Exclusive Speakers

Arturo Sarukhán is the former Mexican ambassador to the U.S, serving from 2007–2013. The grandson and son of conflict refugees to Mexico, he rose to become the youngest and longest-serving Mexican ambassador to Washington in recent history. He was also the first ambassador in Washington, DC, to have a personal Twitter account and has received several awards and honors for his incredible work. With a focus on geopolitics, Mexico-U.S. relations, immigration policy, and new security threats, he shares insights from his storied, 20-year career with the Mexican Foreign Service.

Ambassador Douglas Lute is the former United States Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s standing political body. Appointed by President Obama, he assumed the Brussels-based post in 2013 and served until 2017. During this period he was instrumental in designing and implementing the 28-nation Alliance’s responses to the most severe security challenges in Europe since the end of the Cold War. He received the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award.

James Williams’ work sits at the intersection of philosophy, ethics, and technology. A research associate at Oxford’s Internet Institute, he worked for 10 years at Google, where he received the company’s highest honor, the Founder’s Award, for his work on search advertising. He is particularly interested in advancing freedom of thought and wellbeing in environments of highly persuasive design, and authored a new book on this topic, Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy.

Childhood best friends, Nick Friedman and Omar Soliman, were just twenty-two when they co-founded the now iconic junk removal and moving company, College Hunks Hauling Junk. Starting as an idea to earn some extra money over college break in a beat-up cargo van, the duo has grown College Hunks into a 150-million-dollar, national franchise with more than 100 locations – truly demonstrating what it means to be both bold risk takers and modern leaders. The company and founders have been widely recognized and acclaimed for their world-class culture and service, as well as their progressive approach to doing business in the 21st century. Through lessons-learned from their monumental business growth, the pair discuss what it means to create a purpose-driven, customer-centric organization, while also sharing their secrets to success: patience, persistence, and standing out in a crowded landscape. Building their company around visionary leadership, Friedman and Soliman showcase how to craft a world-class organization by developing an entrepreneurial culture of strong, reliable teams.

Having served at the highest levels in national security and intelligence organizations, the Honorable Andrea Thompson brings over three decades of experience in public service and the United States military. From combat zones to the White House Situation Room, Thompson has led diverse teams in crisis situations and advised our Nation’s most senior government and military leaders, from the President and Vice President of the United States to four-star generals in combat. Most recently, Thompson led U.S. diplomatic global policy work for cyber security, space, and emerging technologies as the State Department’s Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Overseeing all foreign weapon sales, she implemented policies to enhance economic and national security and led U.S. nuclear and arms control strategic security talks – working closely with allies as well as her Chinese and Russian counterparts. Thompson draws on decades of international security experience to candidly deliver talks on the importance of transparency and open dialogue in getting things done. As a woman in leadership, she inspires audiences to invest in the next generation and embrace emerging technologies to face new challenges in cyber and international security.

E.J. Dionne, Jr. is an internationally-recognized journalist, political commentator, thought-leader, and professor. He has been writing a column for the Washington Post since 1993. It is syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group and appears in more than 250 newspapers. He is the author of eight books, most recently Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country. He is a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution and a professor at Georgetown University.

Jessica Taylor is the Senate and Governors Editor for The Cook Political Report. Founded in 1984, The Cook Political Report provides analyses of presidential, U.S. Senate, House and gubernatorial races. The New York Times has called The Cook Political Report, "a newsletter that both parties regard as authoritative." Before joining Cook, Taylor was a political reporter for National Public Radio for five years, where she covered elections and breaking news, ranging from the White House to both chambers of Congress and statewide elections. She was also a contributing author to the 2020 edition of The Almanac of American Politics.

Bill Coen served as Secretary General of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision from 2014 to 2019. The Basel Committee is the international group of central bankers and banking supervisors responsible for setting global banking standards. As Secretary General, Bill directed the work of the Basel Committee and managed its Secretariat. He served as chair of the Basel Committee’s Policy Development Group, which was responsible for developing and recommending the Basel III post-crisis reforms for endorsement by the Basel Committee and its governing body – the Group of Central Bank Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS).

Successful political commentators and journalists, Jonathan Capehart and Matt Lewis, team up to deliver a presentation that offers perspectives from all sides of the aisle on today’s hot-button political issues.