Keynote Speakers
Haley Barbour
Former Governor, Mississippi
Former Chairman, Republican Governor's Association
Former Chairman, Republican National Committee
Founding Partner, BGR Group
Haley Barbour is hailed as one of the country's top political strategists. He is former governor of Mississippi and noted for his work on job creation, health care, education and energy in Mississippi, as well as his handling of Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill. Barbour is also a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, during which time the Republicans won the greatest midterm majority sweep of the 20th century, taking control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years. During his service as former chairman of the Republican Governor's Association, Republicans went from 22 to 29 governors. He recently returned to Barbour, Griffith & Rogers (BGR Group), a lobbying group he helped found.
Tom Brokaw
Author
Special Correspondent, NBC Nightly News
Tom Brokaw has spent his entire distinguished journalism career with NBC News, beginning in 1966 in the Los Angeles bureau where he covered Ronald Reagan’s first run for public office, the rise of the Sixties counter culture, the assassination of Bobby Kennedy and the 1968 presidential campaign.
From Los Angeles, Brokaw went to Washington as the White House correspondent during Watergate and as the principal back up for John Chancellor as anchor of NBC Nightly News. Next stop: New York and TODAY followed by his appointment as anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. In addition to his daily news gathering responsibilities, Brokaw reported on more than thirty documentaries covering subjects ranging from AIDS, Los Angeles gangs, race, education, medicine, immigration and global warming.
He took over Meet the Press for the 2008 campaign when his close friend and colleague Tim Russert died.
He has an impressive list of firsts, including the first interview with Mikhail Gorbachev; the first network report on human rights abuses in Tibet accompanied by an exclusive interview with the Dalai Lama; the only American network anchor to report from Berlin the night the Berlin wall came down.
In 1998 Brokaw published his first book, The Greatest Generation, one of the most popular non-fiction books of the 20th century. He followed that with five other books, including BOOM! Voices Of The Sixties and most recently, The Time Of Our Lives. He is also a popular essayist for publications ranging from The New York Times to Rolling Stone and a wide assortment of other periodicals and newspapers.
Brokaw has won every major award in his craft, including Peabody, Duponts, Emmys and lifetime achievement recognition.
Jean Chatzky
Award-winning journalist
Best-selling author
Financial editor, TODAY
Contributing editor, MORE magazine
Columnist, The New York Daily News
Jean Chatzky is the author of numerous books, including her newest Money Rules: The Simple Path to Lifelong Security and the recent release Money 911: Your Most Pressing Money Questions Answered, Your Money Emergencies Solved, a New York Times best seller. She is also the author of The Difference: How Anyone Can Prosper in Even the Toughest Times and best sellers Pay It Down: From Debt to Wealth on $10 A Day (The New York Times and Business Week best seller), Make Money, Not Excuses (Wall Street Journal and The New York Times best seller) and Not Your Parents’ Money Book: Making, Saving, and Spending Your Own Money.
In 2010, Chatzky was honored with the Books for a Better Life award for her book The Difference and in 2009 the Consumer Federation of America awarded her the Betty Furness Consumer Media Service Award for her nearly two decades of pioneering personal finance education. She has also received the Clarion Award from Women in Communications, a Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television, Inc. and was named one of the best magazine columnists in the country by the Chicago Tribune. Chatzky lives with her family in Westchester, NY. She blogs daily at JeanChatzky.com.
Terry McAuliffe
Former Chairman, Democratic National Committee
Chairman, Hillary Clinton for President
Founder & Chairman, GreenTech Automotive
Terry McAuliffe has played an incalculable part in making the electoral map bluer than ever and has been called the most successful political fundraiser of all time. During his time as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, he raised over $535 million—the most ever raised by either political party—and has been credited with almost single-handedly bringing a financially ailing Democratic Party out of the red. McAuliffe was also chairman of Bill Clinton's reelection committee, as well as chairman of Hillary Clinton for President. He has successfully started more than 25 companies, including GreenTech Automotive, which manufactures electric and hybrid vehicles, where he is currently chairman.