CEO Definition: "Chief Everything Officer" - a "Life Balance" expert; one having the extraordinary ability to handle life's everyday challenges, while still having time for themselves; unsung heroes who do it all for their family, their community, and themselves, and do it well!

It's really dark right now here in Gotham Hall as things are readied to begin this CEO event - my friend Tina Sharkey, an AOL Senior VP and a Chief Everything Officer herself, is delivering the opening and is talking about the excellent response to AOL's nationwide, three month search for CEO honorees. Tina is an inspirational speaker - sharing tips and secrets from her own experience as the CEO of her very busy life. Up next is Laura Klauberg from Unilever and now we have Felicity Huffman on stage introducing each of the honorees with a bit of a bio/background. Felicity is a charming and natural speaker - calling out and correcting a malformed sentence on her teleprompter and winging it when there was no teleprompter text!

While blogging here in the dark, I am sitting next to Bethanne Patrick, AOL's Book Maven, who is furiously typing away on her laptop - so for the blow by blow details of what's happening here please check out Bethanne's blog!

More from Marlee Matlin's amazing keynote speech after the jump.

(Felicity and Marlee pose for the cameras ...)


(lunch ... and then ... Marlee Matlin!!!)


(Please excuse my low light photo of Marlee Matlin's brief bio!)

Marlee Matlin is also being honored as a Chief Everything Officer for excelling in her many different life roles - she's an amazing 'speaker' signing, and gesticulating a beautifully expressive presentation. She's telling a story about having a 'Deaf Child Crossing' sign in front of her house. A really wonderful story about how her parents turned the presence of the sign into a positive thing. When she was just seven she starred in the Wizard of Oz - as Dorothy. Marlee says "Life is grand" and that she relishes her daily challenges - she's an actress who just happens to be deaf. Once while she was working on a television set a producer commented that she was an excellent actress and then asked if she was going to be 'deaf' for the entire series?!?! Marlee works every day to help people understand that deaf people need to be respected and 'heard'. She says she makes her amazingly busy life work because she has her 'CFO' (Chief Father Officer) husband, Kevin, there 24/7 supporting her and their four children. Life for Marlee is about doing all that she can - every day in every way. Marlee successfully lobbied for close captioning. What today is about for Marlee is listening to her heart and not being 'silent'!


(great flower faces also abounded!)


(recently, I've been chronicling spring on my flickr account and was jazzed to find this image on the front of the beverage bar!)