On June 30 of this year, Arthur D. Little was honored to welcome Mobil Corporation Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lou Noto to address some 300 senior members of the Arthur D. Little staff at our corporate leadership conference in Charleston, South Carolina. The theme of the meeting was ^Transformation" – a topic on which Mr. Noto has few peers. Since becoming CEO of Mobil in 1994, Mr. Noto has personally overseen the transformation of Mobil. Three years ago he expressed the belief that, to become a great company and to respond to the dramatic rate of change in the market, Mobil needed to significantly increase the pace of divesting non–core assets, reducing overhead costs, and focusing on developing growth opportunities. Toward that end, he set highly ambitious five–year stretch targets – which Mobil has achieved two years ahead of schedule.