Alan Greenspan served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for five terms encompassing 18 years. He also served as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the system's principal monetary policy making body.
Anne M. Mulcahy is Chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation. Ms. Mulcahy and her team are responsible for a multibillion-dollar turnaround plan that significantly improved the company’s financial position. Xerox has completely overhauled its product line, winning share in key segments of the market. In addition, the company launched Xerox Global Services, offering content management, imaging and consulting services. Ms. Mulcahy most recently was Xerox President and COO. She began her Xerox career as a field sales representative and assumed increasingly responsible sales and senior management positions. In addition to the Xerox board, Ms. Mulcahy is a member of the boards of directors of Target Corporation and Citigroup, and is a member of The Business Council.
Azim Premji took on the mantle of leadership of Wipro in 1966 at the age of 21. Under his leadership, the fledgling $2 million hydrogenated cooking fat company has grown to a $3 billion IT, BPO and R&D services organization. Mr. Premji has received numerous honors. Financial Times included him in the global list of 25 people who are “dramatically reshaping the way people live, work or think.” Time listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was named by Fortune as one of the 25 most powerful business leaders outside the U.S. In 2001, Mr. Premji established the Azim Premji Foundation, a not-for-profit organization contributing to quality primary education for every child. Its current programs engage 3.2 million children in more than 17,000 schools across India.
Wipro Technologies is a global provider of consulting, IT services, outsourced R&D, infrastructure outsourcing and business process services, delivering technology-driven business solutions to meet the strategic objectives of its clients.
Bill Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Along with co-chair Melinda Gates, he shapes and approves grant-making strategies, advocates for the foundation’s issues, and helps set the overall direction of the organization. Bill and Melinda Gates work together to expand opportunity to the world’s most disadvantaged people by collaborating with grantees and partners.
General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.) became the 65th Secretary of State on January 20, 2001. Before becoming Secretary of State, he served as a key aide to the Secretary of Defense and as National Security Advisor to President Reagan. He also served 35 years in the United States Army, rising to the rank of Four-Star General and serving as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During this time he oversaw 28 crises including the Panama intervention of 1989 and Operation Desert Storm. As Secretary, he stood with the President and the other members of the President's cabinet in fighting the war on terrorism. General Powell led the State Department in major efforts to solve regional and civil conflicts – in the Middle East, between Israel and its Arab neighbors; in Sudan, Congo and Liberia; and elsewhere.
Frank H. Collins currently conducts laboratory-focused research on genome level studies of arthropod vectors of human pathogens and field and laboratory research on malaria vectors, especially the mosquitoes Anopheles gambiae and A. funestus, the primary vectors of malaria parasites in sub-Saharan Africa. He directs a contract from the National Institutes of Health that supports the development and operation of a web-based, bioinformatics resource center called VectorBase, which provides the scientific community with access to all data related to the genomes of arthropod vectors. His field-oriented research is focused on the development of molecular tools that permit better resolution of questions about vector population ecology and ecological genetics and the epidemiology of malaria transmission, especially by African malaria vectors. In addition, he has recently initiated a BMGF-funded research program that involves field studies of transmission-targeted malaria control interventions in a number of sites in Africa and Indonesia. He is also director of the Notre Dame Center for Global Health & Infectious Diseases, a group of more than a dozen faculty and their associated students and staff who work on infectious pathogens and vectors of importance in tropical countries. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Notre Dame in 1997, he served for 14 years with the malaria branch of the division of parasitic diseases, CDC.
HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, member of the Saudi Royal family, is a private entrepreneur and an international investor. The Prince began building his investment portfolio in 1979, when he returned to Saudi Arabia after earning his Bachelor’s degree in the US.
Prince Alwaleed established a number of business ventures, initially focusing on construction and real estate. Over time, the Prince’s investments rapidly grew and eventually led to the formation of Kingdom Holding Company, which invested along side other entities controlled by HRH in banking, telecommunications, broadcasting & media, entertainment, hospitality, computers and electronics, agriculture, restaurants, upscale fashion, retailing, supermarkets, tourism, travel, and automotive manufacturing.
J. Craig Venter is founder, chairman and president of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a not-for-profit, research and support organization with more than 500 scientists and staff dedicated to human, microbial, plant and environmental genomic research, the exploration of social and ethical issues in genomics, and seeking alternative energy solutions through genomics. Their most recent achievement is the publication of the first diploid human genome. In 1992, Dr. Venter founded The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), a not-for-profit research institute, where in 1995 he and his team decoded the genome of the first free-living organism, the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae, using his new whole genome shotgun technique. TIGR, which was recently merged into the JCVI, sequenced more than 50 genomes using Dr. Venter’s techniques.
James D. Watson is known for his discovery of the structure of DNA, for which he shared a 1962 Nobel Prize with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins. Their elegant image of the double helix inspired the development of modern biology and led to a new industry, biotechnology. Between 1988 and 1992, Dr. Watson directed the U.S. Human Genome Project, a multi-million dollar effort to map human genes and to sequence the human genome. Dr. Watson's book, “The Double Helix,” has been translated into over 20 languages. Dr. Watson's honors include the Eli Lilly Award in biochemistry, the Albert Lasker Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London, and the Charles A. Dana Distinguished Achievement Award in Health. In addition to degrees from the University of Chicago and Indiana University, he has received 18 honorary degrees.
Jeffrey Katzenberg has served as CEO of DreamWorks and member of the board of directors since October 2004. Prior to founding DreamWorks Studios, Mr. Katzenberg served as chairman of the board of The Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994. As chairman, he was responsible for the worldwide production, marketing and distribution of all Disney filmed entertainment, including motion pictures, television, cable, syndication, home entertainment and interactive entertainment. Mr. Katzenberg serves on the boards of The Motion Picture and Television Fund, The Museum of Moving Image, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, California Institute of the Arts and The Simon Wiesenthal Center. He is co-chairman of each of the Creative Rights Committee of the Directors Guild of America, and the Committee on the Professional Status of Writers of the Writers Guild of America. In addition, his fundraising efforts on behalf of AIDS Project Los Angeles have helped to provide its clients with medical and social services.
Intrigued by the amazing growth in use of the Internet, Jeff Bezos created a business model that leveraged the Internet’s unique ability to deliver huge amounts of information rapidly and efficiently. In 1994 he founded Amazon.com, the online retailer.
Jeff Immelt is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of GE. Mr. Immelt, the 9th chairman in GE's 128-year history, was appointed to this post on September 7, 2001. In 2005 and 2006, Barron’s named Mr. Immelt one of the World’s Best CEO’s. Under his leadership, GE has been named “America’s Most Admired Company” in a poll conducted by Fortune magazine and the world's most respected company in polls conducted by Barron's and the Financial Times. He serves as chairman of The Business Council and is on the board of three non-profit organizations: Catalyst, devoted to advancing women in business; Robin Hood, focused on addressing poverty in New York City; and the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Jeroen van der Veer joined Shell in 1971 and worked in manufacturing and marketing in the Netherlands, Curaçao and the United Kingdom. In 1992, he became a Managing Director of Shell Nederland. Three years later he became President and Chief Executive of the Shell Chemical Company in the United States. He was appointed a Group Managing Director in 1997.
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.
John Chambers is Chairman and CEO of Cisco. He has helped grow the company from $70 million when he joined in 1991, to $1.2 billion when he assumed the role of CEO, to its current run-rate of approximately $40 billion. Mr. Chambers has received numerous awards for his leadership including Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” and one of Barron’s “World’s Best CEOs.” During his tenure as CEO, Cisco has been named to Fortune’s “America’s Most Admired Company” list seven times and is one of the top 10 places to work in numerous countries around the world. Chambers takes an active role in corporate social responsibility initiatives worldwide, and was awarded both the first-ever Clinton Global Citizen Award and the U.S. State Department’s top corporate social responsibility award on behalf of Cisco. Prior to joining Cisco, Chambers spent eight years at Wang Laboratories and six years with IBM.
