President Bill Clinton

William Jefferson Clinton was elected President of the United States in 1992, and again in 1996, the first Democratic president to be awarded a second term in six decades. Under his leadership, the United States enjoyed the strongest economy in a generation and the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. His administration resulted in moving the nation from record deficits to record surpluses; the creation of over 22 million jobs; low levels of unemployment, poverty and crime; and the highest homeownership and college enrollment rates in history. After leaving the White House, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation with the mission to strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence.

Fareed Zakaria

Fareed Zakaria was named editor of Newsweek International in October 2000, overseeing all of Newsweek's editions abroad. He writes a regular column for Newsweek, which also appears in Newsweek International and often The Washington Post. He has served as an analyst for ABC News, a roundtable member on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and host of Foreign Exchange on PBS. In Spring 2008 he launched a new weekly foreign affairs program for CNN Worldwide called “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” On the program Zakaria conducts indepth interviews with a world leaders, such as Henry Kissinger, Tony Blair, Condoleezza Rice and Barack Obama.

Zakaria came to Newsweek from Foreign Affairs, the widely-circulated journal of international politics and economics, where he was managing editor. Prior to joining Foreign Affairs, Zakaria ran a major research project on American foreign policy at Harvard University, where he taught international relations and political philosophy. He has written for such publications as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The New Republic, and the webzine Slate. He is the author of From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America's World Role (Princeton University Press), which has been translated into several languages, and co-editor of The American Encounter: The United States and the Making of the Modern World (Basic Books).

Zakaria's new book, The Post American World, is about the "rise of the rest" -- the growth of China, India, Brazil and many other countries -- as the great story of our time. It was published in May 2008 and became an immediate New York Times bestseller. He also wrote The Future of Freedom (2003),a global analysis of how democracy has changed every aspect of our lives — from economics and technology to politics and social relations. This book also became an international bestseller and has been translated into about 20 languages.

Zakaria has won two Overseas Press Club Awards with Newsweek reporting teams and has been nominated for two National Magazine Awards. He won the Deadline Club Award for Best Columnist and numerous honors for his October 2001 Newsweek cover story, “Why They Hate Us,” which the Boston Globe said, “ought to be mandatory reading in every home in America.” In 1999, he was named “one of the 21 most important people of the 21st Century” by Esquire Magazine. He serves on the boards of the Trilateral Commission, the International Institute of Strategic Studies and The Council of Foreign Relations, among others.

He received a B.A. from Yale and a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard. He lives in New York City with his wife, son and two daughters.

Peggy Noonan

Peggy Noonan is a widely admired columnist for The Wall Street Journal and the best selling author of eight books on American politics, history and culture. In 2008 the National Journal dubbed Noonan's political column indispensable to an understanding of the presidential year, and Forbes Magazine called her column "principled, perceptive, persuasive, and patriotic." Noonan's essays have appeared in TIME, Newsweek, The Washington Post and other publications, and she provides frequent political commentary on television.

Peggy Noonan's most recent book, Patriotic Grace, published by Collins in 2008, is written in the pamphleteering tradition of Tom Paine's Common Sense, and is a call for a more elevated national politics. John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father, a look at the life of John Paul II, was published by Viking in 2005. Her collection of post-9/11 Wall Street Journal columns, A Heart, a Cross and a Flag, was published by Free Press in 2003. When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan, published by Viking in 2001, was a New York Times best-seller, as was The Case Against Hillary Clinton (HarperCollins, March, 2000). Her first book, What I Saw at the Revolution was called "A love letter to the American political process," by TIME Magazine. Her second book, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness was called "the voice of our times" by USA Today. Noonan’s third book, Simply Speaking, was published in paperback as On Speaking Well, in 1999; Forbes Magazine said of it, "Peggy Noonan packs a wallop of practical wisdom and insightful tips for rookie and veteran speechmakers alike…this wee volume, written by one of this century’s premier presidential speechwriters, will guide you correctly."

Noonan was a special assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1984 to 1986. In 1988 she was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H. W. Bush when he ran for the presidency. Before entering the Reagan White House, Noonan was a producer at CBS News in New York. In 1978 and 1979 she was an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University. She holds honorary doctorates from Miami University, St. John Fisher College, University of Portland, Adelphi University, St. Francis College, Ave Maria University, and her Alma Mater, Farleigh Dickinson University.

Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice is the 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 has authored and coauthored several 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 as well as the International Advisory Council of JPMorgan. 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. In addition, she has served on several local and national boards of foundations and charitable organizations.

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.

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President Pervez Musharraf

President Pervez Musharraf occupied, what TIME Magazine described as ‘‘the most dangerous job in the world,’’ playing a crucial role in the global war on terror. President Musharraf has survived two assassination attempts; rooted out militants in his own government; helped direct countless raids against Al Qaeda - both in his cities and in the mountains; and tracked Osama Bin Laden with technical and human intelligence. His astonishingly revealing memoir, In the Line of Fire, chronicles his struggles for the security and political future of his nation, with high stakes for the world at large.

At the start of his presidency, political restructuring was one of the four areas of focus for his government. He began examining why democracy remained dysfunctional in Pakistan and addressed the core malaise. He empowered the people of Pakistan at the grass roots level through a local government system, which did not previously exist; the women of Pakistan were empowered by gaining reserve seats at every tier of the Parliament; multiple private TV channels were allowed for the first time in the history of Pakistan, and the electronic and print media began operating independently of the government.

Following the September 11th terror attacks, the United States sought President Musharraf’s support to fight the Taliban. With a vision for a modern, democratic, non-fundamentalist Islamic Pakistan, President Musharraf was one of America’s greatest allies in helping to fight the Taliban.

In the course of his seven years at the helm of affairs in Pakistan, President Musharraf traveled widely all over the world and met many prominent leaders, and many of those leaders came to Pakistan and interacted with him. Such top-level interactions allowed him to develop a sense of the geo-strategic realities of the world, and various conflict regions. It also crystallized his views and perceptions of key world issues. President Musharraf articulated one such thought to bring harmony into distraught regions in the form of a ‘‘strategy of Enlightened Moderation’’. This captured the imagination of the West in particular, and was adopted by the Islamic World for Enlightened Moderation.

President Musharraf had a vision for Pakistan, and still believes that it is a nation that has all the resources, the potential and all the human capability to be transformed into a progressive, moderate, prosperous Islamic State.

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PHILLIPE de MONTEBELLO

Behind the aura of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the vision of Philippe de Montebello. In his richly illustrated lecture, The Hidden Met, Mr. de Montebello draws with keen insight on his 40-year experience at the Metropolitan Museum, 31 of them as its Director and takes the audience behind the scenes, telling untold tales about the process of some major acquisitions as well as unexpected twists in the negotiations for several international loan exhibitions. Mr. de Montebello also speaks about selected works of art in a personal way, unveiling some of their more profound mysteries. The audience comes away mesmerized by his knowledge and forceful personality and with an enlightened realization that no matter how bad the world situation, art is an integral part of our lives.

Philippe de Montebello is recognized throughout the world as one of the field's most influential and articulate champions of integrity, authority, education, and public access. In December, 2008, the dean of American museum directors retired after 32 years as the longest-serving director in the Met’s nearly 140-year-long history.

Under his leadership the Museum nearly doubled in size, vastly increasing its exhibition space. The Metropolitan also acquired significant collections and individual masterpieces, mounted acclaimed international loan exhibitions, developed wide-reaching educational programs, and reinstalled much of its permanent collections in new and refurbished galleries. In fall 2008 the curators of the institution paid tribute to Mr. de Montebello’s tenure by mounting an unprecedented tribute exhibition of some 300 major works that entered the collections under his leadership, entitled The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions.

In 2008 Mr. de Montebello became the first scholar in residence at the Prado Museum in Madrid, and joined the Board of Trustees of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. In the fall of 2009, he launched a new academic career as the first Fiske Kimball Professor in the History and Culture of Museums at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University and as a special advisor for NYU’s Abu Dhabi campus. He is currently co-host with Paula Zahn of the WNET/Channel 13 weekly culture series SundayArts. He continues to lecture throughout the world on art, museums, and other cultural matters.

Mr. de Montebello was born in Paris and received his early education in France. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and received a master’s degree in art history from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. With the exception of four and a half years as director of Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts, he has spent his entire career at the Metropolitan. His numerous international honors include the Officier de la Légion d'Honneur; the Amigos del Museo del Prado Prize; and Knight Commander, Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great. Mr. de Montebello has received a number of honorary degrees, notably from Harvard University, Dartmouth College, and New York University.

In March 2003 The President of the United States awarded him The National Medal of Arts, noting that by "promoting wide-reaching programs that bring art to the American people, he has helped to preserve, protect, and present the cultural and artistic heritage of our world."

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