The Wharton Economic Summit:
Keynote Speakers
(Updated)

John Resnick

John Resnick is the creator and host of the nationally syndicated radio program, Legends of Success with John Resnick . The show includes rare one-hour interviews with America's top CEO's and business leaders including Jack Welch of General Electric; Jon Huntsman, Founder & Chairman of Huntsman Corporation; Steve Forbes, President & CEO of Forbes, Inc.; Howard Schultz, Chairman of Starbucks; Evelyn H. Lauder, Senior Corporate Vice President of The Estee Lauder Companies; William Randolph Hearst, III, and many others.

Legends of Success debuted on January 12, 2002, on a single station in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and is now syndicated on over 100 affiliates and 58 digital cable television systems (audio channels) in the United States. A major objective of the program is to share the personal journeys of how America's most successful business icons overcame obstacles and setbacks to make it to the top. Mr. Resnick strongly believes that it is vital to foster the entrepreneurial spirit of our students and young people by providing them with astute role models who have accomplished the dreams to which these new entrepreneurs aspire.

John Resnick is also a nationally recognized business succession and estate planner with Resnick Associates, a second generation firm with offices in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Overland Park, Kansas. For more than 20 years, Mr. Resnick has worked with successful family business owners throughout America in designing life insurance, business succession and estate plans to enable them to survive from generation to generation.

Mr. Resnick has served as an adjunct professor of Family-Owned Business studies at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and has lectured at The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Florida State University, Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, Penn State Dickinson School of Law, Widener University School of Law, and numerous others. In 2007, John was invited to be the course instructor of "Due Diligence of Trust Owned Life Insurance" conducted by Bucknell University for the Pennsylvania Bankers School of Trust & Wealth Management.

John and his wife Billie Dietz Resnick, Esq. were recently invited by the American Bar Association to co-author two of the ABA's upcoming national books, “Life Insurance Due Care”, 3rd Edition, and “Estate Planning and Business Succession – A Survival Guide For Serious Family Business Owners”, which are expected to be released in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Mr. Resnick's courses on life insurance, business succession, and buy-sell agreements have been certified by the Pennsylvania Board of Accountancy for continuing education and have been attended by over 2,000 CPAs. Mr. Resnick is a board member of the Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers based at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. His articles have been published by newspapers and business journals throughout the U.S., including The Wall Street Journal and Commerce Clearing House (CCH) Journal of Practical Estate Planning on assessing the risks of universal life and variable universal life insurance. John is a regular contributor of personal interviews with America's top family business leaders in Family Business Magazine, a national publication.

In November 2006, John conducted his first Legends Live event featuring keynote speakers Steve Forbes of Forbes magazine and Dr. Patrick T. Harker, Dean of the Wharton School. The sold-out event paid special tribute to The Vista School of Central Pennsylvania, an organization assisting young children with autism.

John, his wife Billie and son Ethan live near Harrisburg, Pa.