Antoine van Agtmael

In this vital speech, visionary international investment manager Antoine van Agtmael -- the pioneer who coined the term "emerging markets" -- pulls back the curtain on the Global Economy. Picking up where Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat left off, he persuasively demonstrates why the we must look beyond our borders to get a better understanding of what is driving the tumultuous...

Connie Chung

An award-winning investigative reporter/anchor and one of the most recognizable faces on American television, Connie Chung has been a powerful force in the news industry for more than 35 years. On the lecture stage she draws on her unique experiences as a working mother in addressing the challenges today’s women face, advocating diversity in the workplace, and inspiring younger journalists...

Diana Ross

In a remarkable career spanning over 30 years, Diana Ross has proven herself the consummate music artist as well as the most successful female singer of all time. In the 1960s as lead singer of the pop group The Supremes, she achieved the unprecedented feat of fourteen consecutive number one hit records, rivaling The Beatles for the position of most successful recording act of that generation.

Eugene Jarecki

Eugene Jarecki is an award-winning dramatic and documentary filmmaker and visiting senior fellow at BrownUniversity's Watson Institute. After training at Princeton as a stage director, Jarecki turned to film in 1992, and his first short film, Season of the Litterbees, premiered at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival before winning both a Student Academy Award and the Time Warner Grand Prize.

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov was the highest-rated chess player in the world for over 20 years and is widely considered the greatest chess player that ever lived. On Thursday, 10th March, 2005 Kasparov announced his retirement from competitive chess. He remains the highest-rated player in the history of the game and the only true icon in a sport with over 100 million players. He was the first player to break...

George Lopez

Time Magazine has called him one of “The 25 Most Influential Hispanics In America;” a Gallup Poll recently named him one of America’s top-ten television personalities. In 2004 Harvard University presented him with their Artist of the Year and Humanitarian Award. His own charity, The George & Ann Lopez-Richie Alarcon CARE Foundation, provides significant community and arts resources for...

Ishmael Beah

Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone on November 23, 1980. When he was eleven, Ishmael’s life, along with the lives of millions of other Sierra Leoneans, was derailed by the outbreak of a brutal civil war. After his parents and two brothers were killed, Ishmael was recruited to fight as a child soldier. He was thirteen.

Jay Sean

Jay Sean is the international superstar behind songs such as "Down," featuring Lil Wayne, and "Do You Remember," chart-topping hits from his U.S. debut album All or Nothing, which helped catapult him into a league reserved for just a few. Now, he is gearing up for the release of his fourth album, the highly anticipated Cash Money/Universal Republic follow-up Freeze Time, with music, including...

John Legend

Recording artist, concert performer and philanthropist John Legend has won nine Grammy awards and was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people. John launched his career as a session player and vocalist, contributing to best-selling recordings by Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z and Kanye West before recording his own unbroken chain of Top 10 albums -- Get Lifted (2004), Once...

John Leguizamo

A multi-faceted performer and Emmy Award winner, John Leguizamo has established a career that defies categorization. With boundless energy and creativity, his work in film, theatre, television, and literature covers a variety of genres, continually threatening to create a few of its own.

Jose Mourinho

José Mourinho is the current football manager of Real Madrid. The son of Portuguese goalkeeper Félix, Mourinho started out as a player but he was unsatisfied with his career and switched to management. After spells working as an assistant manager and a youth team coach in the early 1990s, he became an interpreter for Bobby Robson. Mourinho learned much from the veteran...

Muhummad Yunus

What if you could harness the power of the free market to solve the problems of poverty, hunger, and inequality? To some, it sounds impossible. But Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus is doing exactly that. As founder of Grameen Bank, Yunus pioneered microcredit, the innovative banking program that provides the poor - mainly women - with small loans they use to launch businesses and...

Muna Abu Sulayman

Muna Abu Sulayman, executive manager of Strategic Studies and Research Initiatives at Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's Kingdom Holding Company, was among the 250 Young Global Leaders chosen by the World Economic Forum for 2007. Riyadh-based Muna Abu Sulayman is the only Saudi to gain a place on this year's list which was released yesterday by the Geneva-based WEF.

Senator George Mitchell

Senator George J. Mitchell is the co-chair of Piper Rudnick's Government Controversies practice group. Mitchell entered the U.S. Senate in 1980 when he was appointed to complete the unexpired term of Senator Edmund S. Muskie, who resigned to become secretary of state.

Sidney Poitier

Academy Award-winning actor, writer, director, and diplomat (he serves as the Bahamas’ ambassador to Japan and UNESCO), Sidney Poitier has been a political and artistic trailblazer for more than half a century. On the lecture stage he recounts the uplifting story of his life from his childhood as the son of poor tomato farmers to his pioneering cinematic career in inspiring audiences to pursue...