What is Leadership Fresno?

Leadership Fresno is one of the Chamber’s most prominent programs and is unlike any other course of its kind. The program was founded in 1984 when a group of community leaders observed Leadership Programs in other major cities and recognized the need to develop leaders in Fresno County who would become a pool of people equipped with the skills, motivation and background to lead this area successfully into the complex decades ahead.

Each year, a new, elite group of Fresnans is selected to participate in the Leadership Fresno class. The program begins in August with an immersive two-day retreat, followed by daylong seminars each month. Additionally, it is incumbent upon the class members to determine a project which will have an effect on the community in a significant way – an endeavor that each participant must be integrally involved in.

Graduates of Leadership Fresno have gone on to hold leadership positions in a variety of organizations; they have been elected to political office – like former Fresno Mayor, Ashley Swearengin; and many have found their participation in the program positively affected their professional lives. Each class also has a special attachment to the program, a fact often evidenced by the frequently repeated phrase “My class was the best class ever!”