John Graham's first job upon leaving the Foreign Service in 1980 after 15 years service was lecturing aboard a luxury cruise ship. 140 miles out into the Gulf of Alaska, the Prinsendam caught fire and began to sink. His lifeboat lost in a violent storm, Graham was finally pulled to safety, and to a new sense of what his life was about. He began by creating a series of lectures and workshops on creating political and social change. In 1983, these merged with the Giraffe Project, a national program inspiring people to stick their necks out for the common good. The Project finds ordinary people acting with extraordinary courage on a broad range of important issues--then tells their stories to… millions of others through the media, and in schools. Graham, now the Project's President, is a familiar keynote speaker on themes of leadership, courage, meaning and service. He also leads Giraffe Project workshops, helping organizations, businesses and individuals handle their challenges more effectively. His work in mediating conflict has brought him eye-to-eye with, among others, leaders of apartheid and of the Khmer Rouge.
Mary C. Gilly