Mort Zuckerman
Mort Zuckerman
U.S. News and World Report, New York Daily News, and Boston Properties Inc.
Mortimer B. Zuckerman is the Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News & World Report and is the Chairman and Publisher of the New York Daily News. He is also the co-founder and Chairman of Boston Properties Inc. and a regular commentator on The McLaughlin Group.
He is a trustee of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a member of the Bank of America Global Wealth & Investment Management Committee, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Vice Chair and Treasurer of the International Peace Institute. He is a sponsor of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a former Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, a former lecturer of City and Regional Planning at Yale University, a past president of the Board of Trustees of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, a member of the Trilateral Commission and the former Chairman of the Principal’s International Advisory Board of McGill University. He is a former trustee of New York University and the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton. He is a former Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and served as President of the America-Israel Friendship League.
Mr. Zuckerman is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal where he received an undergraduate degree in 1957 with first class honors, a degree in law in 1961 and an honorary LLD in 2011. He received an MBA with distinction from the Wharton Graduate School, University of Pennsylvania, in 1961 and an LLM from Harvard University in 1962.
He has received honorary degrees from Colby College, Southampton College, Hebrew College, Berkeley College, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and an honorary Doctorate of Laws from McGill University and Columbia University. Mr. Zuckerman was awarded the Commandeur De L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Guild Hall, the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architecture in New York, the Sy Syms Humanitarian award from Yeshiva University and a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal from the Canadian government.
Zuckerman was hosted by The Common Good in August of 2011: Special Screening of “Too Big To Fail”.
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Joe Nocera
Joe Nocera
Journalist
Joe Nocera is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He was previously was an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times Opinion pages and he wrote the “Talking Business” column each Saturday. Nocera was also a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine.
For more than three decades, Mr. Nocera has chronicled the world of business at magazines such as Fortune, GQ, Esquire and Texas Monthly. He has won three Gerald Loeb awards, including the 2008 award for commentary, and three John Hancock awards for excellence in business journalism. A 2007 Pulitzer finalist, he has written many books including A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class, which won the New York Public Library’s 1995 Helen Bernstein Award; Good Guys and Bad Guys: Behind the Scenes With the Saints and Scoundrels of American Business (and Everything in Between); and All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, which he co-authored with Bethany McLean.
The Common Good hosted Nocera on August 2nd, 2011, for a Special Screening of “Too Big To Fail” alongside Mort Zuckerman.
Twitter: @NoceraBV
Ambassador Alon Pinkas
Ambassador Alon Pinkas
Israeli politician
From 2000 to 2004, Ambassador Alon Pinkas was Consul General of Israel supplying services to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. In addition, he served as Chief of Staff to both Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami in 2000 and Foreign Minister David Levy from 1999 to 2000. Ambassador Pinkas was also the Foreign Policy Advisor to Ehud Barak in 1996 to 1999, when Barak was Chairman of the Labor party and the Opposition, and in 1995 to 1996 when Barak was a member of the delegation to the Middle East Economic Conference in Paris, France. He was Foreign Policy Advisor to then Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres from 1991 to 1992. In addition to his government service, Mr. Pinkas is an experienced journalist. He was the Chief Military and Defense correspondent for the Jerusalem Post and Chief Diplomatic Correspondent for Ma’ariv, a Hebrew language daily newspaper. He is a frequent commentator on US affairs in Israeli media and is a FOX News contributor on the Middle East and International Affairs.
Pinkas was hosted by The Common Good in 2011: Breakfast Briefing with Ambassador Alon Pinkas.
Twitter: @AlonPinkas
Barnett Zitron
Barnett Zitron
Founder, TENFOUR.NYC
Barnett Zitron is the founder of TENFOUR.NYC, a media, entertainment, fashion, and consumer product advisory. He was Vice President and Managing Director of MADE, which was an alternative fashion week that provided fashion shows free of charge and is now a festival platform. Zitron also founded wecando, a company that provided revolutionary ad technology, and was Project Director for VICE Media.
Zitron spoke in Social Media, Politics and Change on July 26th, 2011 at The Common Good.
Ben Smith
Ben Smith
Journalist
Benjamin Eli Smith is an American political journalist and blogger. He is currently editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed.
Smith’s first professional reporting job was doing the crime beat for The Indianapolis Star. He then moved to Latvia to take a position at The Baltic Times, and also began reporting for Wall Street Journal Europe (through 2002). Smith has also written for the New York Sun (2002-2007), the New York Observer and wrote a political column for the New York Daily News. Between 2004 and 2006, Smith also started three of the leading New York City political blogs, the Politicker, the Daily Politics, and Room Eight. Smith wrote for the news outlet Politico from 2007-2011, joining as that site expanded and became frequently cited during the 2008 presidential election, and becoming one of its most prominent writers and bloggers.
In December 2011, he was named editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed. Smith explained that, although he would be leaving his Politico blog, he would still write for the publication on a weekly basis.
Smith spoke on the panel Social Media, Politics and Change on July 26th, 2011.
Twitter: @BuzzFeedBen
Kevin Macdonald
Kevin Macdonald
Director, producer
Kevin Macdonald is a director and producer, known for Whitney (2018), The Last King of Scotland (2006), State of Play (2009) and Touching the Void (2003).
Kevin Macdonald's first feature, One Day In September, won an Oscar for Best Documentary in 2000. His awards include a BAFTA for Best British Film, the Evening Standard Award for Best British Film, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It is the highest grossing British documentary in U.K. box office history. Kevin's first feature-length drama, The Last King of Scotland, starring Forest Whitaker, premiered at Telluride and was released in the UK and the US in 2006. Other feature drama credits include State of Play, starring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck, and The Eagle, adapted from Rosemary Sutcliffe's The Eagle of the Ninth and starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell. His most recent feature is Marley, the acclaimed documentary about Bob Marley's life and work was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2013 BAFTA’s as well as receiving a GRAMMY and a BIFA nomination. In 2013, his film How I Live Now starring Saoirse Ronan and Tom Holland was released. In 2018, he examined the life and career of singer Whitney Houston in his film Whitney.
The Common Good hosted Macdonald in 2011: New York Premiere of “Life in a Day”.
Twitter: @Kevinmfilms
Representative Shelley Berkley
The honorable Shelley Berkley
Former Representative for Nevada’s First Congressional District
Congresswoman Shelley Berkley formerly represented Nevada’s First Congressional District from 1999 to 2012 as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. A candidate for Senate in 2012, she had a proven track record of helping the middle class on issues that matter the most: creating jobs, keeping families from losing their homes, and increasing access to education and health care.
After completing junior high and high school in Las Vegas, Congresswoman Berkley became the first member of her family to attend college when she enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas (UNLV). Elected student body president her senior year, Congresswoman Berkley graduated with honors in 1972, earning a B.A. in Political Science. After earning her law degree in 1976 from the University of San Diego School of Law, Shelley returned to Las Vegas and began her professional career. She is a former member of the Nevada State Legislature and served as a Regent for the State’s University and Community College.
Representative Berkley attended a Meet & Greet at The Common Good on June 27th, 2011.
Twitter: @RepBerkley
Dr. Emily Landau
Dr. Emily Landau
Israeli Expert
Dr. Emily Landau has published and lectured extensively on the Middle East. Some topics that she has covered include Arab perceptions of Israel’s qualitative edge, Israeli-Egyptian relations, and proliferation challenges in the post-Cold War world. Her current research focuses on regional dynamics and processes in the Middle East and developments in arms control thinking on nuclear proliferation, including implications of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
She is co-author of Israel’s Nuclear Image: Arab Perceptions of Israel’s Nuclear Posture, author of Egypt and Israel in ACRS: Bilateral Concerns in a Regional Arms Control Process, and co-editor of Building Regional Security in the Middle East: International, Regional and Domestic Influences. Her most recent book is Arms Control in the Middle East: Cooperative Security Dialogue and Regional Constraints.
Dr. Landau teaches arms control in the Security Studies program at Tel Aviv University and in the International School at the University of Haifa. She is a member of the Steering Committee of EuroMeSCo, the Euro-Mediterranean consortium of research institutes, and of the newly convened Expert Advisory Group for Euro-Mediterranean affairs.
Dr. Landau spoke at The Common Good on Middle East Regional Security, June 21st, 2011.
Twitter: @EmilyBLandau
Ken Burns
Ken Burns
Filmmaker
Ken Burns has been making films for more than thirty years. Since the Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Burns has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. A December 2002 poll conducted by Real Screen Magazine listed Ken Burn’s The Civil War as second only to Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North as the “most influential documentary of all time,” and named Ken Burns and Robert Flaherty as the “most influential documentary makers” of all time. Burns’ films have won twelve Emmy Awards and two Oscar nominations, and in September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Burns was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award. He is one of the co-founders of Florentine Films.
Mr. Burns was hosted by The Common Good in June of 2011: A Conversation With Ken Burns.
Twitter: @KenBurns
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Barney Frank
The Honorable Barney Frank
Former congressman, House of Representatives
Barnett Frank is an American former politician. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts from 1981 to 2013. A Democrat, Frank served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee (2007–2011) and was a leading co-sponsor of the 2010 Dodd–Frank Act, a sweeping reform of the U.S. financial industry. In 1987, he publicly came out as gay, becoming the first member of Congress to do so voluntarily. In July 2012, he married his long-time partner, James Ready, becoming the first member of Congress to marry someone of the same sex while in office. Frank did not seek re-election in 2012, and retired from Congress at the end of his term in January 2013. (1)
The Common Good hosted Mr. Frank at the 2011 Meet & Greet with Congressman Barney Frank.
Twitter: @BarneyFrank
(1) Material from Wikipedia.
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
American filmmaker, photographer, actor
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor who started his feature film directing career with Being John Malkovich (1999) and Adaptation (2002), both written by Charlie Kaufman, and then started movies with screenplays of his own with Where the Wild Things Are (2009) and Her (2013).
Jonze is also known for his music video collaborations with Fatboy Slim, Weezer, Beastie Boys, and Björk. He was a co-creator and executive producer of MTV’s Jackass and is currently the creative director of Vice Media, Inc. Jonze is a partial owner of skateboard company Girl Skateboards with riders Rick Howard and Mike Carroll. He co-founded Directors Label, with filmmakers Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry, and the Palm Pictures company.
Jonze has been nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Director for Being John Malkovich, and Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Song (“The Moon Song”) for Her. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay, and the 2014 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Her.
Jonze was hosted by The Common Good in 2011: The Wall Street Journal: Fashionable Crowd for 'Style Wars'.
Catherine Keener
Catherine Keener
American actress
Catherine Keener is an Academy Award and Oscar nominated actress for best supporting actress. Starring in Being John Malkovich, Capote, Into the Wild, and The 40 Year-Old Virgin. She received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actress for Walking and Talking, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Where the Wild Things Are. Catherine also she was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Harper Lee in Capote.
She’s worked on studio films such as Captain Phillips, Out of Sight, and Bad Grandpa. But she found her place in independent cinema which is full of quirky little movies and felt extremely welcomed in that industry.
She discusses her hardships when it came to making a name for herself as she had to deal with backlash due to being a women. Being turned down from roles because “she wasn’t sexy enough.” Although she spoke out and persevered. She expresses her love for the #MeToo movement as it allows for women to speak out about unacceptable behavior and continues to support it.
Keener was hosted twice by The Common Good in 2011, at the event Style Wars and The American Spirit Awards 2011.
Twitter: @KeenerSavannah
Tony Silver ✝
tony silver ✝
Film director
Tony Silver is perhaps best remembered for his documentary Style Wars (1983), one of the first accounts of New York graffiti and hip-hop culture from the early 1980s. His other documentaries include Anita Ellis: For the Record (1980) and Arisman: Facing the Audience (2002). Silver passed away in 2008. (1)
Silver was posthumously awarded the American Spirit Award for Freedom of Expression of the Arts by The Common Good alongside Henry Chalfant at the Style Wars event in 2011.
(1) Material from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website.
Henry Chalfant
henry chalfant
Artist
Starting out as a sculptor in New York in the 1970s, Chalfant turned to photography and film to do an in-depth study of hip-hop culture and graffiti art. One of the foremost authorities on New York subway art, and other aspects of urban youth culture, his photographs record hundreds of ephemeral, original art works that have long since vanished. (1)
Exhibits of his photos include the O.K. Harris Gallery and the landmark ‘New York-New Wave’ show at P.S. l, and important galleries and museums in Europe. He has co-authored the definitive account of New York graffiti art, Subway Art (Holt Rinehart Winston, N.Y. 1984) and a sequel on the art form's world-wide diffusion, Spray Can Art (Thames and Hudson Inc. London, 1987). Chalfant co-produced the PBS documentary, Style Wars, the definitive documentary about Graffiti and Hip Hop culture and directed Flyin' Cut Sleeves, a documentary on South Bronx gangs, in 1993. He produced and directed Visit Palestine: Ten Days on the West Bank in 2002. His film From Mambo to Hip Hop was featured in the Latino Public Broadcasting series, Voces in 2006-2007, and won an Alma Award for Best Documentary. (1)
Chalfant was hosted by The Common Good in 2011 at the event Style Wars, and was awarded the American Spirit Award for Freedom of Expression of the Arts alongside Tony Silver.
Twitter: @subwayarchive
(1) Material from Henry Chalfant’s website.
Mary-Kate Olsen
Mary-Kate Olsen
Fashion designer, actress producer
Mary-Kate Olsen is the co-founder of luxury brands The Row, Elizabeth and James, Olsenboye, and StyleMint. She is most popularly known as one half of the twin set, ‘Mary Kate and Ashley.’ Both were cast to share the roll of Michelle Tanner on the wildly popular 90’s series, Full House. Olsen and her sister became co-presidents of Dualstar upon their eighteenth birthday. In March of 2012, both Mary-Kate and Ashley indicated their interest to retire as actresses in order to focus on their careers in fashion. In 2008, the Olsen twins co-authored Influence, a book featuring interviews with fashion designers that have inspired the twins’ fashion lines.
The twins have pursued many philanthropic ventures. In 2011, Mary-Kate and Ashley teamed up with TOMS Shoes to design footwear for kids without shoes in more than 20 countries worldwide. They also designed an Olsenboye Change Purse in 2011 and donated the money to Pennies From Heaven.
Mary-Kate Olsen attended a celebration of Style Wars hosted by The Common Good on May 25, 2011.
Twitter: @imMKOlsen
Adam Horovitz
adam horovitz
American rapper
Adam Horovitz, better known as Ad-Rock or King Ad-Rock, is an American rapper, guitarist and actor. He is best known as a member of the hip hop group the Beastie Boys. (1)
Beastie Boys released their debut album Licensed to Ill in 1986. Seven further albums followed, and by 2010 the Beastie Boys had sold 22 million records in the United States alone, and 40 million worldwide. In 2012, the Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to his work with the Beastie Boys, Horovitz also remixes numerous tracks for other artists under the alias 41 Small Stars. Horovitz has also acted in several motion pictures and television shows. (1)
Horovitz was honored at The Common Good’s event Style Wars in 2011.
Twitter: @adrock
(1) Material from Wikipedia.
Steven Malanga
Steven Malanga
Journalist
Steven Malanga is the George M. Yeager Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and City Journal’s senior editor. He writes about the intersection of urban economies, business communities, and public policy. Malanga is the author of The New New Left: How American Politics Works Today (2005); The Immigration Solution: A Better Plan than Today’s (2007), coauthored with Heather Mac Donald and Victor Davis Hanson; and Shakedown: The Continuing Conspiracy Against the American Taxpayer (2010).
Before joining City Journal, Malanga was executive editor of Crain’s New York Business, serving on the publication’s editorial board and writing a weekly column. Prior to that, he was managing editor of Crain’s. During his tenure at the publication, it twice won the General Excellence Award from the Association of Area Business Publications. In 1995, Malanga was a finalist for a Gerald Loeb Award for Excellence in Financial Journalism for the series “Nonprofits: New York’s New Tammany Hall,” which he coauthored. In 1998, a series he coauthored, “Tort-ured State,” about the influence of trial lawyers in New York State, was voted best investigative story of the year by the Alliance of Area Business Publishers.
Malanga has written for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, New York Daily News, and New York Post. During 2007–13, he was a regular columnist for RealClearMarkets. He holds a B.A. in English literature and language from St. Vincent’s College, as well as an M.A from the University of Maryland.
Malanga was hosted by The Common Good in 2011: The Wisconsin Worker's Revolt and the National Ramifications.
Twitter: @cjstevem
George Miller
The Honorable George Miller
Politician
Former Congressman George Miller served California’s 7th district for more than half of his life, championing liberal causes such as increased funding for public education, support for labor unions and environmental causes throughout his tenure.
A close friend of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Miller was appointed in 2003 as co-chair of the House Steering and Policy Committee, which shapes and articulates Democrats’ policy proposals. He was chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee in the Democratic majority 111th Congress and has served as the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. A founder of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Miller was considered a stalwart of the left. He pushed liberal positions on education, labor and the environment, voting with the Democrats 97.6 percent of the time during the 110th Congress. He is also a strong believer in congressional oversight of the executive branch and the corporate world. Miller has consistently pushed a labor-friendly agenda that includes making it easier for workers to form unions, often with little success.
The Common Good hosted Miller is March 2011 for a discussion on The Wisconsin Worker's Revolt and the National Ramifications, featured in conversation with Steven Malanga.
Twitter: @askgeorge
Ross Bleckner
Ross Bleckner
Artist
Ross Bleckner is an artist currently living and working in New York City. He received a Bachelor of Arts from New York University in 1971, a Master of Fine Arts from Cal Arts in 1973.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum held a major retrospective of his works in 1995, summarizing two decades of solo shows at internationally acclaimed exhibition venues such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. Works by Bleckner are also held in esteemed public collections around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo; Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Not only has Bleckner had a profound impact on the shaping of the New York art world, his philanthropic efforts have enabled many community organizations to perform their vital work. For ten years. Bleckner served as president of the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA), a non-profit community-based research and treatment education center. More recently, he has been working with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Northern Uganda to help rehabilitate and raise money for ex-child soldiers. In May 2009, Bleckner was awarded the title of Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations.
Mr. Bleckner was hosted by The Common Good in 2011: The Quest for "It": Desert Flower Premieres – Sunday, March 20, 2011.
Read more:
‘Ross Bleckner: Pharmaceutria at Petzel Gallery’, ‘ArtFuse’, 15 May 2019
Ted Loos, ‘Ross Bleckner on His Comback and Mary Boone’ New York Times, 25 April 2019
‘Ross Bleckner at Dallas Contemporary’, Broadway World, 12 January 2017
Ken Johnson, ‘Searching for Light in the Darkness of the ‘80s’, New York Times, 18 August 2016
Liya Kebede
Liya Kebede
Model, maternal health advocate, clothing designer, actress
Born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Liya Kebede works as an international fashion model. She has appeared on the covers of Italian, Japanese, Korean & Spanish Vogue, Numero, V, French, Flair, i-D, South African Elle, Harper’s & Queen, Essence, and Time’s “Style & Design” issue. Kebede was also featured on the September 2004 cover of American Vogue, where she was named one of the leading faces of “the Return of the Super Model”. Kebede appeared for a second time on the May 2005 cover of American Vogue, with the heading “Cover model with a cause,” profiling her work with the World Health Organization as their Goodwill Ambassador for her tireless efforts in raising awareness for the difficulties that women and children face in the developing world.
In 2005, Kebede was appointed WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. She then founded the Liya Kebede Foundation, whose mission is to reduce maternal, newborn and child mortality in Ethiopia and around the world. In 2009, she worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of their Living Proof Project. Kebede served as a High-Level adviser for the Center for Global Development’s 2009 report “Start with a Girl: A New Agenda for Global Health.” Kebede writes for The Huffington Post about maternal and child health and has been featured in Vogue and on The Daily Beast. She is also part of the Champions for an HIV Free Generation, an organization of African leaders led by former Botswana President Festus Mogae.
The Common Good hosted Kebede in 2011 for a discussion about her role in the film Desert Flower.
Twitter: @liyakebede