Board of Overseers

Keith Berwick is executive director of the Institute's 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.

Bill Budinger is an inventor holding over three dozen patents and is founder of Rodel Inc., having served for 33 years as chairman and CEO. Rodel, Inc. is the current global leader in high-precision planarization technology for semiconductors, silicon wafers, and storage media substrates. Mr. Budinger has served on the executive committee for the Delaware Public Policy Institute and the Education Improvement Commission and chaired the General Motors Task Force for Revitalizing Manufacturing. He is a founding board member of the Delaware Innovation Fund and the Rodel Foundations, and served on the board of Philadelphias WHYY public radio and television. As co-founder of the project to protect and restore Thomas Edison's New Jersey laboratories and workshops, Mr. Budinger also helped found the National Small Business Technology Council to assist entrepreneurial technology companies working with the federal government. He serves as a trustee for the Democratic Leadership Council and as a board member for the Progressive Policy Institute. He was an elected delegate and chair of the White House Conference on Small Business and a panelist for Mikhail Gorbachevs first State of the World Forum. Currently he spends most of his time helping the Rodel Foundations in their mission to improve public education. He continues to serve on numerous boards, including those of the Grand Canyon Trust, the DLC, and the Public Policy Institute.

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.

Arjun Gupta is the Managing Partner and Founder of TeleSoft Partners, an international venture capital firm focused on high-tech startups. Over the last decade, he has overseen investing in and helping build 60+ private companies, resulting in 32 acquisitions and IPOs to date. At TeleSoft, he manages capital commitments of $625+ million and has established Corporate Partnerships in the US,Europe, and Israel with Alltel, Bechtel, Deutsche Telekom and Comverse respectively. He serves on the Board of Directors of Calient, Education.com, Knowledge Adventure, LiteScape, LogLogic, Nexant, Validity, and VoiceObjects. He is also founder of Arjun Gupta Community Foundation, which supports community projects in education, medical research and the arts. Earlier in his career, Arjun was a Strategy Consultant for hightech clients with McKinsey & Company, and a Software Engineer with Tektronix, Inc. He is a Henry Crown Fellow, holds a BA (honors) in Economics from St. Stephen’s College India, an MS and BS, Phi Beta Kappa, in Computer Science from Washington State University, and an MBA from Stanford 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.

William E. Mayer is chairman of the Aspen Institute's Board of Trustees and a partner with Park Avenue Equity Partners in New York City. He is the former president and CEO of the First Boston Corporation (CSFB), 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. Mr. Mayer is a trustee of Tulane University, The University of Maryland, and is a board member of TechnoServe, a volunteer organization providing business expertise to developing nations. He also serves on the Board of Directors of numerous private and public companies.

Ann D. McLaughlin Korologos is Chairman Emeritus of The Aspen Institute. She is currently a Senior Advisor at Benedetto and Gartland & Company and a member of the Board of Directors of the Microsoft Corporation. Ms. McLaughlin serves on several corporate boards of directors, including those of Nordstrom Inc., Kellogg Co., Host Marriott Corp. and Fannie Mae. She served as U.S. Secretary of Labor from Dec. 17, 1987, to Jan. 20, 1989. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan, she espoused economic growth to enhance the welfare of American workers and was a strong advocate of increased private-sector initiatives to reconcile the demands of work and family life. Originally from New Jersey, Ms. McLaughlin received her bachelor of science degree from Marymount College and did graduate work at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Her private-sector employment included Union Carbide Corp. and Myers-Infoplan. She also served as public affairs director at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and as Under Secretary of the Interior. She is on a leave of absence from the Henry Crown Fellowship Board of Overseers from 2004-2005.

William R. McLaughlin is President and CEO of the Select Comfort Corporation. Prior to joining Select Comfort, Mr. McLaughlin served as President of Frito Lay Europe, Middle East and Africa, and was responsible for integrating and accelerating growth in a portfolio of over $2 billion in sales in 17 countries. He also led Frito Lay businesses in Mexico and the Caribbean as well as marketing operations in Brazil. Mr. McLaughlin began his career in marketing in 1981 with the Pillsbury Company. He currently serves as a director for Orion Safety Products and Minnesota Public Radio and is a member of the High Five Class of Henry Crown Fellows. He received an MBA from Dartmouth's Amos Tuck School in 1981 and a baccalaureate degree from Dartmouth College.