Lunch with Kivi Bernhard
Chabad of Melbourne CBD recently hosted Kivi Bernhard, one of the worlds 10 top Platform Speakers, as its Guest Lecturer at a recent lunch.
Kivi Bernhard talks to Chabad
His topic was, “The Jew – The journeys of an orthodox Jew keynoting to fortune 500 corporations across the globe amongst them Micro Soft – Mitsubishi – and ING”
the 2nd largest insurance company in the world.
Bernhard has appeared on national media including CBS NBC FOX and PBS.
His business book, “Leopardology” – The Hunt for Profit in a Tough Global Economy, (Morgan James 2009) Kivi Bernhard has received accolades from the top CEO’S and best selling authors. In fact Leopardology was incorporated into the MBA program of Kennesaw State University, Coles School of Business for 2007, and he has received accolades from several Ivy League business schools in America.
One of the stories he told at the Chabad of Melbourne CBD today was about being rung up the assistant of Bill Gates of Micro Soft and being asked to be their Platform Speaker on February 11th which happened to be a Shabbos.
He answered, sorry, I can do it on the 10th or the 12th of Feb. but not the 11th.
Two days later they rang back and offered him more money and stated this is Micro Soft we are talking about and their main convention of the year. He gave them the same answer either the 10th or the 12th but not the 11th.
Two weeks later her received a call from Bill Gates himself, “I will pay you double your rate and again he was told not the 11th, why Mr. Gates asked and Kivi answered because its my Sabbath and I don’t work on my Sabbath.
Mr. Gates told his assistant I never met anyone that can’t be bought one way or another but Kivi Bernhard can’t be bought. Reorganize the the convention so that he can speak on Sunday the 12th of February. One thing that we cannot buy is the Jewish Sabbath.
Beyond his speaking ability, it is the unique synthesis of his background as a Rabbinic Student and Yeshiva Graduate, international business student, judo medalist, trauma life support paramedic, advanced teacher of Chassidic thought and philosophy, passionate wild life enthusiast that make Kivi Bernhard such an experience to listen to. It is this unique merger of Jew and Human being that has allowed Kivi to explore the ultimate “inside” story this thing the secular world call, “The Jew”.
Rabbi Chaim Herzog the Shliach of Chabad of Melbourne CBD in thanking Mr. Kivi Bernhard said that today’s lecture was one of the the highest, if not the highest calibre that we have ever had.
Hi, this is Kivi Bernhard -. Thank you for your interest in this story. However the recording of it from the original posting on COL by the Chabad Rabbi of the Melbourne CBD is NOT at all accurate. I did not receive a call from Mr. Bill Gates himself, it was not he with whom I had contact, but rather a senior GVP by the name of John Fikany. My encounter with M.Bill Gates was not direct but through a senior GVP who informed me of the remark that Mr.Bill Gates had made directly to him. It is not my story but all of ours. In this instance I happened to be the “Sabbath observant Jew” that was being referred to, due to the fact that Mr.Fikany was directly involved in the meeting planning of this small but very high level global vendor leadership event. The event was scheduled in fact for Feb 14th 2009. These details were very clearly and carefully communicated but evidentially not so clearly and carefully reported. I was not consulted prior to this publication for accuracy of content. Wishing you all much blessing and success.
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