Meeting will convene more than 1,000 global leaders September 23-25 in New York City to address the theme ‘Designing for Impact’
Featured participants include His Majesty King Juan Carlos I, Kingdom of Spain; Joyce Banda, president of the Republic of Malawi; Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, president of the Republic of Liberia; Salva Kiir Mayardit, president of the Republic of South Sudan; Porfirio Lobo Sosa, president of the Republic of Honduras; Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group; Hillary Rodham Clinton, secretary of state, U.S. Department of State; Rajiv Shah, administrator of United States Agency for International Development; Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and chairperson of BRAC; Madeleine Albright, chair of the Albright Stonebridge Group; Walter A. Bell, chairman of the board at Swiss Re America Holding Corp; Tony Blair, former prime minister of the United Kingdom; Tim Brown, president and CEO of IDEO; John Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco; Chelsea Clinton, board member of the William J. Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative; Fred P. Hochberg, chairman and president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States; Elizabeth Littlefield, president and CEO of Overseas Private Investment Corporation; Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children; Denis O’Brien, chairman of Digicel Group; Sally Osberg, president and CEO of the Skoll Foundation; Clarence Otis, Jr., chairman and CEO of Darden Restaurants, Inc.; Jim Rogers, chairman, president, and CEO of Duke Energy Corporation; Irene Rosenfeld, chairman and CEO of Kraft Foods Inc.; Robert E. Rubin, co-chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, former secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury; Luis A. Ubiñas, president of The Ford Foundation; Hans Vestberg, president and CEO of Ericsson; and Daniel Yohannes, chief executive officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
NEW YORK – Today, President Bill Clinton announced the program for the eighth Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) to be held September 23-25 in New York City. This year’s gathering will bring together more than 1,000 CGI members and participants, including current and former heads of state, Fortune 500 CEOs, leaders from the nonprofit sector, and celebrities, to devise and implement high-impact solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
This year marks the first time that CGI will organize its largest meeting around a single theme. The 2012 Annual Meeting’s program, “Designing for Impact,” will explore how leaders can extend design thinking, often tied to startups and market-based solutions, from the private realm to accelerate positive outcomes for individuals’ lives, their environments, and their systems of government, commerce, and consumption.
“This year, our Annual Meeting will help CGI members design solutions to critical challenges such as empowering girls and women to be full participants in the global economy, encouraging the private sector to create markets for the under-served, and increasing the sustainability of our food supply as global demand doubles within the next 50 years,” said President Clinton. “We redesigned the meeting this year to optimize the creative spirit and remarkable dedication of our members, who, since 2005, have made more than 2,100 commitments that are impacting nearly 400 million lives in more than 180 countries. I look forward to the solutions and commitments that will emerge from the CGI community at this year’s meeting.”
Featured participants at the 2012 CGI Annual Meeting will include Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and chairperson of BRAC; His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco; Madeleine Albright, chair of the Albright Stonebridge Group; Joyce Banda, president of the Republic of Malawi; Walter A. Bell, chairman of the board at Swiss Re America Holding Corp; Seth Berkley, chief executive officer of the GAVI Alliance; Tony Blair, former prime minister of the United Kingdom; Tim Brown, president and CEO of IDEO; His Majesty King Juan Carlos I, Kingdom of Spain; John Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco; Jason Clay, senior vice president of market transformation at the World Wildlife Fund; Chelsea Clinton, board member of the William J. Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative; Hillary Rodham Clinton, secretary of state, U.S. Department of State; Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme; David Crane, president and CEO of NRG Energy, Inc.; Salma Samar Damluji, chief architect at Daw‘an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation; Mallika Dutt, president and CEO of Breakthrough; Jay S. Fishman, chairman and CEO of the Travelers Companies, Inc.; Anne H. Hastings, chief executive officer of Fonkoze Financial Services; Carlos Slim Helú, founder of Fundación Carlos Slim; Fred P. Hochberg, chairman and president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States; José Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States; Robert Ivy, executive vice president and CEO of the American Institute of Architects; Antony Jenkins, chief executive officer of retail and business banking at Barclays PLC; Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, president of the Republic of Liberia; Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group; Klaus Kleinfeld, chairman and CEO of Alcoa Inc.; Kay Krill, president and CEO of ANN INC.; Nicholas D. Kristof, columnist at the New York Times; Sasha Kramer, co-founder and executive director of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL); Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, author, journalist, and deputy director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program Council on Foreign Relations; Elizabeth Littlefield, president and CEO of Overseas Private Investment Corporation; Salva Kiir Mayardit, president of the Republic of South Sudan; Molly Melching, founder and executive director of Tostan; António Mexia, chief executive officer, EDP – Energias de Portugal, S.A.; Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children; Luis Alberto Moreno, president of Inter-American Development Bank; Jayaseelan Naidoo, chairman of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN); Reema Nanavaty, director of economic and rural development at Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA); Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, Inc.; Denis O’Brien, chairman of Digicel Group; Sally Osberg, president and CEO of the Skoll Foundation; Clarence Otis, Jr., chairman and CEO of Darden Restaurants, Inc.; Stephan Ouaknine, chairman, managing partner, and CEO of Inerjys Ventures Inc.; Johanna Ralston, chief executive officer of the World Heart Federation; Navinchandra Ramgoolam, prime minister of the Republic of Mauritius; Jim Rogers, chairman, president, and CEO of Duke Energy Corporation; Irene Rosenfeld, chairman and CEO of Kraft Foods Inc.; Robert E. Rubin, co-chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, former secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury; Kiran Sethi, founder and director of the Riverside School, Ahmedabad – India; Luis A. Ubiñas, president of The Ford Foundation; Rajiv Shah, Administrator of United States Agency for International Development; Porfirio Lobo Sosa, president of the Republic of Honduras; Lynn Stout, distinguished professor of corporate and business law at Cornell University Law School; Hans Vestberg, president and CEO of Ericsson; Daniel Yohannes, chief executive officer of Millennium Challenge Corporation; Kandeh Yumkella, director general of the United Nations Development Organization; and Jochen Zeitz, chairman of the management board and CEO of PUMA AG Rudolf Dassler Sport.
Each of the three days of the 2012 Meeting will explore how CGI members can create solutions that make the maximum positive impact on people and their communities. The world’s leading innovators in technology, business, public health, and other sectors will discuss the philanthropic potential of strategic design in sessions such as:
- Designing for Impact, which will address inventive ways for people and organizations to strengthen the prosperity and sustainability of our increasingly crowded planet.
- Women and the Built Environment: Designing for Opportunity, which will examine how the inclusion of women in urban planning leads to improved economic, environmental, and public health prospects for everyone.
- The Early Years: An Irresistible Investment Opportunity, which will highlight how companies and governments can support the delivery of early childhood interventions that increase a country’s GDP, reduce long-term social costs, and help children thrive.
- The Future of Food, which will explore ways CGI members can advance a new vision for sustainable food production and consumption in the face of soaring demand.
- Working Capital: Creating Value for Business and Society, which will focus on how private organizations can serve as economic drivers without prospering at the expense of the societies and environments in which they work.
International leaders and experts will also offer guidance in special sessions, such as The Case for Optimism in the 21st Century, which will explain why despite the recent financial crisis, optimism still makes sense, and Strategic Philanthropy: How to Think Bigger and Do Better, a panel on how corporate and philanthropic organizations can maximize the results of their giving.
New features at this year’s meeting include interactive Commitment Workshops and Design Labs that will allow members to share knowledge, build partnerships, and generate Commitments to Action: new, specific and measurable plans that address a pressing global challenge.
The Commitment Workshop session topics include:
- Influencing Behavior and Attitudes
- Integrating Social and Environmental Value into Core Business
- Financing for Impact and Scale
- Haiti: Lessons for the Future
- Integrating Women into Global Supply Chains
In Design Labs, members will collectively brainstorm answers to pressing questions, such as:
- How can we provide reliable and safe energy to those in need?
- How can we advance women-owned businesses in the developing world?
- How can we design healthier urban environments that help prevent chronic diseases?
- How can we ensure more children benefit from early childhood education?
- How can we protect the poorest from debilitating shocks, such as unforeseen illness or crop failure?
The full agenda for the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative can be found at clintonglobalinitiative.org/2012.
President Clinton will also present the sixth annual Clinton Global Citizen Awards in a special ceremony that includes celebrity guests and a live musical performance on Monday, September 24. The event recognizes remarkable individuals for their leadership in philanthropy, government, civil society, and the corporate sector.
The sponsors for the 2012 CGI Annual Meeting include: Abraaj Capital, American Federation of Teachers, Ambassador Gianna Angelopoulos, APCO Worldwide, Barclays, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cisco, CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Delos Living, Deutsche Bank, Diageo PLC, The Dow Chemical Company, Duke Energy Corporation, ExxonMobil, The Ford Foundation, GEMS Education, The Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing, Hewlett Packard Company, Inter-American Development Bank, Indo Gold Ltd, InterEnergy, Jive Software, Knoll Inc, Laureate International Universities, Microsoft Corporation, NRG Energy Inc, Procter & Gamble, The Rockefeller Foundation, Shangri-La Industries, Standard Chartered Bank, Starkey Hearing Foundation, Swiss Reinsurance Company, Tom Golisano, Toyota Motors Corporation, United Postcode Lotteries, The Victor Pinchuk Foundation, and Western Union Financial Services Inc.
For more information, please visit clintonglobalinitiative.org/2012. Follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative for meeting news and highlights. The event hashtag is #CGI2012.
Press registration is now open to members of the media. To apply, please complete the form at: cgilink.org/PP392s.
ALL PRESS MUST BE CREDENTIALED BY THE CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE. All media must apply for credentials and must be approved by CGI in order to attend. The deadline to apply is Friday, September 21 at 5 p.m EST. Journalists may apply for credentials on-site, but pre-registered media will be given priority. If applying on-site, you MUST bring a press ID as well. For questions about press registration, contact Dana Moncrief in CGI’s Communications Department at dana.moncrief@clintonglobalinitiative.org.
Members of the press who have received email confirmation from CGI to attend the meeting are encouraged to pick up their credentials on Saturday, September 22 from 12 p.m to 9 p.m. EST at the press registration desk. Press must enter on 52nd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. To pick up your credential, a valid government-issued ID is required.
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About the Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date CGI members have made more than 2,100 commitments, which are already improving the lives of nearly 400 million people in more than 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at $69.2 billion.
CGI also convenes CGI America, a meeting focused on collaborative solutions to economic recovery in the United States, and CGI University (CGI U), which brings together undergraduate and graduate students to address pressing challenges in their community or around the world. For more information, visit clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.
