2017 Secular Forum
Guest Speakers
Lawrence H. Summers
Former Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration, Director of the White
House National Economic Council in the Obama Administration, President of Harvard
University and Chief Economist of the World Bank
Dr. Summers’ tenure at the U.S. Treasury coincided with the longest period of sustained economic growth
in U.S. history. He is the only Treasury Secretary in the last half century to have left office with the national
budget in surplus.
Dr. Summers has played a key role in addressing every major financial crisis for the last two decades.
During the 1990s, he was a leader in crafting the U.S. response to international financial crises arising in
Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Japan, and Asian emerging markets. As one of President Obama’s chief economic
advisors, Dr. Summers’ thinking helped shape the U.S. response to the 2008 financial crisis, to the failure
of the automobile industry, and to the pressures on the European monetary system. Upon Summers’
departure from the White House, President Obama said, “I will always be grateful that at a time of great
peril for our country, a man of Larry’s brilliance, experience and judgment was willing to answer the call
and lead our economic team.”
The Economist recognized his influence when it defined the “Summers Doctrine,” an approach to
economic policy during financial crises that fuses a microeconomic “laissez faire” mentality with
macroeconomic activism. “Markets should allocate capital, labour and ideas without interference, but
sometimes markets go haywire, and must be counteracted forcefully by government.”
Summers’ five years as President of Harvard represented a time of major innovation for the University.
He focused on equality of opportunity and removing all financial obligation from students with family
incomes below $60,000 a year. He launched a major effort to make Boston, and Cambridge in particular,
the global leader in life sciences research, with the formation of major programs for stem cell research and
genomics. Perhaps most importantly, he led efforts to renew Harvard College with dramatic increases in
study abroad programs, faculty-student contact, and collaboration across the University during his tenure.
Currently, Dr. Summers is the President Emeritus and the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard
University, where he became a full professor at age 28, one of the youngest in Harvard’s recent history.
He directs the University’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. Summers was the
first social scientist to receive the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award for scientific
achievement and, in 1993, he was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, given to the most outstanding
economist under 40 in the United States. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. He
has published several books and more than 150 papers in scholarly journals.
Summers is an advisor to businesses and investors. He serves on the board of two cutting edge financial
services startups—Square and Lending Club. He also chairs the boards of Citizen Schools and the Center
for Global Development and serves on the executive committee of the board for Teach For America. He
recently chaired the Commission on Global Health, lauded by the UN Secretary General who noted that it
“will bring more than health – it will bring equity, and contribute to a life of dignity for all.”
President Bill Clinton said that Larry Summers “has the rare ability to see the world that is taking shape
and the skill to help to bring it into being.” He has been recognized as one of the world’s most influential
thinkers by Time, Foreign Policy, Prospect and The Economist magazines among many others. In his
speeches, regular newspaper columns in The Financial Times and public commentary, he continues to
move forward the debate on national and global economic policy.
2017 Secular Forum Guest Speakers
Tali Sharot
Author, Neuroscientist and Director of the Affective Brain Lab, London
Tali Sharot is a leading expert on human decision-making, optimism and emotion. A
neuroscientist by trade, Sharot combines research in psychology, behavioral economics
and neuroscience to reveal the forces that shape our decisions, beliefs and inaccurate
expectations of the future and how those can be altered (or sustained). Why do people
discount bad news (a tendency that contributed to the 2008 financial downfall, enhances
ill-preparedness in the face of disaster and reduced medical screenings)? Why do we
have unrealistic expectations of the future (underestimating our chances of divorce and
expecting our kids to be uniquely talented)? Why is it so difficult to change a decision
after it is made? Sharot, a visiting professor at MIT, is also an associate professor of
Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, where she directs the Affective
Brain Lab. Her team is dedicated to answering such questions with an aim at identifying
ways to encourage behavioral change that enhance well-being. Sharot is the author of
The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain (Pantheon/ Random House,
2011, published in 10 additional countries); The Science of Optimism (TED, e-book) and
co-editor of The Neuroscience of Preference and Choice (Elsevier). She has been featured
on CNN, MSNBC, The Science Channel, the Today show, the BBC and many publications
around the world.
Sharot also co-presented BBC’s Science Club (BBC 2). She wrote Time magazine’s cover
story The Science of Optimism (May, 2011) as well as cover stories for The Observer
Review, The Guardian, The Washington Post Health Section and a New York Times Op-Ed
(Major Delusions, 2011). Sharot has given keynote addresses to a diverse collection of
private and public companies/groups, including those in the fields of insurance, financial
management, marketing, gaming, social entrepreneurship, arts, health and safety, mental
health and academia. She has also delivered many public talks including at TED2012.
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2017 Secular Forum Guest Speakers
The Honorable Newt Gingrich
2012 Republican Presidential Candidate and Speaker of the U.S. House of
Representatives (1995–1999)
Newt Gingrich is well known as the architect of the “Contract with America” that led
the Republican Party to victory in 1994 by capturing the majority in the U.S. House of
Representatives for the first time in 40 years. After he was elected Speaker, he disrupted the
status quo by moving power out of Washington and back to the American people. Under his
leadership, Congress passed welfare reform, the first balanced budget in a generation, and
the first tax cut in 16 years. In addition, the Congress restored funding to strengthen defense
and intelligence capabilities, an action later lauded by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission.
Today, Newt Gingrich is a Fox News contributor. He is a Senior Advisor at Dentons, the
world’s largest law firm with more than 7,700 lawyers serving more than 60 countries.
He advises the firm’s world-class Public Policy and Regulation practice. He is also a Senior
Scientist at Gallup.
From May 2011 to May 2012, Newt Gingrich was a candidate for the Republican nomination
for President of the United States, winning the South Carolina and the Georgia primaries.
The campaign was especially notable for its innovative policy agenda, its effort to bring new
coalitions into the Republican fold, and for Newt’s debate performances. His $2.50 a gallon
energy plan set off a nationwide discussion about the use of America’s energy resources.
However, there is a lot more to Newt Gingrich than these remarkable achievements. As
an author, Newt has published 27 books including 14 fiction and nonfiction New York
Times best-sellers. Newt and his wife, Callista, host and produce historical and public policy
documentaries. Because of his own unquenchable thirst for knowledge, Newt has become
one of the most highly sought-after public speakers, accepting invitations to speak before
prestigious organizations throughout the world.
Widely recognized for his commitment to a better system of health for all Americans, his
leadership in the U.S. Congress helped save Medicare from bankruptcy, prompted FDA
reform to help the seriously ill and initiated a new focus on research, prevention and
wellness. The American Diabetes Association awarded him the highest non-medical award
and the March of Dimes named him Citizen of the Year in 1995.
To foster a modern health system that provides better outcomes at lower cost, Newt
launched the Center for Health Transformation in 2003, and continued there in a leadership
role until he stepped down in 2011 to seek the Republican nomination for President of the
United States.
Recognized internationally as an expert on world history, military issues and international
affairs, Newt served as a Member of the Defense Policy Board. He was the longest-serving
teacher of the Joint War Fighting course for Major Generals. He also taught officers
from all five services as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Professor at the National
Defense University. Newt was a member of the Terrorism Task Force for the Council on
Foreign Relations. In 2005, Newt co-chaired the Task Force on U.N. Reform, a bipartisan
Congressional effort to reform the United Nations.
His experiences as the son of a career soldier convinced him at an early age to dedicate
his life to his country and to the protection of freedom. Realizing the importance of
understanding the past in order to protect the future, he immersed himself in the study of
history, receiving his Bachelor’s degree from Emory University and Master’s and Doctorate in
Modern European History from Tulane University. Before his election to Congress, he taught
History and Environmental Studies at West Georgia College for eight years.
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2017 Secular Forum Guest Speakers
Ian Bremmer
Author and President of Eurasia Group
Ian Bremmer is the president and founder of Eurasia Group, the leading global political
risk research and consulting firm.
He is a prolific thought leader, author and noted lecturer, regularly expressing his views
on political issues in public speeches, television appearances and top publications,
including Time, where he is the foreign affairs columnist and editor-at-large. Dubbed
the “rising guru” in the field of political risk by The Economist, he teaches classes on the
discipline as Global Research Professor at New York University. His latest book, Three
Choices for America’s Role in the World, was released in May 2015.
In 1998, Bremmer established Eurasia Group with just $25,000. Today, the company has
offices in New York, Washington, London, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, and San Francisco, as well as
a network of experts and resources in 90 countries. Eurasia Group provides analysis and
expertise on how political developments and national security dynamics move markets and
shape investments across the globe. As the firm’s president and most active public voice,
Bremmer advises leading executives, money managers, diplomats and heads of state.
Bremmer is credited with bringing the craft of political risk to financial markets—he
created Wall Street’s first global political risk index (GPRI)—and for establishing political
risk as an academic discipline. His definition of emerging markets—“those countries
where politics matter at least as much as economics for market outcomes”—has become
an industry standard. ‘G-Zero,’ his term for a global power vacuum in which no country
is willing and able to set the international agenda, is widely accepted by policymakers
and thought leaders. Said Larry Summers, “Global political economy has no sharper or
more prescient analyst than Ian Bremmer.”
Bremmer actively discusses the intersection between politics and markets in speeches
and the media. He has published nine books including the national bestsellers Every
Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World and The End of the Free Market:
Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations? He is a regular columnist for
Reuters and the Financial Times A-List, and has written hundreds of articles for many
leading publications. He appears regularly on CNBC, Fox, Bloomberg, CNN, the BBC, and
other networks.
Bremmer earned a PhD in political science from Stanford University in 1994 and was
the youngest-ever national fellow at the Hoover Institution. In 2007, Bremmer was
named a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, where he is the founding
chairman of the Global Agenda Council on Geopolitical Risk. He is the Harold J. Newman
Distinguished Fellow in Geopolitics at the Asia Society Policy Institute and serves on the
President’s Council of the Near East Foundation, the Leadership Council for Concordia,
and the Board of Trustees of Intelligence Squared.
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2017 Secular Forum Guest Speakers
Raghuram Rajan
Governor, Reserve Bank of India (2013–2016); Chief Economist and Director of
Research, International Monetary Fund (2003–2006), Distinguished Service
Professor of Finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business; Author
Dr. Raghuram Rajan is a distinguished service professor of finance at the University of
Chicago Booth School of Business. He was the 23rd governor of the Reserve Bank of
India from September 2013 to September 2016. Between 2003 and 2006, Dr. Rajan was
the chief economist and director of research at the International Monetary Fund.
Dr. Rajan’s research interests are in banking, corporate finance and economic
development, especially the role finance plays in it. He co-authored Saving Capitalism
from the Capitalists with Luigi Zingales in 2003. He then wrote Fault Lines: How Hidden
Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy, for which he was awarded the Financial
Times-Goldman Sachs prize for “Business Book of the Year” in 2010.
Dr. Rajan is a member of the Group of Thirty and the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. He was the president of the American Finance Association, which in January
2003 awarded Dr. Rajan the inaugural Fischer Black Prize for the best finance researcher
under the age of 40. Other awards he has received include the global Indian of the year
award from NASSCOM in 2011, the Infosys prize for the Economic Sciences in 2012, the
Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics in 2013, the 2014 Euromoney Central Banker
of the Year and The Banker magazine’s 2016 Central Banker of the Year.
5
2017 Secular Forum Guest Speakers
The Honorable Gary Locke
U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China (2011–2014), Secretary of
Commerce (2009–2011) and Governor of Washington (1997–2005)
On March 9, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Gary Locke to be the 10th
Ambassador of the United States of America to the People’s Republic of China. He
was confirmed by the Senate on July 27, 2011 and was sworn in on August 1, 2011.
He assumed duty as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the People’s
Republic of China on August 13, 2011.
Previously, Ambassador Locke served as the Secretary of Commerce, where he helped
implement President Obama’s ambitious agenda to turn around the economy and put
people back to work. As the administration’s point person for achieving the President’s
National Export Initiative, he presided over a 17 percent increase in exports from 2009 to
2010, while exports to China saw a 32 percent increase. Ambassador Locke also oversaw
a significant first step in the President’s export control reform effort that strengthens
national security, while making U.S. companies more competitive by easing their licensing
burden for exports to partners and allies.
Before his appointment to the President’s Cabinet, Ambassador Locke served two terms
as Governor of Washington, the nation’s most trade-dependent state. He expanded the
sale of Washington products and services by leading 10 productive trade missions to
Asia, Mexico and Europe. During the eight years of the Locke administration, Washington
State gained 280,000 jobs despite two national recessions.
As both Governor and Commerce Secretary, Locke’s innovations in government efficiency,
customer focus, and priority-based budgeting, as well as successful and under-budget
management of high risk initiatives, won him acclaim by nationally recognized authors
and organizations, including Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Along with his longstanding commitment to public service, Ambassador Locke has
extensive experience working with China. As Secretary of Commerce, he co-chaired
two sessions of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade that resulted
in important changes to Chinese trade policy, helping to level the playing field for
U.S. businesses exporting to and operating in China. As Governor of Washington, he
successfully strengthened economic ties between China and Washington State, more
than doubling the state’s exports to China to over $5 billion per year. As a partner in the
Seattle office of the international law firm, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, he co-chaired the
firm’s China practice.
Ambassador Locke is the first Chinese-American to serve as Ambassador to China, as
Secretary of Commerce and as Governor. His grandfather emigrated from China to
Washington State, initially finding employment as a servant, working in exchange for
English lessons. His father, also born in China, was a small business owner, operating
a grocery store where Ambassador Locke worked while receiving his education from
Seattle’s public school system.
Ambassador Locke earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Yale University
and a law degree from Boston University.
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