History of the Columbia Leadership Institute

By : Terri L. Bennink, Psy.D.

The Columbia Leadership Institute (CLI) was established in 1979 as the Oregon Leadership Institute (OLI) by Gossard Pyron Associates as a supplement to the employee relations consulting services they provided.

Gossard Pyron Associates (GPA) was founded in 1967 by Jack Gossard, a specialist in Labor Relations and Chuck Pyron, a professor at the University Of Oregon College Of Business to meet the needs of a group of wood products companies who wanted specialized assistance with their employee relations issues. The philosophy behind GPA was that indirect labor costs could be reduced and profit increased with improved employee relations. GPA soon began to use their methods and expertise with other companies and industries outside of wood products. These included: government, banks, utilities, insurance companies, bakeries, accounting and law firms, medical offices, hospitals, construction and a variety of firms in the high tech area.

The consultants from GPA discovered through working with their client companies, that when a manager or supervisor developed a clear understanding of what it really meant to lead, and acquired the relevant leadership skills, the internal management systems of team development and processes for gaining buy in and making decisions not only worked better, but were also sustained over time. Programs that assisted in the development of these skills, however, were both expensive and required extensive time away from the job; factors that made it challenging for smaller and mid-sized Northwest companies to participate.

In 1979, Charles Pyron and his colleague Charles Hosford started the first Oregon Leadership Institute program, inviting managers, supervisors and owners from some of their client companies to attend. The model for the program involved two sessions, two and a half days each, with a research project in the month between the sessions.

The beginning programs were successful and OLI grew largely by word of mouth over the next 30 years. Today, there have been over 3000 participants who have attended the program from more than 170 organizations. These organizations are from both the private and the public sector and cross a diverse range of industries from government to nonprofit and family run businesses.

Although the program is now a second generation family owned business (Charles Pyron’s daughter, Terri Bennink, took over the business in 2007 when Dr. Pyron passed way unexpectedly), the mission, vision and essence of the program continues. Our vision is to prepare positional leaders (presidents, managers and supervisors) to be able to develop 100% of their employees into more effective leaders. Competition in today’s market requires that every resource be utilized to its fullest advantage and thus “every employee becomes a leader”.