After one and a half days of leadership workshops, participants enjoyed a tour of Spendthrift Farm, a historic, world-renowned Thoroughbred horse farm and racing stable. Spanning over 1,200 acres of lush Bluegrass countryside, Spendthrift is widely described as a cornerstone of America’s horse racing industry.

Eighteen professionals from 16 organizations have begun Quest’s 2026–2027 Emerging Leaders Program, gathering in Lexington, Kentucky, September 10–13 for a kickoff workshop. Over nine months, they’ll work with experienced leaders, mentors, and one another to strengthen their leadership skills and prepare for broader responsibility.

Starting in Lexington

The workshop centered on a challenge familiar to many emerging leaders: moving from being a trusted expert in your field to leading across an organization. That transition requires understanding the business, connecting work to strategic priorities, and building support among people with different responsibilities and perspectives.

Lead instructor Ken Piddington guided participants through Leadership Foundations, Organizational Understanding, Business Acumen, and Strategic Focus. Jon Vaughn, Quest’s CEO and ELP program director, led Communication and Collaboration, including Building Executive Presence.

The time together also gave participants an opportunity to begin building relationships across companies, industries, and Oracle application communities. Those connections will continue through peer discussions, workshops, and team projects throughout the year. All while learning more about a couple of the industries central to Kentucky’s economy: Thoroughbred horse racing and bourbon making.

Meet the Participants

Now in its third year, the program brings together people working in business systems, technology, operations, project management, marketing, and community engagement.

This year’s participants are:

Putting Leadership into Practice

Participants are working in three teams of six on capstone projects that put the year’s learning into practice. The assignments require teams to research a challenge, consider different perspectives, make strategic choices, and develop practical recommendations.

The teams selected three projects:

• Creating the Quest Community Awards & Recognition Program: Exploring how Quest could build a credible, sustainable program recognizing leadership, innovation, customer success, mentorship, and community contribution—with recommendations that could inform a future Quest offering.
• Leading Beyond Your Role: Building Enterprise Influence Without Authority: Examining how leaders build the trust, relationships, and credibility needed to accomplish important work when the people and resources involved do not report to them.
• Leading Through Continuous Change: Building Organizational Change Capacity: Investigating how leaders help teams navigate ongoing change, build commitment, and maintain trust as new technologies and business demands reshape their work.

These projects give participants a shared challenge beyond their day-to-day responsibilities—and an opportunity to practice the communication, collaboration, and influence skills that leadership requires.

What’s Next

Since Lexington, the cohort has moved into Project Management for Non-Project Managers, led by Elizabeth Schriefer, President of iLearnERP, focusing on planning work, organizing resources, and helping teams deliver results.

In November, Thom Singer, CEO of the Austin Tech Council, author, and keynote speaker, will lead Networking, Relationships and Influence. Participants will explore how the relationships they build can broaden their perspective and strengthen their effectiveness as leaders.

Throughout the program, experienced mentors are helping participants work through individual development goals and leadership situations. Those conversations, alongside peer discussions and applied workshops, connect the curriculum to the decisions and challenges participants face at work.

We’ll share more from the cohort throughout the year, including participant reflections, mentor perspectives, and capstone progress as the teams prepare to present their work in May 2027.

Thank you to the participants and their organizations, our mentors and instructors, and Deloitte, the program’s premier sponsor, for supporting leadership development across the Quest community.

Contact the Quest Team about the Emerging Leaders Program