General Session

Condoleezza Rice is Professor of Political Economy in the Graduate School of Business, Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution and Professor of Political Science at Stanford University.

From January 2005 to 2009, she served as the 66th secretary of state of the United States. Before serving as America’s chief diplomat, she served as assistant to the president for national security affairs (national security advisor) from January 2001 to 2005.

Rice joined the Stanford University faculty as a professor of political science in 1981 and served as Stanford University’s provost from 1993 to 1999. She was a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution from 1991 to 1993 and returned to the Hoover Institution after serving as provost until 2001. As a professor, Rice won two of the highest teaching honors: the 1984 Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 1993 School of Humanities and Sciences Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.

She is the author of Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family (October 2010), which shares how her upbringing in segregated Birmingham, Alabama—along with her strong, caring family and parents—helped to shape the course of her life. She has also has authored and co-authored several other books, including Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft (1995), with Philip Zelikow; The Gorbachev Era (1986), with Alexander Dallin and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984).

Rice served as a member of the boards of directors for the Chevron, Charles Schwab and Transamerica corporations. She was a founding board member of the Center for a New Generation, an educational support fund for schools in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, Calif., and was vice president of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula. She currently serves on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of America.

Rice has been involved in a number of humanitarian pursuits, most notably with PEPFAR (The President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief) and in creating and serving on the board of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Both endeavors increased aid to developing countries and the world's poorest, most disadvantaged populations. PEPFAR was the largest commitment of funds from any single nation to combat a single disease at any time in history and the Millennium Challenge Corporation promotes sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction.

She currently serves as a member of the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In addition, she is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Rice earned her bachelor’s degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974; her master’s from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981.

Tom Brokaw, one of the most trusted and respected figures in broadcast journalism, is a special correspondent for NBC News. In this role, he reports and produces long-form documentaries and provides expertise during election coverage and breaking news events for NBC News.

On December 1, 2004, Brokaw stepped down after 21 years as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News. He has received numerous honors, including the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award, the Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement and he was inducted as a fellow into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition, Brokaw has received the Records of Achievement Award from The Foundation for the National Archives; the Association of the U.S. Army honored him with their highest award, the George Catlett Marshall Medal, first ever to a journalist and he was the recipient of the West Point Sylvanus Thayer Award, in recognition of devoted service to bringing exclusive interviews and stories to public attention. His insight, ability and integrity have earned him a dozen Emmys and two Peabody and duPont awards for his journalistic achievements. In 2003, NBC Nightly News was honored with the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast, representing the program's fourth consecutive win in this category.

Over the years at NBC, while anchoring NBC Nightly News and Today, Brokaw also reported on 25 documentaries on subjects ranging from race, AIDS, the war on terror, Los Angeles gangs, Bill Gates, literacy, immigration and the evangelical movement. In addition to his long form documentaries, Tom Brokaw Reports, he has collaborated with NBC News' Peacock Productions for Discovery's Emmy-winning documentary Global Warming: What You Need to Know with Tom Brokaw, and History Channel's two-hour documentaries, 1968 with Tom Brokaw and KING.

In 2006, Brokaw reported on race and poverty in Separate and Unequal, which was awarded an RTNDA/Unity Award. The documentary took an honest look at the progress that's been made, and the problems that persist, 40 years after the civil rights movement. Later that year, he reported on illegal immigration in In the Shadow of the American Dream, exploring the economic realities, the social consequences and the political controversies surrounding one of the hottest topics dividing the country today.

In 2005, Brokaw returned to primetime for the first time since leaving the anchor desk with The Long War, an in-depth report on the war on terror. He traveled around the world - to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, France and Washington D.C.—to interview world leaders, intelligence experts and those personally affected by the events of Sept. 11 for this documentary. The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat, quickly followed in July 2005, and in September 2005, Brokaw reported on the religious revolution sweeping the country in In God they Trust. In December 2005, he received wide acclaim for his fourth documentary that year, To War and Back, which took a comprehensive look at what happens when young men go to war, lose friends, get hurt and then come home. Brokaw received his second Peabody in 2004 with the documentary, Tom Brokaw Reports: A Question of Fairness. The report examined the issue of affirmative action through the controversy surrounding the University of Michigan and its affirmative action policy, which detailed the continuing struggle to deal with race, fairness and higher education in America. In 2003, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Interview for America Remembers: 9/11 Air Traffic Controllers.

Prior to stepping down as anchor of Nightly News, Brokaw traveled to Iraq in June 2004 to cover the handover of power and reported for five days for all NBC News programs and MSNBC. In addition to interviewing a mix of newsmakers including Iraq's interim president Ghazi Al Yawer, General David Petraeus, the American General who is charged with rebuilding the Iraqi security forces and securing an exclusive interview with General Ricardo Sanchez, the man who was in charge of the American forces in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was captured, Brokaw patrolled the dangerous Baghdad streets in a humvee convoy with the First Cavalry Division, and also reported on student life in Baghdad with the class of 2004.

Brokaw was the only network evening news anchor to report from Normandy, France during the D-Day 60th Anniversary ceremonies in June 2004. He had exclusive interviews with French President Jacques Chirac in Paris and President George W. Bush at the American Cemetery Normandy Beach in Colleville-sur-Mer, France on June 6, the 60th Anniversary of D Day. In February 2004, Brokaw returned to the Asian subcontinent to report on the challenges Pakistan and Afghanistan face as they continue to fight the war on terror. In addition to securing exclusive interviews Pakistan president Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Afghan president Hamid Karzai, Brokaw traveled with the Pakistani army to mountainous and barren terrain along the border with Afghanistan as they hunted for Al Qaeda and also reported from Southeastern Afghanistan, the base of the 10th Mountain Division, where U.S. soldiers are not only hunting for Al Qaeda, but trying to win the hearts and minds of the people as well.

In 2003, as the international controversy escalated over the increasing likelihood of war with Iraq, Brokaw traveled overseas to the diplomatic and military hotspots throughout the Middle East and the Gulf. On March 19, 2003, Brokaw was the first American news anchor to report that the war with Iraq had begun, and in April 2003, he landed the first television
interview with President Bush after the President declared the end of major combat. During the summer of 2003, Brokaw was the first evening news anchor to return to Baghdad to report for five nights for NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC on post-war Iraq and the reconstruction efforts.

He has an impressive series of additional "firsts," including the first exclusive U.S. one-on-one interview with Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, earning an Alfred I. duPont- Columbia University Award. Brokaw was the first and only anchor to report from the scene the night the Berlin Wall fell, and was the first American anchor to travel to Tibet to report on human-rights abuses and to conduct an interview with the Dalai Lama. Brokaw has also reported in documentaries of international importance, including The Road to Baghdad where he documented the path to possible war with Iraq through the eyes of half a dozen people at the center of the crisis, and The Lost Boys, a story about how the ongoing war in Sudan forced the "lost boys" out of their villages in the 1980s, which won a National Press Club Award.

In 1997, Brokaw was awarded with another Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism for Why Can't We Live Together, a documentary that examined the hidden realities of racial separation in America's suburbs. His first Peabody award in 1989 was for To Be An American, a documentary about the American tapestry: award in 1989 was for To Be An American, a documentary about the American tapestry: who we are, how we got here and what it means to become a new citizen.

The NBC News anchor also has a distinguished record as a political reporter. He has interviewed every president since Lyndon Baines Johnson and has covered every presidential election since 1968. Brokaw was NBC's White House correspondent during the national trauma of Watergate (1973-1976). From 1984 to 2004, he anchored all of NBC's political coverage, including primaries, national conventions and election nights, and moderated nine primary and/or general election debates.

Complementing his distinguished broadcast journalism career, Brokaw has written articles, essays and commentary for several publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, TIME, The New Yorker, Men's Journal, Sports Illustrated, Life, National Geographic, Outside and Interview.

In 1998, Brokaw became a best selling author with the publication of The Greatest Generation. Inspired by the mountain of mail he received from his first book, Brokaw wrote The Greatest Generation Speaks in 1999. His third book, An Album of Memories, waspublished in 2001. In November 2002, Brokaw's fourth best selling book A Long Way from Home, a reflective look about growing up in the American Heartland, was released. In his fifth best-selling book, BOOM! Voices of the Sixties, Brokaw shares a series of remembrances and reflections of the time based on his experiences and over 50 interviews with a wide variety of well known artists, politicians, activists, business leader, and journalists, as well as lesser known figures, including a daughter of a former Mississippi segregationist governor, Vietnam veterans, civil rights activists, health care pioneers, environmentalists and war protesters.

Brokaw began his journalism career in 1962 at KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska. He anchored the late evening news on Atlanta's WSB-TV in 1965 before joining KNBC-TV in Los
Angeles. Brokaw was hired by NBC News in 1966 and from 1976-1981 he anchored NBC News' Today program.

Jim Collins is a student and teacher of enduring great companies — how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how good companies can become great companies.  Having invested nearly a quarter of a century of research into the topic, Jim has authored or co-authored six books that have sold in total more than ten million copies worldwide.  They include: the classic BUILT TO LAST, a fixture on the Business Week best seller list for more than six years; the international bestseller GOOD TO GREAT, translated into 35 languages; and HOW THE MIGHTY FALL, a New York Times bestseller that examines how great companies can self-destruct. 

His most recent book is GREAT BY CHOICE: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All, coauthored with Morten Hansen.  Based on nine years of research, it answers the question: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not?  Great by Choice distinguishes itself from Jim’s prior books by its focus not just on performance, but also on the type of unstable environments faced by leaders today.

Driven by a relentless curiosity, Jim began his research and teaching career on the faculty at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992. In 1995, he founded a management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where he now conducts research and consults with executives from the corporate and social sectors.  He holds degrees in business administration and mathematical sciences from Stanford University, and honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Colorado and the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. 

Jim has worked with senior executives and CEOs at over a hundred corporations.  He has also worked with social sector organizations across the spectrum, from education and the arts to religious organizations, local and federal government, healthcare, and cause-driven non-profits.  In 2005, he published a monograph, Good to Great and the Social Sectors. 

Jim holds a two-year appointment as the Class of 1951 Chair for the Study of Leadership at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  He travels from his lab in Boulder to engage with cadets and West Point faculty on the topic of building great leaders. 

Jim is an avid rock climber and has made one-day ascents of the North Face of Half Dome and the three-thousand foot Nose route of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.  

Ray Suarez joined the “PBS NewsHour” in October 1999 as a Washington-based senior correspondent. Suarez has more than 30 years of varied experience in the news business. He came to “The NewsHour” from National Public Radio, where he had been host of the nationwide call-in news program “Talk of the Nation” since 1993. Prior to that, he spent seven years covering local, national and international stories for the NBC-owned station WMAQ-TV in Chicago. He is the author most recently of a book examining the tightening relationship between religion and politics in America, The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America. A Life Member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Suarez was a founding member of the Chicago Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Blake Mycoskie is the Founder and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS, and the person behind the idea of One for One®, a business model that helps a person in need with every product purchased.

A simple idea has grown into a global movement: TOMS Shoes has provided over 60 million pairs of shoes to children since 2006, TOMS Eyewear has restored sight to over 400,000 since 2011 and TOMS Roasting Company has helped provide over 335,000 weeks of safe water since launching in 2014. In 2015, TOMS Bag Collection was founded with the mission to help provide training for skilled birth attendants and distribute birth kits containing items that help a woman safely deliver her baby. As of 2016, TOMS has supported safe birth services for over 25,000 mothers.

TOMS humble beginnings happened unintentionally. While traveling in Argentina in 2006, Blake witnessed the hardships faced by children growing up without shoes. His solution to the problem was simple, yet revolutionary: to create a for-profit business that was sustainable and not reliant on donations. Blake’s vision soon turned into the simple business idea that provided the powerful foundation for TOMS. Over the course of its first five years, TOMS was successful enough in providing shoes for children in need. But Blake, having recognized other vital needs during his travels around the world, realized that One for One® could be applied to more than shoes. He developed the idea for TOMS Eyewear in which for every pair of eyewear purchased, TOMS would help give sight to a person in need. One for One®. In the fall of 2011, Blake released his first book, Start Something That Matters, offering his own amazing story of inspiration, and the power of incorporating giving in business. He references other companies and individuals who have been motivated and inspired to integrate philanthropy into their profession as well as their personal lives. The book became a New York Times best-seller. More importantly, it is Blake’s hope that Start Something That Matters inspires others to turn their passion and dreams into a reality.

From shoes to eyewear and now a book, Blake’s unique approach to business has awarded him with numerous accolades. In 2009, Blake and TOMS received the Secretary of State’s 2009 Award of Corporate Excellence (ACE). At the Clinton Global Initiative University plenary session, former President Clinton introduced Blake to the audience as “one of the most interesting entrepreneurs (I’ve) ever met.” People Magazine featured Blake in its “Heroes Among Us” section, and TOMS Shoes was featured in the Bill Gates Time Magazine article “How to Fix Capitalism.” In 2011, Blake was named on Fortune Magazine’s “40 Under 40” list, recognizing him as one of the top young businessmen in the world.

Congressman Charles A. Gonzalez serves as Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and is also a member of the New Democrats Coalition. Currently a Senior Democratic Whip, Congressman Gonzalez has served as a Texas Regional Whip for the Democratic Caucus and as Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Civil Rights Task Force since 1999. In the 112th Congress, Congressman Gonzalez serves on the House Committees on Energy and Commerce and House Administration. Congressman Gonzalez is also a Member of several Congressional Task Forces and Caucuses including: Education, Financial Services, Business and Economic Development, and Telecommunications; and the 21st Century Health Care Caucus, the Homeland Security Caucus, the Port Security Caucus, the Air Force Caucus, the Infrastructure and Transportation Caucus, and the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus.

Congressman Todd Russell Platts has worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle on several major legislative initiatives. Platts was the lead Republican sponsor of legislation (H.R. 2142) signed into law in January 2011 designed to give Congress and the American people the tools to better evaluate the effectiveness of federal government programs. He was the lead Republican sponsor of legislation signed into law in June 2009 to give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products for the first time.  In 2007, Congressman Platts was the lead Republican sponsor of the first increase in fuel efficiency standards signed into law in over 30 years—decreasing our reliance on foreign oil and promoting environmental stewardship. In October 2004, President George W. Bush signed into law a bill sponsored by Congressman Platts to increase financial accountability standards at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  Congressman Platts is a strong advocate of a more open and efficient government, and has also advocated for legislation to make campaign finance laws more transparent, improving the Freedom of Information Act and providing protections for federal employees who report waste, fraud and abuse.

Neil Newhouse is a partner and co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies, which is a national political and public affairs survey research firm whose clients include leading political figures, Fortune 500 companies and major associations.

For its work in the 2002 elections, Public Opinion Strategies won the "Pollster of the Year" Campaign Excellence Award from the American Association of Political Consultants. Neil has worked in the field of public opinion research for more than twenty years, has directed the research for thousands of individual projects, and has experience in every aspect of opinion research, including focus groups, "dial" groups, one-on-one interviews, and quantitative research.

Neil has also worked in the political field for more than twenty-five years, and was described by Democratic Governor Ed Rendell as "one of the most respected pollsters in the country." Neil has helped elect fifteen current members of Congress, four U.S. Senators and five Governors. His most notable clients include Gov. Jeb Bush (FL), Gov. John Rowland (CT), Gov. Mitt Romney (MA), Senator Rick Santorum (PA), Senator Pat Roberts (KS), Rep. Henry Hyde (IL) and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (WV).

Roll Call, the newspaper that covers Capitol Hill, noted that Neil was one of the "Money 20" - consultants from both parties who "make a difference."

Neil also has extensive international experience, having completed various research projects in Australia, Jamaica, South Africa, Bulgaria, Russia, Venezuela and Kuwait.

Prior to co-founding Public Opinion Strategies, Neil was Executive Vice President of The Wirthlin Group. Neil is originally from Kansas City, graduated from Duke University and attended graduate school at the University of Virginia. He currently lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and two children.

Mike Aitken has worked at SHRM since 2003 and currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs. Prior to joining SHRM, he served for 14 years as associate director for Governmental and External Relations at the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). Previously, Aitken worked on state public policy issues at Bonner & Associates, a public affairs firm in Washington, DC. Currently, he is based in Alexandria, VA.

Why Robert is a Game Changer: Robert L. Johnson is the Founder and Chairman of The RLJ Companies, an innovative business network that owns or holds interests in businesses operating in hotel real estate investment, private equity, consumer financial services, asset management, insurance services, automobile dealerships, sports and entertainment, and video lottery terminal (VLT) gaming. 

Prior to forming The RLJ Companies, Mr. Johnson was founder and chairman of Black Entertainment Television (BET), the nation’s first and leading television network providing quality entertainment, music, news, sports and public affairs programming for the African American audience.

Johnson will launch a new online destination called OPPSPLACE. The site is the first and only web-based employment and business site that aggregates minority job candidates and minority businesses in one easy-to-use destination.