General Session Speakers

Information Outlook, Feb, 2003

David McCullough

Monday, State of the Art -- General Session Speaker

David McCullough has been called "a master of the art of narrative history" and "one of our most gifted living writers." His work has been praised for its exceptional narrative sweep and literary distinction, its scholarship, and its insight into American life. His latest book, the monumental John Adams, is one of the popular and critical triumphs of our time. A number one New York Times bestseller, now in its 34th printing, John Adams has to date sold more than 1,500,000 copies in hard cover and is the winner of 2002's Pulitzer Prize for biography.

For his previous biography, Truman, published in 1992, McCullough also received the Pulitzer Prize.

In addition to two Pulitzer Prizes, McCullough has won the National Book Award twice and the prestigious Francis Parkman Prize twice. He has been honored with the National Humanities Medal, the St. Louis Literary Award, and the New York Public Library's Literary Lion Award.

In a crowded, productive career, McCullough has been an editor, teacher, lecturer, and familiar presence on public television--as host of Smithsonian World, The American Experience, and as narrator of numerous documentaries, including The Civil War. He is past president of the Society of American Historians, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received 31 honorary degrees.

His other books include The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, and The Path Between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, and Brave Companions. It's no wonder that none of his books has ever been out of print!

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Stewart Brand

Tuesday, Future Directions -- General Session Speaker

Futurist Stewart Brand first came to prominence in the early 1970s with two magazine articles. The first, "Fanatic Life & Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums," appeared in Rolling Stone in 1972 and the other, "Unbinding--Conversations with Metanaturalist Gregory Bateson," appeared in Harper's in 1973.

He expanded on these in a 1974 book from Random House called, Two Cybernetic Frontiers. The book, which looked at Gregory Bateson and cutting-edge computer science, had the first use of the term "personal computer" in print and was the first book to report on computer hackers.

In 1984, he joined Larry Brilliant, Matthew McClure, and Kevin Kelly in founding The WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link), a computer teleconference system for the San Francisco Bay Area. It now has 9,000 active users worldwide and is considered a bellwether of the genre. The system has received a number of accolades, including the 1988 Community Journalism Award from Media Alliance, 1990 Best Online Publication Award from Computer Press Association, and 1994 Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award.

In 1986, Brand became the visiting scientist at the MIT media laboratory. A year later he authored a book called, The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT, by Viking Penguin.

In 1988 Brand was co-founder of GBN, Global Business Network. He also founded and ran the "GBN Book Club" from 1988 to 2000. GBN explores global futures and business strategy for 90 multinational giants such as Ford, Bechtel, Shell, Morgan Stanley, Hewlett Packard, Swedbank, Dupont, Federal Express, along with government clients such as DARPA. Stewart Brand still spends a quarter of his time working for GBN.

In 1995, Brand joined Danny Hillis of The Long Now Foundation. The core projects are building a 10,000-year Clock (designed by Hillis) and tools and services toward a 10,000-year Library (such as the Rosetta Disk).

In 2001, Brand joined Kelly and Ryan Phelan of the All Species Inventory to find and document all of life on Earth in 25 years. A year later, he and Kelly, formed the Long Bets Foundation to foster accountability in long-term thinking.

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Madeleine Korbel Albright

Wednesday, Globalization -- General Session Speaker

Madeleine Korbel Albright served as the 64th Secretary of State. She was the first female Secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government.

As Secretary of State, Albright reinforced America's alliances, advocated democracy and human rights, and promoted American trade and business, labor, and environmental standards abroad. Some of her more distinguished accomplishments include: the expansion and modernization of NATO and NATO'S successful campaign to reverse ethnic cleansing in Kosovo; the promotion of peace in the Middle East and the Balkans; the reduction of nuclear dangers from Russia and North Korea; the expansion of democracy in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America; the expansion of our multifaceted relationship with China, including trade as well as human rights; and the growth of trade in the Americas, in Africa through the African Growth Opportunity Act, and through the conclusion of hundreds of other agreements that facilitated American business overseas.

From 1993 to 1997, Albright served as the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations and as a member of the President's Cabinet and National Security Council. In 1995, she led the U.S. delegation to the UN'S Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China.