Fortune Holds Forum on Leadership in New Era

Fortune magazine, the Time Warner Inc. biweekly best known for its list of the 500 largest companies, will hold its annual Fortune 500 Forum in Beverly Hills beginning Thursday. The conference gives the leaders of the Fortune-ranked firms a chance to get together and discuss how they made the list and how they plan to stay there. This year’s theme, “New Ideas for Leadership,” will be the starting point for discussion about the “challenges facing U.S. and global business in the new millennium,” Fortune spokeswoman Nyssa Tussing said. Fortune magazine chose Beverly Hills as this year’s site for its strategic location as “the nerve center of the entertainment industry,” she said. “It’s part of a region as a whole that has a very forward-thinking mentality,” particularly through the convergence of new media, entertainment and technology. Speakers at the three-day event will include former Laker star Earvin “Magic” Johnson, head of Magic Johnson Enterprises; Gerald Levin, chairman and chief executive of Time Warner; Eli Broad, Los Angeles philanthropist and founder of SunAmerica Inc. and Kaufman & Broad Home Corp. and John Chambers, chief executive of Cisco Systems Inc.