The grandson of refugees in Mexico, Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan is a career diplomat. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs and was posted in 1993 to the Mexican Embassy in the United States where he first served as Chief of Staff to the Ambassador, and then as head of the counternarcotics office. In 2000 he became Chief of Policy Planning at the Foreign Ministry and was appointed by the President as Mexican Consul General to New York City in 2003. He resigned from this post and took a leave of absence from the Foreign Service in 2006 to join the Presidential Campaign of Felipe Calderón as Foreign Policy Advisor and International Spokesperson, and became Coordinator for Foreign Affairs in the Transition Team. In November 2006 he received the rank of Ambassador, and in February 2007 was appointed Mexican Ambassador to the United States.

 Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Ambassador Sarukhan played a key role in the non-governmental Bilateral Commission on the Future of US-Mexico Relations as the Executive Director of this civil society initiative.

 Ambassador Sarukhan is active in various organizations such as the Mexican Council on Foreign Affairs, the Foreign Policy Association and the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London; is a board member of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, and is also a part of the Executive Council on Diplomacy Ambassadors Advisory Board. He has taught in various universities and published articles on issues related to foreign policy in a variety of journals and magazines. He holds a BA in International Relations from El Colegio de México and an MA in US Foreign Policy from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he was a Fulbright Scholar and Ford Foundation Fellow. He has been decorated by the governments of Spain and Sweden. Ambassador Sarukhan is married and has two young daughters.

Michelle Rhee has been working for the last 18 years to give children the skills and knowledge they will need to compete in a changing world. From adding instructional time after school and visiting students' homes as a third grade teacher in Baltimore, to hosting hundreds of community meetings and creating a Youth Cabinet to bring students' voices into reforming the DC Public Schools, she has always been guided by one core principle: put students first.

Each chapter of Michelle's story has convinced her: students of every background and ZIP code can achieve at high levels, and for our schools to become what children deserve, every educator is called to believe this. Even in the toughest of circumstances, all teachers are called to turn the incredible potential that fills their classrooms daily, into the achievements worthy of our children and country.

Teaching with Teach for America

As a Teach for America (TFA) corps member in a Harlem Park Community School in Baltimore City, through her own trial and error in the classroom, she gained a tremendous respect for the hard work that teachers do every day. She also learned the lesson that would drive her mission for years to come: teachers are the most powerful driving force behind student achievement in our schools.

Bringing Excellent Teachers to Classrooms across America - TNTP

In 1997 Ms. Rhee founded The New Teacher Project (TNTP) to bring more excellent teachers to classrooms across the country. Under her leadership TNTP became a leading organization in understanding and developing innovative solutions to the challenges of new teacher hiring. As Chief Executive Officer and President, Ms. Rhee partnered with school districts, state education agencies, non-profit organizations and unions to transform the way schools and other organizations recruit, select and train highly qualified teachers in difficult-to-staff schools.

Her work with TNTP implemented widespread reform in teacher hiring practices, improving teacher hiring in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, New York, Oakland and Philadelphia. TNTP placed 23,000 new, high-quality teachers in these schools across the country.

Driving Unprecedented Growth in the D.C. Public Schools

On June 12, 2007, Mayor Adrian Fenty appointed Chancellor Rhee to lead the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), a school district serving more than 47,000 students in 123 schools. Under her leadership, the worst performing school district in the country became the only major city system to see double-digit growth in both their state reading and state math scores in seventh, eighth and tenth grades over three years.

The graduation rate rose, and after steep declines enrollment rose for the first time in forty years. In her last year as chancellor, every eligible DC public school attracted applicants for the annual K-12 Out-of-Boundary, preschool, and pre-Kindergarten (pre-K) lotteries. Fourteen schools had waitlists for the first time. Ultimately, a record high of 5,219 families, representing an increase of 50 percent over 2009, expressed interest in DCPS programs located in all eight wards.

Collaborating with Pioneers

Michelle Rhee currently serves on the Advisory Boards for the National Council on Teacher Quality, the National Center for Alternative Certification, and Project REACH of the University of Phoenix's School of Education.

Education

Michelle has a bachelor's degree in government from Cornell University and a master's in public policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Dr. George W. Buckley
Chairman, President and CEO
3M

Dr. George W. Buckley became 3M Chairman, President and CEO in December 2005. Prior to this appointment, he had been Chairman and CEO of Brunswick Corporation since June 2000.

Before joining Brunswick in 1997, he was with Emerson Electric Co. in St. Louis, serving as President of the U.S. Electric Motors Division and the Automotive and Precision Motors Division. Before his successful tenure at Emerson, Dr. Buckley was Managing Director of the Central Services Division of the British Railways Board in the United Kingdom.

In addition to 3M, Dr. Buckley serves on the boards of Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. and Archer Daniels Midland. He is also on the board of trustees at the University of St. Thomas and Minnesota Public Radio. Dr. Buckley did joint study at the Universities of Southampton and Huddersfield in the United Kingdom, from which he was awarded a Ph.D. in Engineering. Dr. Buckley also holds a B.Sc. Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and an honorary D.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Huddersfield.

Dr. Ben S. Bernanke
Chairman
Federal Reserve System

Ben S. Bernanke began a second term as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on February 1, 2010. Dr. Bernanke also serves as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the System's principal monetary policymaking body. He originally took office as Chairman on February 1, 2006, when he also began a 14-year term as a member of the Board. His second term as Chairman ends January 31, 2014, and his term as a Board member ends January 31, 2020.

Before his appointment as Chairman, Dr. Bernanke was Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, from June 2005 to January 2006.

Dr. Bernanke has already served the Federal Reserve System in several roles. He was a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 2002 to 2005; a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia (1987-89), Boston (1989-90), and New York (1990-91, 1994-96); and a member of the Academic Advisory Panel at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1990-2002).

From 1994 to 1996, Dr. Bernanke was the Class of 1926 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He was the Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Economics and Public Affairs and Chair of the Economics Department at the university from 1996 to 2002. Dr. Bernanke had been a Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton since 1985.

Before arriving at Princeton, Dr. Bernanke was an Associate Professor of Economics (1983-85) and an Assistant Professor of Economics (1979-83) at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. His teaching career also included serving as a Visiting Professor of Economics at New York University (1993) and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1989-90).

Dr. Bernanke has published many articles on a wide variety of economic issues, including monetary policy and macroeconomics, and he is the author of several scholarly books and two textbooks. He has held a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Sloan Fellowship, and he is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Bernanke served as the Director of the Monetary Economics Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and as a member of the NBER's Business Cycle Dating Committee. In July 2001, he was appointed Editor of the American Economic Review. Dr. Bernanke's work with civic and professional groups includes having served two terms as a member of the Montgomery Township (N.J.) Board of Education.

Dr. Bernanke was born in December 1953 in Augusta, Georgia, and grew up in Dillon, South Carolina. He received a B.A. in economics in 1975 from Harvard University (summa cum laude) and a Ph.D. in economics in 1979 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Bernanke is married and has two children.

Glenn Hubbard was named dean of Columbia Business School on July 1, 2004.  A Columbia faculty member since 1988, he is also the Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics.  As a faculty member at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, he is professor of economics.  Professor Hubbard received his BA and BS degrees summa cum laude from the University of Central Florida, where he received the National Society of Professional Engineers Award.  He holds AM and PhD degrees in economics from Harvard University, where he received fellowships from the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.  He has been a visiting professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business School, as well as the University of Chicago.  Professor Hubbard also held the John M. Olin Fellowship at the National Bureau of Economic Research, at which he remains affiliated with research programs in monetary economics, public economics, corporate finance, and industrial organization.  Additionally, he is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington and a member of the International Advisory Board of the MBA Program of Ben-Gurion University.

After graduating from Harvard, Professor Hubbard began his teaching career at Northwestern University.  He moved to Columbia in 1988 and served as senior vice dean of the Business School from 1994 to 1997 and co-director of the Entrepreneurship Program from 1998 to 2004.  His research spans tax policy, monetary economics, corporate finance, and international finance.

In addition to writing more than 100 scholarly articles in economics and finance, Professor Hubbard is the author of two leading textbooks on money and financial markets and principles of economics, as well as co-author of Seeds of Destruction; The Mutual Fund Industry; The Aid Trap: Hard Truths About Ending Poverty, and Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise:  Five Steps to a Better Health Care System. His commentaries appear frequently in Business Week, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, Nikkei, and the Daily Yomiuri, as well as on television (on PBS’s Nightly Business Report) and radio (on NPR’s Marketplace). 

In government, Professor Hubbard served as deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department for Tax Policy from 1991 to 1993.  He supervised administration efforts on revenue estimates, tax reform, and health policy.  From February 2001 until March 2003, he was chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush.  His responsibilities included advising the president on economic policy, tax and budget policy, emerging market financial issues, international finance, health care, and environmental policy.  While serving as CEA chairman, he also chaired the Economic Policy Committee of the OECD.

In the corporate sector, he is currently a director of ADP, BlackRock Closed-End Funds, KKR Financial Corporation, and Met Life.  Professor Hubbard has also served on the advisory boards of several organizations, including the Council on Competitiveness, the American Council on Capital Formation, the Tax Foundation, and the Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse.  He is a past Chairman of the Economic Club of New York, life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Co-Chairman of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation.

Professor Hubbard is married to Constance Pond Hubbard.  They live in Manhattan with their two sons.

Ann M Fudge
Former Chairman and CEO
Young & Rubicam Brands

Ann Fudge is Former Chairman and CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands, a global network of pre-eminent companies across the full range of marketing communications. Young & Rubicam Brands companies include Y&R (advertising), Burson-Marsteller (public relations/public affairs), Wunderman (direct and database marketing), Landor Associates (brand consulting and creative design), Sudler & Hennessey (strategic healthcare communications) and Cohn & Wolfe (public relations) among others.

Prior to Young & Rubicam Brands, Ms. Fudge served as President, Beverages, Desserts and Post Division – a $5 billion unit of Kraft Foods.  She served on Kraft’s Management Committee and has managed many businesses including Maxwell House Coffee, Gevalia Kaffe, Kool Aid, Crystal Light, Post cereals, Jell-O desserts and Altoids.  Before joining General Foods, she spent nine years at General Mills, where she began as a Marketing Assistant and rose to the level of Marketing Director.

She serves on the Board of Directors of General Electric, Novartis, and Unilever.  She is a trustee of Morehouse College and the Brookings Institution.  Ms. Fudge also serves on the Boards of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations, and is Chair of the U.S. Program Advisory Panel for the Gates Foundation.  She has served as Vice Chair of the Harvard Board of Overseers, on the Board of Catalyst, the NY Philharmonic and on the Board of Governors for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.  She has also served on the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Liz Claiborne, Allied Signal, Honeywell, and Marriott International.

Ms. Fudge has received the Matrix Award for Advertising from New York Women in Communication and was a recipient of the NY Executive Council’s Ten Awards for leadership and innovation in business.  She was named one of Time Magazine’s Global Business Influentials.  Among her other honors are Leadership Awards from the Minneapolis and New York City YWCA, an Alumni Achievement Award from Harvard Business School, a Lifetime Achievement Award from Ebony magazine, and a Legacy Award in Business from Black Enterprise magazine.  She has been profiled in Black Enterprise, Business Week and The New York Times, among others and named by Fortune magazine as one of the 50 most powerful women in American business.

Ms. Fudge received her BA from Simmons College and her MBA from Harvard University Graduate School of Business.  Ms. Fudge is married and has two sons and five grandchildren.

John G. Stumpf
Chairman, President and CEO
Wells Fargo & Company

John Stumpf became Chairman for Wells Fargo & Company in January 2010. He was named Chief Executive Officer in June 2007, elected to Wells Fargo’s Board of Directors in June 2006, and has been President since August 2005.

A 28-year veteran of the company, he joined the former Norwest Corporation (predecessor of Wells Fargo) in 1982 in the loan administration department and then became senior vice president and chief credit officer for Norwest Bank, N.A., Minneapolis. He held a number of management positions at Norwest Bank Minneapolis and Norwest Bank Minnesota before assuming responsibility for Norwest Bank Arizona in 1989. He was named regional president for Norwest Banks in Colorado/Arizona in 1991. From 1994 to 1998, he was regional president for Norwest Bank Texas. During his four years in that position, he led Norwest’s acquisition of 30 Texas banks with total assets of more than $13 billion.

In 1998, with the merger of Norwest Corporation and Wells Fargo & Company, he became head of the Southwestern Banking Group (Arizona, New Mexico and Texas). Two years later he became head of the new Western Banking Group (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming). In 2000, he led the integration of Wells Fargo’s acquisition of the $23 billion First Security Corporation, based in Salt Lake City. In May 2002, he was named Group EVP of Community Banking. In December 2008, he led one of the largest mergers in history with the purchase of Wachovia.

He serves on the Board of Directors for The Clearing House, the Financial Services Roundtable, Target Corporation and Chevron Corporation. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

A Minnesota native, he earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota and his MBA with an emphasis in finance from the University of Minnesota.

Thomas J. Donohue
President and CEO
U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Thomas J. Donohue is president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Since assuming his position in 1997, Donohue has built the Chamber into a lobbying and political force with expanded influence across the globe.

Donohue established the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR), which has won significant legal reforms in the courts, at the state and federal levels, and in elections for state attorneys general and Supreme Court judges.

The Chamber’s lobbyists, policy experts, and communicators have helped secure many legislative victories, including major tax cuts, more sensible workplace and environmental regulations, and increased funding for transportation. The Chamber has advanced the business argument on outsourcing and the need for balance in applying new capital markets and accounting rules, among other issues.

On the international front, the Chamber has become a leader in knocking down trade barriers, winning new free trade agreements, and fighting protectionism both at home and abroad.

Under Donohue’s leadership, the Chamber has also emerged as a major player in election politics, helping elect congressional pro-business candidates through financial support and voter activism and turnout generated through the Chamber’s grassroots organization, VoteForBusiness.com.

The National Chamber Litigation Center, the Chamber’s law firm, has become more aggressive in challenging anti-business measures in court, setting a new record for cases entered in each of the last six years and securing 48 court victories in 2006.

The revitalized National Chamber Foundation, the Chamber’s public policy think tank, is shaping the policy debate on cutting-edge business issues, with major new initiatives on intellectual property theft and counterfeiting, capital markets and accounting rules, and travel and tourism.

Financially, the Chamber has never been stronger. Since 1997, when Donohue took over, it has tripled its annual revenues to more than $130 million. In addition, Donohue launched a $200 million capital campaign to help secure the Chamber’s financial future.

Prior to his current post, Donohue served for 13 years as president and chief executive officer of the American Trucking Associations, the national organization of the trucking industry.

Donohue serves on three corporate boards of directors. In addition, he is a member of the President’s Council on the 21st Century Workforce as well as the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations.

Donohue is president of the Center for International Private Enterprise, a program of the National Endowment for Democracy dedicated to the development of market-oriented institutions around the world.

Born in New York City in 1938, Donohue earned a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University and a master’s degree in business administration from Adelphi University. He also holds honorary doctorate degrees from Adelphi, St. John’s, and Marymount Universities.

Donohue and his wife, Liz, live in Potomac, Maryland. They have three sons.