Past Speakers

Jacob Weisberg

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Jacob Weisberg

American political journalist

In 2018, Jacob Weisberg co-founded Pushkin Industries, an audio content company, with Malcolm Gladwell. The two CEOs produce several well-known podcasts under the company, including Revisionist History and Broken Record.

Before founding Pushkin, he worked as a writer and editor at The New Republic and covered politics for New York Magazine before joining the new internet magazine Slate, where he covered the 1996 and 2000 presidential campaigns as Chief Political Correspondent and served as Editor from 2002 to 2008. Weisberg also became Chairman of The Slate Group, whose roster includes Slate magazine and Panoply, a podcast network.

He has been a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, a contributing editor of Vanity Fair, and a reporter for Newsweek in London and Washington. Weisberg is also the author of several books, including The Bush Tragedy, a 2008 New York Times bestseller, and In an Uncertain World (2003), written with former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin.

Weisberg spoke at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards 2016.

Twitter: @jacobwe

Stephanie Cutter

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Stephanie Cutter

Founding Partner of Precision Strategies

Stephanie Cutter is a founding partner at Precision Strategies, a communications, digital and data targeting consulting firm in Washington D.C. and New York City. Her political and communications experience spans two decades in public service and the private sector, and she has crafted communications and crisis-management strategies for the White House, US Senate, and the nation’s leading political campaigns and corporations. After helping to elect President Obama in 2008, Stephanie was the President’s 2012 Deputy Campaign Manager in charge of communications, media, policy, and research, as well as being part of the senior strategy team. Stephanie sits on the boards of Organizing for Action, the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, and in 2013, she was appointed to the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities.

Cutter spoke at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards 2016.

Twitter: @stefcutter

Ambassador Ryan Crocker

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Ambassador Ryan Crocker

Former U.S. Ambassador

Ryan Crocker is Dean and Executive Professor at the George Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University where he holds the Edward and Howard Kruse Endowed Chair. He retired from the Foreign Service in April 2009 after a career of over 37 years, but was recalled to active duty by President Obama to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan in 2011. He has served as U.S. Ambassador six times: Afghanistan (2011-2012), Iraq (2007-2009), Pakistan (2004- 2007), Syria (1998-2001), Kuwait (1994-1997), and Lebanon (1990-1993). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the Association of American Ambassadors. In August 2013, he was confirmed by the United States Senate to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors which oversees all U.S. government-supported civilian international media. He is also on the Board of Directors of Mercy Corps International.

Ambassador Crocker received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, in 2009. In July 2012, he was named an Honorary Marine, the 75th civilian so honored since the founding of the Corps in 1775.

Ambassador Crocker spoke at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards 2016.

Heidi Crebo-Rediker

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Heidi Crebo-Rediker

Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations

Heidi Crebo-Rediker is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and the CEO of International Capital Strategies. Prior to this, she served as the State Department’s first chief economist. providing advice and analysis to the secretary on foreign policy issues with a significant economic or financial component. Crebo-Rediker was also the Chief of International Finance and Economics for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, following nearly two decades in Europe as a senior investment banker. In the Senate, she advised then-chairman John Kerry on a range of international and domestic economic and financial issues. She has had an extensive career in investment banking, and on returning to Washington, D.C., she was the founding Co-Director of the Global Strategic Finance Initiative at the New America Foundation. During her time in the Senate, she was the architect of the bipartisan National Infrastructure Bank legislation (BUILD Act) introduced in March 2011 and included in President Barack Obama’s JOBS Act.

Crebo-Rediker spoke at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards 2016.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin

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Douglas Holtz-Eakin

American economist

Douglas Holtz-Eakin has a distinguished record as an academic, policy adviser, and strategist. He is the President of the American Action Forum and most recently was a Commissioner on the Congressionally chartered Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Since 2001, he has served in a variety of important policy positions. He was the 6th Director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) from 2003 to 2005. Following his tenure at CBO, Dr. Holtz-Eakin was the Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and the Paul A. Volcker Chair in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. During 2007 and 2008 he was Director of Domestic and Economic Policy for the John McCain presidential campaign. Dr. Holtz-Eakin serves on the Boards of the Tax Foundation, National Economists Club, and the Research Advisory Board of the Center for Economic Development.

Holtz-Eakin spoke at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards 2016.

Twitter: @djheakin

David Miliband

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David Miliband

President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee

David Miliband is President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), where he oversees the agency’s humanitarian relief operations in more than 30 war-affected countries and its refugee resettlement and assistance programs in 25 United States cities.

Under Miliband’s leadership, the IRC has expanded its ability to rapidly respond to humanitarian cries and meet the needs of an unprecedented number of people uprooted by conflict, war and disaster. The organization is implementing an ambitious global strategy to bring clear outcomes, strong evidence and systematic research to the humanitarian programs through collaborative partnerships with the public and private sectors.

From 2007 to 2010, Miliband was the 74th Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, driving advancements in human rights and representing the U.K. throughout the world. In 2006, as Secretary of State for the Environment, he pioneered the world’s first legally binding emissions reduction requirements. He was Member of Parliament for South Shields from 2001 to 2013.

Miliband spoke at a Meet & Greet at The Common Good in 2016.

Twitter: @DMiliband

Paul Beirne

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Paul Beirne

National Managing Director with AllianceBernstein

Paul Beirne is a National Managing Director with AllianceBernstein, a global investment management firm based in New York that manages over $500 billion for individuals, families, pension plans, unions, foundations, public funds and other entities.

Beirne has been active on several charitable boards including the Municipal Art Society, World Monuments Fund, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, PS 1 for Contempory Art (MOMA), God’s Love We Deliver, Santa Clara University and the Alliance for the Arts (Chairman 2000-2005). .

Beirne introduced Raymond Kelly at a Lunch and Discussion with: NY Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly at The Common Good in 2009.

Dick Cavett

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Dick Cavett

Author and Host of “The Dick Cavett Show”

The host of The Dick Cavett Show (which aired on ABC from 1968 to 1975 and on public television from 1977 to 1982), Dick Cavett is the author of Brief Encounters: Conversations, Magic Moments and Assorted Hijinks (2014). He is also the co-author of Cavett (1974) and Eye on Cavett (1983) and author of Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets (2011).

Dick Cavett was born in Gibbon, Nebraska in 1936. Growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska, Cavett won local fame as a teenage magician. In 1954, he earned a scholarship to Yale University where he majored in English and drama. At Yale he appeared in numerous radio and stage productions- while spending his summers working at the Oregon and Stratford, (Connecticut), Shakespeare Festivals.

In 1968 ABC signed Cavett as the host of a morning talk show, which eventually lead ABC to give Cavett his own late night program opposite The Tonight Show. The Dick Cavett Show ran on ABC until 1975. From 1977 until 1982, The Dick Cavett Show appeared five times a week on Public Television. In 1986, he hosted the first two seasons of Faces of Japan, a thirteen part series for PBS. The Dick Cavett Show was aired for six seasons on CNBC. 

He made his Broadway debut in 1977 playing the leading role in Otherwise Engaged, a British comedy by Simon Gray. During the summer of 1988, Dick Cavett returned to Broadway in the role of the narrator in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. From October 2000 through January of 2002 Cavett appeared as the narrator in the Broadway production of The Rocky Horror Show. He has made guest appearances on television programs as Cheers, The Edge of Night, and The Simpsons, as well as in Beetlejuice and Forest Gump.

Cavett spoke at The Common Good alongside Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville, with moderator Alex Witt, in 2015: Screening and Discussion on "Best of Enemies" - July 13, 2015.

Twitter: @TheDickCavett

Robert Gordon

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Robert Gordon

Author, producer, director

Robert Gordon is the author of Can’t Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters. He produced and directed “Best of Enemies” with filmmaker Morgan Neville, a documentary based on the televised debates of William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal.

Gordon is the writer and Associate Producer of “The Road To Memphis”, an episode in Martin Scorsese’s 7-part series The Blues. His other filmmaking credits include the 1990 documentary “All Day and All Night”, featuring B. B. King and Rufus Thomas, and music videos that have aired on MTV, BET, and CMT. Gordon is also the author of It Came From Memphis, a book about Memphis music and culture. He produced the book’s two companion CD’s. His other two books are Elvis: The King on the Road (St. Martin’s), and The Elvis Treasures (Random House). Among his awards is a Grammy nomination for his liner notes to the Al Green box set, Anthology, which he produced.

Gordon spoke at a Screening and Discussion on "Best of Enemies" alongside Morgan Neville and Dick Cavett, moderated by Alex Witt, at The Common Good in 2015.

Robert Zimmerman

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Robert Zimmerman

Zimmerman/Edelson Inc.

Co-founder and partner of Zimmerman/Edelson, Inc., Robert Zimmerman has extensive experience in national and international media relations, branding communications and crisis management. Robert oversees all of the agency’s public relations, crisis management and branding communications activities, while personally leading account teams servicing some of the agency’s largest clients.

Most recently, Robert was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo to the New York State SAGE Commission, charged with the most extensive restructuring of state government since the 1920’s. He served as member of the Board of the American Museum of Natural History representing Speaker of the New York City Council Christine Quinn, and was recently appointed to the Board of Directors of the Center for an Urban Future located in New York City. In 1995, Robert was appointed by President Clinton to serve on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Presidential Commission on the Arts. He held that position through June of 2001. A Democratic National Committeeman from New York, Robert appears regularly on CNN, Fox News Channel, Fox Business News, and MSNBC discussing a wide range of public policy issues. In 2013, he was the recipient of the lifetime achievement award by the Public Relations Professionals of Long Island.

Zimmerman participated in The Common Good Forum 2015 on May 14th, 2015, on the “Lead Up to 2016 and Beyond: US Politics Now” panel alongside Jim McLaughlin and Margaret Hoover, moderated by Dana Bash.

Kenneth Rogoff

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Kenneth Rogoff

Economist, academic

Kenneth Rogoff is an economist at the International Monetary Fund. His widely-cited 2009 book with Carmen Reinhart, This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, shows the remarkable quantitative similarities across time and countries in the run-up and aftermath of severe financial crises. Rogoff is also known for his seminal work on exchange rates and central bank independence. Together with Maurice Obstfeld, he is co-author of Foundations of International Macroeconomics, a treatise that has also become a widely-used graduate text in the field worldwide. Rogoff’s 2016 book The Curse of Cash looks at the past, present and future of currency from standardized coinage to crypto-currencies. His monthly syndicated column on global economic issues is published in over 50 countries.

Rogoff is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Group of Thirty. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Rogoff is among the top ten on RePEc’s ranking of economists by scholarly citations. He is also an international Grandmaster of chess.

The Common Good hosted Rogoff in May of 2015: The Common Good Forum 2015.

Twitter: @krogoff

J.M. Berger

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J.M. Berger

Author, Non-resident Fellow with the Brookings Institution Project

With roots in newspaper journalism, J.M. Berger is an author and analyst studying online extremism, homegrown terrorism, advanced social media analysis, and countering violent extremism. His book Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam (Potomac Books, 2011), is the only definitive history of American involvement in jihadist movements. He is also co-author of ISIS: The State of Terror (Ecco, 2015) with Jessica Stern, a book that “should be required reading for every politician and policymaker,” according to The Washington Post.

Berger has written extensively on the evolution of al-Qaeda and the rise of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS). He interviewed American al-Shabab member Omar Hammami at length and published a widely read account of their interactions after the jihadist was killed by his former allies in 2013. Berger is especially known for his research into the tactics of extremists on social media. In addition to important articles on the subject for The Atlantic and Foreign Policy, he co-authored the 2013 study “Who Matters Online: Measuring influence, evaluating content and countering violent extremism in online social networks,” which introduced new analytical techniques for understanding extremist social networks. He expanded on these techniques in 2015 with “The ISIS Twitter Census”, published by the Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World. In 2004, Berger founded Intelwire.com, a website publishing investigative journalism, analysis, and primary source documents on terrorism and international security, including exclusive declassified documents on the September 11 attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing.

Berger has written for Politico, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Daily Beast Nature, and the CTC Sentinel, and previously worked as a producer for National Public Radio and Public Radio International. He also trains and consults for law enforcement and government agencies on issues related to countering violent extremism and advanced social media analysis.

Twitter: @intelwire

Thomas DiNapoli

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Thomas DiNapoli

54th Comptroller of the State of New York

Thomas P. DiNapoli is the 54th Comptroller of the State of New York. He is known for his integrity, independence and steadfast leadership. Since taking office in 2007, Tom DiNapoli has aggressively fought misuse of public resources, strengthened one of the nation’s top public pension funds, and consistently spoken out against fiscal gimmicks and government inefficiency.

Comptroller DiNapoli has changed the way the $176.8 billion state pension fund operates to increase transparency and establish strong internal controls, ensuring the strongest investment performance and ethical operations. He barred investment firms contributing to his campaign from doing business with the state pension fund. He was also a leading voice in getting the Securities and Exchange Commission to impose tough new rules on “pay to play” to prevent improper influence on investment decisions.

Protecting public funds from waste, fraud and abuse is part of Comptroller DiNapoli’s core responsiblities. His audits and efforts have identified billions in misuse, waste and savings. He has also been relied on to examine public finances and provide an independent, credible analysis of government finances. In January 2013, his office launched a Fiscal Monitoring System to score localities on their fiscal condition, sending an early warning to those in trouble.

DiNapoli spoke at The Common Good Forum 2015 on the panel “Investing the People’s Money” alongside Jane Buchan, Janet Cowell, moderated by Omeed Malik.

Twitter: @NYSComptroller

Dana Bash

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Dana Bash

CNN’s Chief Political Correspondent in Washington D.C.

Dana Bash is CNN’s chief political correspondent based in Washington, D.C. and serves as the network’s lead reporter covering both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. She was the primary reporter covering the 2016 Republican field of presidential candidates and also continues to regularly serve as a moderator for CNN’s political town hall specials.

Additionally, as the network’s chief political correspondent, Bash played a key role in CNN’s 2016 presidential primary debates, serving as a questioner in six of the network’s seven primetime primary debates on both sides of the aisle. Bash also serves as a co-anchor on set in the CNN Election Center for all election night specials and is the primary fill-in anchor for Jake Tapper on CNN’s premier political show, State of the Union.

Bash attended The Common Good Forum - May 14, 2015 as a moderator for the panel Lead Up to 2016 and Beyond: US Politics Now, with Margaret Hoover, Jim McLaughlin, and Robert Zimmerman.

Twitter: @DanaBashCNN

Janet Cowell

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Janet Cowell

Former Treasurer of North Carolina

Janet Cowell is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Girls Who Invest, and is the former Treasurer of North Carolina, the first woman to hold the office. She was first elected to the post in 2008 and re-elected in 2012. Cowell oversees more than $90 billion in pension investments for the more than 900,000 teachers, firefighters, and public employees in North Carolina. As Treasurer, she manages the 32nd largest public pension in the world and the third most solid in the nation. 

Under Cowell’s executive leadership, North Carolina is one of only ten states in the country to earn a AAA bond rating by all three rating agencies. Treasurer Cowell was recently named one of the top 25 public pension executives in the world by Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.

Cowell spoke at The Common Good Forum 2015 on the panel “Investing the People’s Money” alongside Jane Buchan, Thomas DiNapoli, moderated by Omeed Malik.

Twitter: @JanetCowell

Everett Cook

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Everett Cook

Pouschine Cook Co-founder

Prior to co-founding Pouschine Cook, Everett was a managing director of Ampton Investments, Inc., where he focused on private middle market recapitalizations and acquisitions and was Chairman and CEO of Bake Rite Foods, Inc. Prior to Ampton, Everett served as an operating executive and director at several companies owned and controlled by his family. He was a vice president and director of Cook International, Inc., a vice president and director of Terminix International, Inc., a director of PBCM, Inc., and chairman of Cook Flexner & Co., Inc. Previously, he was a mortgage securities and corporate finance professional with First Pennco Securities, Inc.

Annie E. Clark

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Annie Clark

Co-founder of EROC

Annie E. Clark is a co-founder of EROC, and a lead complainant in the Title IX and Clery complaints against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Political Science. She has a certificate in business, and is a former administrator at the University of Oregon. She is a contributing writer to The Huffington Post, MSNBC, and The Chronicle Vitae. After directly working with New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, she helped write the Bi-Partisan Campus Safety and Accountability Act. In 2013, she was listed alongside President Barack Obama as one of the most influential forces in higher education, and she is featured in the campus sexual assault documentary The Hunting Ground.

Clark was honored with the American Spirit Award for Citizen Activism alongside Andrea Pino at The American Spirit Awards - May 14, 2015.

Twitter: @aelizabethclark

Secretary Michael Chertoff

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secretary Michael Chertoff

Former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Michael Chertoff was Secretary of the U.S. Departement of Homeland Security from 2005 to 2009. He co-authored the USA Patriot Act and also transformed FEMA into an effective organization following Hurricane Katrina.

Before his role as Secretary, Mr. Chertoff served as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Earlier, during more than a decade as a federal prosecutor, he dealt with cases of political corruption, organized crime, corporate fraud and terrorism – including the investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Mr. Chertoff currently works at the Chertoff Group and provides high-level strategic counsel to corporate and government leaders on a broad range of security issues, from risk identification and prevention to preparedness, response and recovery.

He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (1975) and Harvard Law School (1978). From 1979-1980 he served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, Jr.

Mr. Chertoff spoke at The Common Good Forum - May 14, 2015.

Mr. Chertoff returned to speak at the National Security Threats event alongside Jane Harman.

Willem Hendrik Buiter

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Willem Hendrik Buiter

Chief Economist of Citigroup

Willem Buiter is Chief Economist of Citigroup. Prior to his appointment at Citigroup, he was professor of European Political Economy at the European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England (1997-2000) and Chief Economist and Special Adviser to the President at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) (2000-2005). He has held academic appointments at Princeton University, the University of Bristol, Yale University and the University of Cambridge and has been a consultant and advisor to the International Monetary Fund, The World Bank, The Inter-American Development Bank, the EBRD, the European Communities and a number of national governments and government agencies. Since 2005, he is an Advisor to Goldman Sachs International. He has published widely on subjects such as open economy macroeconomics, monetary and exchange rate theory, fiscal policy, social security, economic development and transition economies. He obtained his PhD in Economics from Yale in 1975. He is a CEPR Research Fellow.

Website: http://www.willembuiter.com/

Jane Buchan

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Jane Buchan

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of PAAMCO

Jane Buchan is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of PAAMCO, a global institutional investment firm based in Irvine, California, with offices in London and Singapore.

Since its founding in 2000, PAAMCO has focused on investing in hedge funds on behalf of institutional investors, and currently manages $9.5 billion on behalf of public and private pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, foundations, endowments and financial institutions.

Buchan is actively involved in initiatives to increase research and knowledge, and further the careers of women in the hedge fund industry. She currently serves as Chairwoman of the Board for the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA), where she launched a CAIA Scholars Program for women interested in hedge fund portfolio management. Buchan is a founding Angel for 100 Women in Hedge Funds and also serves as a trustee for the Hedge Fund Standards Board. She also serves as a trustee and member of the investment committees for Reed College and the University of California Irvine Foundation, a member of the Advisory Board for the Master of Financial Engineering Program at University of California Los Angeles Anderson School of Management, and an Associate Editor for The Journal of Alternative Investments.

Buchan spoke at The Common Good Forum 2015 on the panel “Investing the People’s Money” alongside Janet Cowell, Thomas DiNapoli, moderated by Omeed Malik.