DALLAS, Texas — The 2007 International Autobody Congress & Exposition (NACE) keynote speaker will be author and philanthropist Chris Gardner, who will share his story during the NACE 2007 keynote presentation at the Opening General Session sponsored by DuPont Performance Coatings on Nov. 1 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. Because of surmounting acute obstacles on his road to success, Gardner is now an avid motivational speaker, addressing the keys to self empowerment, beating odds and breaking cycles. His story was published as an autobiography, The Pursuit of Happyness, becoming a New York Times No. 1 bestseller. Gardner was also the inspiration for the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, released by Columbia Pictures in December, 2006. Will Smith stars as Gardner, and Gardner is an associate producer. The movie was #1 at the box office its opening weekend. A series of circumstances in the early 1980s left Gardner homeless in San Francisco and the sole guardian of his toddler son. Unwilling to give up Chris Jr. or his dream of financial independence, Gardner started at the bottom. Without connections or a college degree, he earned a spot in the Dean Witter Reynolds training program. Often spending his nights in a church shelter or the bathroom at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Oakland, Gardner was the sole trainee offered a job at Dean Witter Reynolds in 1981. He spent 1983-1987 at Bear Stearns & Co., where he became a top earner, and then in 1987, he founded the brokerage firm Gardner Rich & Co. in Chicago. Currently, Gardner is the owner and CEO of Christopher Gardner International Holdings with offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. NACE 2007 will be held Oct. 31-Nov. 3; the educational conference runs from Oct. 31-Nov. 3 (Weds.-Sat.), and the Exposition will take place Nov. 13 (Thurs.-Sat.). The event will again be held during Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week (AAIW), taking place that same week in Las Vegas. For more information, visit www.NACEexpo.com.
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