings
- The Alabama State Capitol and surrounding state office buildings for agency in-service and leadership sessions
- Manufacturing and supplier sites across Montgomery County for shift-friendly all-hands sessions
- Baptist Health and Jackson Hospital campuses for staff, nurse leadership, and all-staff days
- Alabama State University, AUM, Faulkner, and Troy Montgomery for campus and staff programming
- Prattville, Wetumpka, Millbrook, and the River Region, with Birmingham, Huntsville, and Mobile for organizations that rotate their meeting location
Montgomery events Chris speaks at.
Leadership Development Days
Supervisor and frontline leader training for organizations promoting strong performers into people leadership.
Manufacturing and Plant Meetings
All-hands gatherings, shift meetings, safety kickoffs, and employee appreciation events.
Association Conferences
Statewide association annual meetings, advocacy days, and general sessions, the format Chris works in most often.
Hospital and Health System Events
Leadership days, nurse recognition events, and all-staff meetings.
University and Student Leadership
Campus leadership programming, student organization events, and staff development.
HR and SHRM Chapter Events
Human resources conferences and chapter meetings on building a supervisor bench rather than hoping for one.
Keynote topics for your Montgomery event.
Every session is customized for the audience, the format, and what you are actually trying to change.
See what conference organizers and HR leaders have said after booking Chris.
Booking a keynote speaker in Montgomery
Has Chris spoken in Alabama before?
Does Chris travel to Montgomery?
We promote our best performers into supervision. Is that wrong?
Will this land with a plant floor audience?
Can the session run for multiple shifts?
What does a Montgomery keynote cost?
Can Chris speak virtually to an Alabama audience?
Bring Chris to your Montgomery event.
Send your date, location, and audience. You will get availability and a quote back within one business day.
info@chrissund.com · 402-212-5771 · Alabama speaking · All locations