A leg up for city's leaders A leg up for city's leaders (January 27, 2006)

Editor's Note: Leadership Mountain View (LMV) prepares adults who live or work in Mountain View to take on a wide variety of leadership roles in the community. Sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, the program guides 32 individuals through a nine-month program each year. Over 400 persons have graduated from the program since it began in 1989. The profile below is one in a series that will run periodically to highlight the accomplishments of LMV graduates.

Matt Neely

Matt Neely was just 25 and a teacher at Mountain View High School when he graduated from Leadership Mountain View in 1995. Ten years later, he has just completed his third year on city council and his one-year term as mayor.

When asked if he remembered what he originally hoped to get from LMV, Matt replied, "I had been in education for four years and was just about to become union president. I was interested in learning how people from outside the education world achieved their goals. Building my personal network was another aim."

Matt says his leadership role model is Robert F. Kennedy. He particularly admires Kennedy's willingness to speak fearlessly about the issues of justice, poverty and race.

When asked what advice he would give to people who want to take on leadership roles, he offered five suggestions:

* Listen more often and more deeply;

* Approach those who differ from you as you will learn more from them;

* Keep working on knowing your "privilege" and dealing with the responsibility it brings;

* Ask precise questions, seeking to understand first before evaluating;

* Laugh, have fun and relish humor.

Twana Karney, the current executive director of LMV, was a classmate of Matt's 10 years ago. She says "The thing that I will always remember about Matt is that even though he was one of the youngest members of the class, he stood out because of his passion and his obvious potential to do great things and inspire others."
To learn more about Leadership Mountain View, call (650) 968-8378 or visit www.leadership-mv.org. Applications for the next class will be accepted through mid-June.

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