Ambassador Ron Prosor
Ambassador Ron Prosor
Israeli diplomat
Ambassador Ron Prosor became Israel’s 16th Permanent Representative to the United Nations in June 2011. With over two decades of experience at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prosor has carved out an international reputation as one of Israel’s most distinguished diplomats.
Previously, he served for nearly four years as Israel’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he earned plaudits for his articulate and forthright defense of Israel’s position, publishing numerous articles throughout the British press and addressing the widest possible range of audiences throughout the country. Between 2004 and 2007 Prosor served as the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, overseeing the work of the Foreign Ministry during the disengagement from Gaza in 2005.
His previous overseas service has included roles in Washington, London and Bonn. Mr. Prosor was instrumental in establishing diplomatic relations behind the Iron Curtain following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He was also a member of Israel’s delegation to the Wye River Summit talks in 1998. Prosor served in Washington between 1998 and 2002 as the Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs at the Israeli Embassy, throughout the transition from the Clinton to Bush administrations after the presidential elections of 2000.
Stephanie Sharis
Stephanie Sharis
Journalist, advocate
Stephanie Sharis is currently an Executive Strategist at Vaudeville Ventures. She previously served as Chief Executive Offer of DailyClout, a civic tech start-up that enables citizens to become political influencers through voter engagement tools. DailyClout was co-founded by Naomi Wolf, best-selling non-fiction author, and Lisa Thomas, founding CEO of Clif Bar.
In 2015, DailyClout secured a Knight Foundation Prototype Grant, one of only 20 winners from over 800 applicants, to help build its first government transparency product, BillCam. Before joining DailyClout, Stephanie served as Chief Operating Officer of SnagFilms, the pioneering digital distributor of independent film programming.
Sharis spoke at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards 2016.
Governor John Lynch
Governor John Lynch
Businessman, politician
Governor John Lynch is a strong proponent of improving the quality of education, promoting job creation and economic development, reducing health care costs, ensuring public safety, and protecting New Hampshire’s environment and natural resources.
Governor Lynch has worked with Democrats and Republicans to make kindergarten available to every child, to cut New Hampshire’s high school dropout rate in half, pass the toughest laws in the nation to protect children from sexual predators, to reduce spending by making government more efficient and build the economy by making it easier for companies to retain and hire new workers, increasing job training and providing tax credits for research and development.
Twitter: @GovJohnLynch
William Shawcross
william shawcross
Author, journalist
William Shawcross is a distinguished journalist, broadcaster and commentator who has covered international conflicts and conflict resolution and has reported for the Sunday Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone magazine, among many other publications. He is the bestselling author of many books including biographies of Rupert Murdoch, the Shah of Iran and the official biography of the Queen Mother. In 2003, he was named New Statesman’s Man of the Year. He is a chairman of Article 19, a London based charity and pressure group which defends the rights of free expression enshrined in Article 19 of the Declaration of Human Rights; a board member of the International Crisis Group; and was a member of the High Commissioner for Refugees’ Informal Advisory Group from 1995–2000.
Mike Lux
Mike Lux
Co-founder and President of Progressive Strategies, L.L.C.
Mike Lux is the Co-Founder and President of Progressive Strategies, L.L.C., a political consulting firm focused on strategic political consulting for non-profits, labor unions, PAC’s and progressive donors.
Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Political Action at People For the American Way (PFAW) and the PFAW Foundation, and served in the Clinton White House from January 1993 to mid-1995 as a Special Assistant to the President for Public Liaison. He also played a role in five different presidential campaign teams. In recent years, he co-founded the influential progressive blog OpenLeft.com, and served in a key liaison role to the progressive community upon being named to the transition team for Barack Obama.
Lux serves on the boards of several progressive organizations, including the Arca Foundation. In addition to serving on the board, he was a co-founder of Americans United for Change, Center for Progressive Leadership, Grassroots Democrats, PoliticsTV, Progressive Majority, and Women’s Voices Women Vote. He also played a role in helping launch the Center for American Progress and Air America.
Twitter: @ProgressiveLux
Gail Sheehy
Gail Sheehy
Author, journalist
A world-renowned author, journalist, and popular lecturer, Gail Sheehy has interviewed thousands of women and men and written 17 books throughout her 50 years as a writer. Her earliest revolutionary book, Passages, was named by a Library of Congress survey as one of the ten most influential books of our times. Passages remained on The New York Times Bestseller List for more than three years and has been reprinted in 28 languages. Sheehy’s autobiography is called DARING: My Passages. It was published in September 2014 by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins.
Sheehy is also a journalist who has covered national and world leaders. She culminated a decade of following Hillary Clinton for Vanity Fair with the biography, Hillary’s Choice, exploring the personal ambitions and vulnerabilities that drive the world’s most public woman. She has written about the character and psychology of presidential candidates from Robert Kennedy to Barack Obama and world leaders from Margaret Thatcher to Saddam Hussein.
Sheehy convened The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama event at The Common Good in 2009.
Twitter: @Gale_Sheehy
Robert Shrum
robert Shrum
Political advisor
Robert Shrum has been a senior adviser to the Gore 2000 presidential campaign, the campaign of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and the British Labour Party. In addition to being the chief strategist for the 2004 Kerry-Edwards campaign, Shrum has advised thirty winning U.S. Senate campaigns; eight winning campaigns for governor; mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other major cities; and the Democratic Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. Shrum’s writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The New Republic, Slate, and other publications.
The author of No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner (Simon and Schuster), he is currently a Senior Fellow at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service. He is the Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics and the Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics at the University of Southern California, where he is a Professor of the Practice of Political Science in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Shrum spoke at The Common Good’s Elections 2012 Forecast – Mehlman, Shrum, Wolffe – November 17, 2011.
Twitter: @BobShrum
Cong. Nita Lowey
representative Nita Lowey
U.S. Representative for 17th district of New York
Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey is currently serving her sixteenth term in Congress, representing parts of Westchester and Rockland Counties. She was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1988 and served in the Democratic Leadership in 2001 and 2002 as the first woman and the first New Yorker to chair the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She is also the first woman to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
Lowey is a leading Congressional proponent of educational opportunity, health care quality and biomedical research, improved homeland security preparedness, stricter public safety laws, environmental protection, women's issues, a leading international role for the United States, and national security. An outspoken supporter of transportation, nuclear, and infrastructure security, Lowey was appointed to the Select Committee on Homeland Security and recognized by the New York Post as “a key general in the battle to rebuild New York” for her leadership in securing over $20 billion for recovery efforts after September 11, 2001. She has been a champion of education throughout her career, fighting for school modernization, teacher development, and literacy programs. Under Lowey’s leadership, federal funding for after-school programs has increased from $1 million in 1996 to $1 billion today.
Twitter: @NitaLowey
Gary Sick
Gary Sick
Academic
Gary Sick is a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Middle East Institute and an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs.
Sick served on the National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan. He was the principal White House aide for Iran during the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis. Sick was a captain in the U.S. Navy, with service in the Persian Gulf, North Africa, and the Mediterranean.
From 1982 to 1987, Sick served as deputy director for international affairs at the Ford Foundation, where he was responsible for programs relating to U.S. foreign policy. He is a member (emeritus) of the board of Human Rights Watch in New York and founding chair of its advisory committee on the Middle East and North Africa. He is the executive director of Gulf/2000, an international online research project on political, economic and security developments in the Persian Gulf, being conducted at Columbia University since 1993 with support from a number of major foundations.
Steve Liesman
Steve Liesman
Journalist
As CNBC’s senior economics reporter, Steve Liesman reports on topics including the Federal Reserve and major economic indicators. He appears on Squawk Box, as well as other CNBC programs throughout the business day.
Liesman joined CNBC from The Wall Street Journal, where he served as a senior economics reporter covering monetary policy, international economics, academic research and productivity. At the Journal, Liesman worked as an energy reporter and Moscow bureau chief. He won an Emmy for his coverage of the financial crisis and was a member of the reporting team recognized with a Pulitzer Prize for stories chronicling the crash of the Russian financial markets.
Prior to joining the Journal in 1994, Liesman was the business editor for The Moscow Times, where, as the founding business editor for the country’s first English-language daily newspaper, he helped create the publication’s stock index, which was the country’s first. Liesman also has worked as a business reporter for both the St. Petersburg Times and The Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Twitter: @steveliesman
Senator Gordon Smith
the honorable Gordon Smith
Former U.S. Senator for Oregon
Gordon Harold Smith is a former United States Senator and businessman from the state of Oregon. A Republican, he served two terms in the Senate. Prior to election to the U.S. Senate in 1996, he served in the Oregon State Senate, including one session as President of Oregon’s Senate in 1995. Smith was defeated for reelection in 2008 by Democrat Jeff Merkley. On September 18, 2009, he was named as President of the National Association of Broadcasters.
Smith was hosted by The Common Good in 2006 for a Meet & Greet.
Jon Soltz
Jon Soltz
Political advocate
Jon Soltz is the Co-Founder and Chairman of the 400,000+ supporter veterans group, VoteVets.org.
He served twice in Iraq—in 2011 as a Major, helping train the Iraqi Army prior to the removal of US Troops, and in 2003, as a Captain during Operation Iraqi Freedom, deploying logistics convoys with the 1st Armored Division. In 2000 he served as a tank Platoon Leader in the Kosovo Conflict. As Chairman of VoteVets.org, Soltz has overseen the creation of a 400,000+ grassroots network of Veterans, military families, and civilian supporters. In his time as Chairman, VoteVets.org has raised over $20 million for VoteVets Action Fund and over $2 million for candidates, via VoteVets Political Action Committee.
Soltz is frequently quoted in major publications and frequently appears on cable shows, including Larry King Live on CNN, Nightline on ABC, PBS’ News Hour, the Dylan Ratigan Show, NewsNation with Tamron Hall, The Ed Show, and The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC, among other shows on many networks. He has been interviewed by the Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Time magazine, Newsweek, Politico, Roll Call, The Hill, and many other national and local papers.
Twitter: @jonsoltz
Steve Levy
Steve Levy
Politician
Steve Levy was the seventh County Executive of Suffolk County, New York, elected on November 4, 2003. Originally a fiscally conservative Democrat, Levy joined the Republican Party in an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for governor.
Levy has promoted strict anti-immigrant policies and has supported employer verification efforts and restrictions on drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants. On March 19, 2010, Levy announced that he would seek the Republican Party’s nomination for New York Governor, competing with former New York Congressman Rick Lazio and Buffalo developer Carl Paladino for the party nomination. Levy’s platform focused on getting the state’s financial house in order and reining in spending while decreasing property taxes. He also called for the creation of an independent control board, much like the ones formed by the state for counties who are in financial crisis, to help address New York’s fiscal woes.
Twitter: @SteveLevyNY
Maurice Sonnenberg
Maurice Sonnenberg
American intelligence and financial advisor
Maurice Sonnenberg is a board member of Chertoff Group’s board of advisers. He is currently Co-Chair of the National Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the United States Intelligence Community, and a member of the Special Navy Advisory Panel to the Secretary of the Navy at the Department of Defense.
His professional experience includes being appointed to the U.S. Observer Team to observe Central American elections during the Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush and Bill Clinton Administrations, as well as being appointed to the President’s Export Council and White House Task Force on International Trade during the Jimmy Carter administration.
Sonnenberg introduced Steny Hoyer at a Breakfast and Discussion at The Common Good in 2009.
Tommy Sowers
Tommy Sowers
Academic, politician, entrepreneur
Tommy Sowers was the 2010 Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in Missouri’s 8th congressional district. He is a former U.S. Army Special Forces officer where he achieved the rank of Major.
In 2010, Sowers ran and lost against incumbent Representative Jo Ann Emerson. After the campaign, Sowers worked as the Senior Advisor to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the nation’s first and largest non-profit focused on improving the lives of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families.
In 2015, Sowers co-founded Goldenkey Networks, Inc., which includes GoldenKey, a venture backed real estate startup. Sowers currently serves as the Southeast Regional Director of MD5 National Security Technology Accelerator, a US Department of Defense program that works with research universities and the venture community to provide solutions for the immediate problems of warfighters.
Twitter: @sowers
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Bernard-Henri Lévy
French philosopher, activist, filmmaker, writer
Bernard-Henri Lévy is a philosopher, activist, and filmmaker, and one of the most esteemed and bestselling writers in Europe. Lévy has advised presidents since François Mitterand and has served on diplomatic missions for the French government. The Guardian noted that he is “accorded the kind of adulation in France that most countries reserve for their rock stars.”
After starting his career as a war reporter for Combat — the legendary newspaper founded by Albert Camus during the Nazi occupation of France — Lévy co-founded the New Philosophers group. He has written for Le Point, El Pais, Corriere de la Sera, The WorldPost, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, among others. Lévy gained renown for his documentary film about the Bosnian conflict, Bosna! (1994). His films include the documentaries The Oath of Tobruk, Peshmerga and most recently, The Battle of Mosul.
He is the author of more than 30 books, including works of philosophy, fiction, and biography. Lévy’s 1977 book, Barbarism with a Human Face, was a controversial critique of the European left’s complicity with totalitarianism. His most recent book, The Genius of Judaism, was published in January 2017 by Random House. His New York Times Bestsellers include American Vertigo, Barbarism with a Human Face, and Who Killed Daniel Pearl?
Lévy spoke at The Common Good in 2017: Special Private Screening and Conversation on "The Battle of Mosul" and we are excited to have him back as a speaker at our upcoming event: Athens Democracy Forum.
Twitter: @BHL
Senator Arlen Specter ✝
the honorable Arlen Specter ✝
Former U.S. Senator for Pennsylvania
Arlen Specter was a former United States Senator from Pennsylvania. Specter was a Democrat, but was a Republican from 1965 until switching to the Democratic Party in 2009. First elected in 1980, he represented his state for thirty years in the Senate.
Specter first opened a law firm with Marvin Katz, who would later become a federal judge. Specter served as assistant counsel for the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy and helped devise the “single bullet theory.” In 1965, Specter was elected District Attorney of Philadelphia, a position that he would hold until he lost his re-election bid in 1973. On April 28, 2009, Specter announced that, after 44 years as an elected Republican, he was switching membership to the Democratic Party, On May 18, 2010, Specter was defeated in the Democratic primary by Joe Sestak, who then was defeated by current Senator Pat Toomey in the general election. Toomey replaced Specter on January 3, 2011.
In fall 2011, Specter was an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he taught a course on the relationship between Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court, focusing on separation of powers and the confirmation process.
Arlen Specter passed away at his home in Philadelphia on October 14, 2012 from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Specter was hosted by The Common Good in 2007 for a Meet & Greet.
Read more:
Will Dunham, ‘Former senator Arlen Specter, 82, dies of cancer’, Reuters, 14 October 2012
Linda Greenhouse, ‘Senator Specter and the Law’, The New York Times, 20 May 2010
Brian Montopoli, ‘Sen. Arlen Specter To Become a Democrat’, CBS, 28 April 2009
Eric Spiegel
Eric Spiegel
Businessman
Eric Spiegel is the President and CEO of Siemens USA and is responsible for growing the U.S. business in the company’s largest market. With over $22 billion in sales including exports and approximately 50,000 employees in the U.S., Siemens is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 165 years. Siemens has over 25 major manufacturing sites across the U.S. and is represented in all 50 states.
Twitter: @ericspiegel
Carol E. Lee
Carol E. Lee
Journalist
Carol Lee is a White House correspondent for NBC News. She was previously the White House correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, responsible for their coverage on politics, foreign affairs and domestic policy issues. She is currently president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, after serving on its board since 2010.
She has covered the White House since October 2008. She joined the Journal’s White House correspondence in 2011. Previously, she covered the White House for Politico, starting with President Obama’s transition in Chicago. Lee wrote a weekly column for the Journal’s digital politics page, “Capital Journal”. She now appears regularly on television and radio, including CNN, MSNBC, NPR and Sirius XM, as a commentator on the White House.
Lee spoke on the Midterm Elections Panel alongside Patrick Caddell, Anna Greenberg, Steve Kornacki, Jim McLaughlin, and Jefrey Pollock, moderated by John Harwood, at The Common Good in 2014.
Twitter: @carolelee
Governor Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Spitzer
Lawyer and Politician
Eliot Laurence Spitzer is an American lawyer, political commentator, and former Democratic Party politician. Currently, he is the host of Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer, a nightly news and commentary program on Current TV. Prior to that, he was the co-host of In the Arena, a talk-show and punditry forum broadcast on CNN from October 2010 to July 2011. He served as the 54th Governor of New York.
Prior to being elected governor, Spitzer had served as New York State Attorney General. Spitzer was born and raised in New York, by real estate tycoon Bernard Spitzer. He attended Princeton University for undergraduate studies and then Harvard Law School for his Juris Doctor. It was there that he met his future wife, Silda Wall. He went on to work for the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and subsequently the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to pursue organized crime. He launched the investigation that brought down the Gambino family’s control over Manhattan’s garment and trucking industries.
In the 1998 election, Spitzer defeated incumbent Republican Dennis Vacco by a slim margin to become New York State Attorney General. His campaign was financed by a controversial multi-million dollar loan from his father. As attorney general, Spitzer prosecuted cases relating to corporate white collar crime, securities fraud, internet fraud and environmental protection.
He most notably pursued cases against computer chip price fixing, investment bank stock price inflation, predatory lending practices by mortgage lenders, fraud at American International Group, and the 2003 mutual fund scandal. He also sued Richard Grasso, the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange over a compensation package perceived to be excessive.
Twitter: @EliotSpitzer
Read more:
Richard Bockman, ‘The Closing: Eliot Spitzer’, The Real Deal, 1 January 2019