Speakers
September 11, 2009
Admiral Vern Clark, Ret.
Former Chief of Naval Operations
Admiral Clark completed a distinguished 37-year Navy career in 2005.His Navy experience spans his early days in command of a patrol gunboat as a lieutenant and concluded in the halls of the Pentagon as the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Admiral Clark’s tenure as CNO was a period of significant change and renewed vision. He became the second-longest-serving CNO and had the best recruiting and retention record in history. Finally, he forged an effort to build the Navy into an enterprise that would be able to compete in the 21st-century marketplace leading to billions of dollars in savings for the taxpayers of the nation and the highest operational readiness the Navy had witnessed in decades. He has received numerous military decorations for his service. Since his retirement he has been honored with the Eisenhower Award from the Business Executives of North America, the Distinguished Sea Service Award from the Naval Order of the United States, and the Distinguished Service Medal of the Military Order of the World Wars. Admiral Clark earned an MBA from the University of Arkansas and has received four honorary doctorates. He is a distinguished professor of government and leadership at Regent University. top
October 9, 2009
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano
Senior Judicial Analyst, FOX News
Andrew P. Napolitano joined FOX News Channel (FNC) in January 1998 and currently serves as the senior judicial analyst. He provides legal analysis on both FNC and FOX Business Network (FBN). He also fills in regularly as co-host for FOX & Friends and co-hosts FOX News Radio's Brian and The Judge show daily.
Judge Napolitano is the youngest life-tenured Superior Court judge in the history of the State of New Jersey. While on the bench from 1987 to 1995, Napolitano tried more than 150 jury trials and sat in all parts of the Superior Court—criminal, civil, equity and family. For 11 years, he served as an adjunct professor of constitutional law at Seton Hall Law School, where he provided instruction in constitutional law and jurisprudence. Napolitano returned to private law practice in 1995 and began television broadcasting in the same year.
He has written three books: Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws; The Constitution in Exile: How the Federal Government Has Seized Power by Rewriting the Supreme Law of the Land, a New York Times bestseller; and A Nation of Sheep. His writings have also been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The New York Sun, The Baltimore Sun, The (New London) Day, Seton Hall Law Review, New Jersey Law Journal and The Newark Star-Ledger. He lectures nationally on the Constitution and human freedom.
Napolitano received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1972 and received his Juris Doctor from University of Notre Dame in 1975.
November 10, 2009
Pat Williams
Senior Vice President of the NBA's Orlando Magic
Pat Williams is the senior vice president of the NBA’s Orlando Magic. Also
one of America’s top motivational, inspirational and humorous speakers, he
has addressed employees from many of the Fortune 500 companies and the
Million Dollar Round Table. He has been a featured speaker at Billy Graham
Crusades, Peter Lowe Success Seminars as well as many university campuses.
Williams is also the author of 47 books, his most recent titles being How to
Be Like Women Athletes of Influence and The Ultimate Coaches Clinic.
After serving for seven years in the United States Army, Williams spent
seven years in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, two as a minor league
catcher and five in the front office. He also spent three years in the
Minnesota Twins organization. Since 1968, he has been affiliated with teams
in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, including the 1983 World Champion 76ers,
and now the Orlando Magic which he cofounded in 1987 and helped lead to the
NBA finals in 1995. Twenty-three of his teams have gone to the NBA playoffs
and five have made the NBA finals. In 1996, Williams was named as one of the
50 most influential people in NBA history by a national publication.
Williams was raised in Wilmington, Del., earned his bachelor's degree
at Wake Forest University, and his master’s degree at Indiana University. He
has a doctorate in Humane Letters from Flagler University. He is a member of
the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame after catching for the Deacon baseball
team, including the 1962 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship team. He is
also a member of the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame.
Williams and his wife, Ruth, are the parents of 19 children, including 14
adopted from four nations, ranging in age from 21 to 34. He and his family
have been featured in Sports Illustrated, Readers Digest, Good Housekeeping,
Family Circle, The Wall Street Journal, Focus on the Family, New Man
magazine, plus all of the major television networks, The Maury Povich Show
and Dr. Robert Schuller’s Hour of Power.
December 15, 2009
Rich Karlgaard
Publisher of Forbes Magazine
Rich Karlgaard is the publisher of Forbes magazine, the world's most popular business and financial magazine. In his "Digital Rules" column of the magazine, Karlgaard writes about technology, entrepreneurship, regional economic development, and the future of business and work. He also lectures on these subjects and is a regular participant on the FOX News Channel's "Forbes on Fox."
Karlgaard joined Forbes in 1992 to help start the bimonthly magazine Forbes ASAP, for which he served as editor for several years. Before joining Forbes, he cofounded the 2,500 member Churchill Club, for which he shared a Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year Award, given by Ernst & Young. He also cofounded and edited Upside magazine and garage.com. Garage.com is a leading web-based startup capital firm.
Karlgaard was raised in North Dakota by a homemaker and a high-school athletic director and attended public schools. He graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Political Science. Karlgaard is married with two children and resides in North Carolina. When he is not working or spending time with his family, he likes to fly his airplane around the country and meet the people who make America unique and great.
March 11, 2010 - Local Mayors Forum - Chesapeake Conference Center location
Alan Krasnoff
Mayor of Chesapeake
Alan Krasnoff has served in Chesapeake’s City Council five consecutive terms since 1990 and was elected mayor in May of 2008. He has previously served as director of Chesapeake Juvenile Advisory Board and currently serves as a practicing chiropractor. Krasnoff has been a member of Hampton Roads Planning and District Commission, Metropolitan Planning Organization and Chesapeake Planning Commission. Krasnoff is also involved in the Virginia School Counselor Association, Hampton Roads School Counselor Association and Virginia Counseling Association.
Paul Fraim
Mayor of Norfolk
Norfolk native Paul Fraim has been a member of Norfolk City Council since 1986, and was elected mayor of Norfolk in July of 1994. He has was re-elected in 2006. Fraim began in private practice over 40 years ago and is presently president of the law firm of Fraim and Fiorella, P.C. and a member of the Virginia State Bar and the Norfolk-Portsmouth Bar Association. His leadership extends into many other organizations, including the Hampton Roads Partnership, Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance, and TowneBank Board of Directors.
Dr. James Holley III
Mayor of Portsmouth
A native of Portsmouth, Dr. James Holley III is a WWII U.S. Army veteran, Civil Rights activist and retired dental surgeon. He has played an integral role in the desegregation of Portsmouth and was the city's first black member of the Portsmouth City Council and first black mayor. Holley's political career spans 40 years and includes positions as vice-mayor for 12 years and mayor for more than 17 years. His civic affiliations are many and include Tidewater Council, Boy Scouts of America, Urban League of Tidewater, American Red Cross and Tidewater Transportation Commission.
Mayor Linda Johnson
Mayor of Suffolk
In 2006, Linda Johnson, was appointed mayor by her colleagues on City Council. She was sworn in as the city's first directly elected mayor in January 2009 and is also Suffolk's first female mayor. Previously Johnson served as the public information officer for the State Corporation Commission in Richmond and as an eligibility officer for the Suffolk Department of Social Services. Johnson currently serves on the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission and the Hampton Roads Mayors and Chair Caucus.
William Sessoms
Mayor of Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach native William Sessoms began his political career in 1988 as an at-large member of the Virginia Beach City Council. In 2008, Sessoms was elected to serve as mayor of Virginia Beach. For more than 20 years, Sessoms has been actively involved in community service and has worked with numerous local and regional organizations, including the Life Saving Museum of Virginia, the American Heart Association, the Norfolk State University Foundation, and the Tidewater Regional Transit Authority.