Board of Overseers

Keith Berwick is currently the Inaugural Recipient of the Keith Berwick Chair of Leadership for The Aspen Institute, and the former executive director of the Henry Crown Fellowship Program. He has also served as the Aspen Institute's Executive Vice President for Seminars and chairman of the Executive Council on Seminars. Mr. Berwick has a varied and extensive background as a historian, educator, Emmy-award winning broadcaster and newspaper publisher.

Lester Crown is Chairman of Material Service Corporation and Chairman of Henry Crown and Company. He holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Northwestern University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business. Mr. Crown serves on the boards of General Dynamics (where he previously served as chairman of the Executive Committee), Maytag Corporation, Northwestern University, The Jerusalem Foundation, Inc., Children's Memorial Medical Center, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Jewish Theological Seminary, the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science, and a member of the Board of Governors, Tel Aviv University.

Francis R. Hoffman is the Founder and Principal Architect of the award winning architectural firm Francis R. Hoffman Architects and is the chairman of C.A.G., the Construction Advisory Group, Inc. Hoffman has served as Oral Examiner Commissioner of the California Board of Architectural Examiners and is certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards holding professional registrations in California, Florida and Illinois. Mr. Hoffman is an on-going contributor of architectural services to the "Wonders of Reading Program," which provides full library facilities to deserving elementary schools.

Walter Isaacson is the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He has been the Chairman and CEO of CNN and the Managing Editor of Time Magazine. He is the author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003) and of Kissinger: A Biography (1992) and is the coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986). His biography of Albert Einstein - Einstein: His Life and Universe - was released in April 2007.

Ann D. McLaughlin Korologos is Chairman Emeritus of the Aspen Institute, having served as Chairman from 1996 through August of 2000, and is also Chairman of the RAND board of trustees. From 1990-1995 she served as president of the Federal City Council, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization comprised of 150 top business and civic leaders dedicated to improving the nation's capital. She also served as a Trustee and former visiting fellow of The Urban Institute, and on the corporate boards of directors for Nordstrom Inc., Kellogg Co., Host Marriott Corp. and Fannie Mae. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of The Dana Foundation. McLaughlin was a top official in the Departments of Treasury and Interior and served as U. S. Secretary of Labor under President Reagan. From 1989-1990 she served as Chairman of the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism. Ann received her bachelor of science degree from Marymount College and did graduate work at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

William E. Mayer is the current Chairman of the Henry Crown Fellowship program Board of Overseers. He is also Chairman Emeritus (2000 - 2008) of the Aspen Institute's Board of Trustees and currently on the Executive Committee. He is a partner with Park Avenue Equity Partners in New York City and the former President and CEO of the First Boston Corporation (CSFB). He is also the former dean of the College of Business and Management at the University of Maryland College Park, and former Dean of the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester. Bill was Chairman of the Board of the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland and is currently on its Executive Committee. He is also a board member of the Acumen Fund, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Vice Chairman of the Middle East Investment Initiative. He also serves on the Board of Directors of numerous private and public companies.

Ranji Nagaswami is the former Chief Investment Officer of Blend Equity and Multi-Asset Strategies within AllianceBernstein L.P. As CIO, Ranji was responsible for integrating AllianceBernstein's investing disciplines for growth equities, value equities, fixed income and alternatives to meet a range of client needs within the multi-asset portfolios offered by the firm. Until October 2008, she served as Chief Investment Officer of AllianceBernstein Investments, the retail division of AllianceBernstein L.P. Until 2005, Ranji was a senior portfolio manager of the Bernstein U.S. Value Equities team. Ranji joined Bernstein in 1999 as a fixed income senior portfolio manager with responsibility for credit research and risk management. Ranji is a member of the Advisory Board of the Yale School of Management, a member of the Investor Education Roundtable of the CFA Institute and a member of the Henry Crown Overseers Board at the Aspen Institute as well as a member of the North American Council of Ashoka, a global fellowship of social entrepreneurs. Ranji earned a Bachelor of Commerce from Bombay University in India and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. She and her husband Bo Hopkins live with their two children in Greenwich, CT. She is a member of the 2005 class of Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute.

Jacqueline Novogratz is Founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, a non-profit global venture fund for the poor. Acumen Fund supports scalable organizations that deliver affordable goods and services health, water, housing to the four billion people on earth earning less than four dollars a day. Before developing the Acumen Fund, Jacqueline served as Manager of Special Projects for the Rockefeller Foundation where she created and directed two major foundation initiatives The Philanthropy Workshop and Next Generation Leadership program. Jacqueline previously was a Warren Weaver Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation. She founded and helped manage a micro-enterprise organization in Rwanda that continues to serve women on a national level. She has also served as a consultant to UNICEF and the World Bank, and has been a teaching Fellow at Harvard. Jacqueline began her career in international banking at Chase Manhattan Bank. She serves on The CityKids Foundation Board of Directors, is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations and on the Advisory Council for EMPower and New Voices. She earned a BA in International Relations and Economics from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Stanford University. Jacqueline is a member of the 2004 class of Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute.

Michael Powell is currently the Chairman of the MK Powell Group, LLC, a consultancy focused on investment and strategic advice in the areas of technology, media, and communications. He is also a senior advisor to Providence Equity Partners—a $9 billion private equity firm investing in technology, media and information companies; and a senior advisor to Reactrix-a new media, interactive advertising system. In November 1997, Michael was appointed by President Clinton and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as a republican member on the five-member Federal Communications Commission. He served as a commissioner until January 2001, when he was designated Chairman of the commission by President George W. Bush. He led the FCC during one of the most critical periods in its existence, helping it meet the challenges of new technology and outdated policy, before resigned the post in January 2005 at the start of President Bush’s second term in office. In addition to his regular duties as Chairman, Michael also served as the FCC's Defense Chairman and was responsible for overseeing all National Security Emergency Preparedness functions for the Commission. Prior to his tenure at the FCC, Michael served as Chief of Staff for the Antitrust Division in the Department of Justice. He also served as a policy advisor to the Secretary of Defense, and as an armored cavalry officer in the United States Army. He received a B.A. in Government from the College of William and Mary and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. Michael, and his wife, Jane, live in Fairfax Station, VA, with their two sons. He is a member of the 1999 class of Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute.

Margot L. Pritzker is Founder and President of WomenOnCall.org., which she launched in February 2006 to provide professional women and non-profits an on-line meeting place to forge productive and efficient connections that make a difference in people’s lives. She is also Chair of the Zohar Education Project Inc., which she established 10 years ago with the goal of translating the Zohar, the canonical work of Jewish mysticism into English. Margot is involved in a number of initiatives that effect women and children in the developed and developing world. She has overseen the initiation and progress of schools in remote areas of the Himalayas and Afghanistan. Furthering cultivation of leadership amongst young people has led her to support and become involved with Ashesi University in Ghana. Through the Aspen Institute, where she is a trustee, she participates in leadership development initiatives throughout the world. These convictions are given further expression in her membership on the boards of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, the Chicago committee of Human Rights Watch, the Asian Art council of the Art Institute, and her role as a trustee of the International Board of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Margot currently serves as a trustee of the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, where she was Chair of the Board from 1993-2001. She serves as a Director of the Pritzker Early Childhood Foundation and is involved with ongoing research and planning in pursuit of new models of high school education, based on the notion that the adolescent is and can become a better global citizen. Born in England, Margot became a United States citizen in 1994. She currently resides in Chicago with her husband, Thomas J. Pritzker. Margot holds a BA from Northwestern University and a MLA from the University of Chicago.

Peter Reiling is Executive Vice President for Leadership and Seminar Programs and Executive Director of the Henry Crown Fellowship Program at the Aspen Institute. In these roles, he oversees the Institute's growing portfolio of leadership initiatives (the Aspen Global Leadership Network) and seminars (including The Aspen Seminar, offered at the Institute since 1950) as well as its flagship leadership program. Peter is a trustee, officer, and senior moderator of the Aspen Institute, a Henry Crown Fellow (Class of 1998), and the founder of the Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI), a joint venture between the Aspen Institute and five African business leaders. Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, from 1996 to 2004, Peter was President and CEO of TechnoServe, an international organization helping entrepreneurs across Africa, Latin America, India and Central Europe to build businesses in their communities. He is co-founder of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs and currently serves as chairman of the board of the CALI Foundation as well as on the boards of ALI/East Africa, ALI/West Africa, ALI/South Africa, Agora Partnerships and the Energy Access Foundation. Peter is a former adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and guest lecturer at the Institute for Developing Economies in Tokyo. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bretton Woods Committee, and was named "Outstanding Social Entrepreneur" by the Schwab Foundation in Geneva. A graduate of Georgetown University (BSFS) and the University of California/Berkeley (MBA), with additional studies at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.  Peter is married to Denise Byrne and is the father of two children, Dylan and Eva Luna.  He is a member of the 1998 class of Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute.

Robert K. Steel is the former President and CEO of Wachovia Corporation. He joined the board of directors of Wells Fargo & Co. upon the firm's merger with Wachovia. He previously served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance. In that capacity, he served as the principal adviser to the Secretary on matters of domestic finance and leads the Department's activities with respect to the domestic financial system, fiscal policy and operations, governmental assets and liabilities, and related economic and financial matters. Robert K. Steel retired from Goldman Sachs as a vice chairman of the firm on February 1, 2004. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1976 and served in the Chicago office until his transfer to London in 1986. In London he founded the Equity Capital Markets group for Europe and was extensively involved in privatization and capital raising efforts for European corporations and governments. He later assumed the position as head of Equities for Europe. In 1994 he relocated to New York and served as head of the Equities Division from 1998-2001 until his appointment as a vice chairman of the firm. He became a partner in 1988 and joined the Management Committee in 1999. Upon his retirement from Goldman Sachs, he assumed the position of advisory director for the firm and then senior director in December 2004.From February 2004 to September 2006 Mr. Steel served as a senior fellow at the Center for Business and Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Mr. Steel received his undergraduate degree from Duke University and his M.B.A from the University of Chicago. He resides in Connecticut and Washington, D.C. with his wife and three daughters.