Nearly 200 senior managers and executives from around the UC system are due to gather next week in Irvine for a forum on developing the next generation of UC leaders from within the university's own ranks.

Sixteen UC Davis representatives are expected to attend the UC Senior Leadership Forum, scheduled for Sunday and Monday. Also due to attend are representatives of UC's other nine campuses, plus the Office of the President, UC's five medical centers, and the Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories.

The forum is intended to lay the groundwork for involving other leaders and the entire UC community in efforts to identify, grow and sustain leadership talent at all levels across the university, according to Kay Miller, project director for the Senior Leadership Forum.

President Robert Dynes has called this initiative "the university's most important campaign in recent years," according to Miller.

She said trends point to a forecasted increase of 300 percent in the retirement of senior UC leaders in the next five years, and that the competition for leadership talent at all levels across the nation is most acute.

Dynes has called for the formulation of an innovative development and succession program to deal with this substantial loss of talent and knowledge.

At the forum, Miller said, university presenters and panelist-speakers, and executives from several corporations, will speak on talent development, succession planning, diversity, leadership search strategies and best practices.

Details about the forum and the future progress of UC's Leadership Talent Development and Succession Planning Initiative are available at www.ucop.edu/slf. Miller said the Web site will be an evolving source of information about leadership talent development and succession planning best practices, activities and programs at UC locations, and other resources.