About The Event
How can we best understand those who have occupied the nation’s highest office? What role have close friends of the president played in shaping U.S. policy?
Gary Ginsberg will delve into several presidential friendships that have changed the course of history. While working in the Clinton White House, Ginsberg observed first-hand how the president’s allies could influence the operations of the executive branch. Ginsberg is an author, lawyer, and former corporate executive but that White House experience inspired his new book, First Friends: The Powerful, Unsung (And Unelected) People Who Shaped Our President,s. He touches on President Clinton’s friendship with Vernon Jordan as well as exploring other noteworthy relationships like the one between Abraham Lincoln and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the surprising account of how the British Ambassador to the United States David Ormsby-Gore counseled President Kennedy throughout the Cuban Missile Crisis. These new insights offer a fresh look at the office of the presidency and the power that close allies of the president yield over the policymaking process.
Join The Common Good for a special discussion with Gary Ginsberg about presidential friendships and the unlikely people who served as close confidants to our nation’s leaders. With legendary venture capital investor Alan Patricof to moderate.
Thursday, October 21st, 2021
5:00pm EST-6:00pm EST
Gary Ginsberg, a lawyer and corporate advisor to top executives, previously served at SoftBank Group Corp. as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Communications. Prior to that, he was at Time Warner as Executive Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications and at News Corp. as Executive Vice President of Global Marketing and Corporate Affairs.
Ginsberg worked for the White House Counsel’s Office and the United States Department of Justice during the Clinton Administration. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of New Visions for Public Schools; Director of The City, an online news service covering NYC; and Malaria NO More. Ginsberg is also an Adjunct Professor at the Columbia Business School and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He graduated from Brown University and received his Juris Doctorate from Columbia Law School.
Alan Patricof is a legendary venture capital investor who has founded multiple leading firms in the arena, including Apax Partners, Greycroft LLC, and Primetime Partners.
He serves on a number of boards including Columbia Graduate School of Business, and Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem, and is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has previously served as a member of the President’s Global Development Council, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, TechnoServe, Trickle Up Program, Global Advisory Board of Endeavor, and the World Bank.
Patricof has participated in many TCG programs and events, including Social Impact - Change and Investing in the Wake of the Coronavirus with Sir Ronald Cohen, and The Economy and the Coronavirus with Mohamed El-Erian in 2020.
He currently serves as a member of The Common Good Honorary Advisory Board.
