Alexander Payne, the award-winning film director, screenwriter and producer will address the 22nd Annual Leadership 100 Conference, February 7-10, 2013, at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel in Dana Point California, announced Charles H. Cotros, Leadership 100 Chairman. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Alexander Payne earned his MFA in Film at UCLA.  He made his feature film debut with Citizen Ruth (1996) and followed up with Election (1999), which won Best Screenplay from the Writers' Guild of America and the New York Film Critics Circle, as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.  About Schmidt (2002), premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and opened the New York Film Festival.  Both Sideways(2004) and his latest film, The Descendants (2011), won Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and were nominated for four others, including Best Picture and Best Director.

The 22nd Annual Leadership 100 Conference will also feature an opening address on February 7 by Michael S. Johnson of Denver, Colorado, a member of Leadership 100 and an award-winning petroleum geologist recognized for his contribution to the discovery of Parshall Field in North Dakota, one of the world’s major oil discoveries, and Mary J. Mitchell of Omaha, Nebraska, also a member of Leadership 100 and the author of Drawn to Fashion, who will speak at the Saturday Program, February 9, on her 30-year career as a fashion illustrator for top designers and major department stores.

Johnson was born in Maryville, Missouri, of Greek immigrant parents. His interest in the oil business began when his family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1931, then called the oil capital of the U.S. He graduated from The Ohio State University with a B.Sc. degree in 1947 and an M.S. degree in 1949, both in geology. Mitchell was born Mary Kasfasis to Greek immigrant parents in South Buffalo, New York, and graduated from the Albright Art School in conjunction with the University of Buffalo.

The Conference will include the traditional Bible Study and Lecture by His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, additional speakers to be announced, the festive Glendi on Friday, February 8, and Grand Banquet on Saturday evening, February 9. The theme of the Conference is The Leadership 100 Legacy of Giving. The Archbishop Iakovos Leadership 100 Endowment Fund, Inc. is a 501(c)3 charitable organization founded in 1984. Today it has some 880 members, Greek Orthodox leaders from across the nation and abroad. More than $33 million in grants have been distributed for scholarship funds for Holy Cross School of Theology to prepare future priests; and for support of Youth, Camping and Young Adult Ministries, Interfaith Marriage and Family Ministries, Information Technologies and Internet Ministries, Stewardship, Outreach and Evangelism, Religious and Greek Education, Parish Development and Inter-Orthodox, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations. Humanitarian assistance has also been provided during major national and international crises.