Brandon PeartWright

Honorary Advisory Board Member: Byron Wien

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Byron Wien has been consistently ranked as one of the most widely recognized market analysts and strategists, but he is perhaps best known for the ‘Ten Surprises’ list he has been publishing for over 30 years. At the beginning of each year, Wien gives his views and predictions on the upcoming economic, financial market, and political surprises which the average investor might overlook. He is known and widely respected for his shrewd readings and broad-reaching analysis of economic developments.

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Currently, Wien is the Vice Chairman of Private Wealth Solutions group at Blackstone where he acts as a senior adviser to the firm and its clients. Prior to joining Blackstone, Wien was Chief Investment Strategist for Pequot Capital and before that served for 21 years as Chief, and later Senior, U.S. Investment Strategist at Morgan Stanley. 

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Wien has received many accolades over the course of more than 50 years on Wall Street. In 1998, First Call named him the most widely read analyst on Wall Street, and in 2000, he was ranked the No. 1 strategist by SmartMoney.com based on his market calls during that year. Wien was named to the 2004 Smart Money Power 30 list of Wall Street’s most influential investors, thinkers, enforcers, policy makers, players and market movers in the “Thinker” category. In 2006, he was named by New York magazine as one of the sixteen most influential people in Wall Street. The New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) presented him with a lifetime achievement award in 2008. 

In 1995, Wien co-authored a book with George Soros on the legendary investor’s life and philosophy, Soros on Soros - Staying Ahead of the Curve. 

Wien received an AB with honors from Harvard College and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Investment Committees of Lincoln Center and The Pritzker Foundation. He is a trustee of the New York Historical Society and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the JPB Foundation.

The Common Good was proud to present a very important discussion with Byron Wien of Blackstone Private Wealth Solutions in January of 2019: Economic Perils, Reeling Markets, Fed Action, Tariff Wars. 

He currently serves as a member of The Common Good Honorary Advisory Board.

Honorary Advisory Board Member: Douglas Brinkley

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Douglas Brinkley is one of the most prominent historians in the U.S. — and CNN's presidential historian - having charted American history and significant figures for decades. He is also the official Presidential Historian for The New York Historical Society, an essayist, and a prolific and renowned biographer. He has published over three dozen highly acclaimed books, including many discerning biographies  and shrewdly edited collections of presidents and presidential records.  His subjects have ranged from Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, JFK, FDR, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Richard Nixon to the life of Rosa Parks, Hurricane Katrina, the space race and American Catholicism.  

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Currently, Brinkley is an esteemed professor at Rice University as the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History,  He is also a member of the Century Association, Council of Foreign Relations and the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress. His early teaching career included positions at the U.S. Naval Academy, Princeton, and Hofstra University. At Hofstra, he spearheaded an acclaimed American Odyssey course which took students across the country in a sleeper bus, visiting historical sites and meeting with cultural icons and is the subject of his travelogue The Majic Bus.

“America’s New Past Master” - The Chicago Tribune

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During his tenure at the University of New Orleans as Professor of History and Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies, he wrote two books with Stephen E. Ambrose: Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938 and The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today. In 2005, he became a Tulane University Distinguished Professor of History and the Director of the Roosevelt Center, where he taught courses on U.S. foreign policy, published several books on American culture, and edited Jack Kerouac’s diaries. 

Brinkley is also actively involved in the environmental conservation and historic preservation communities. He has held board or leadership advisory roles in support of the American Museum of Natural History, Yellowstone Park Foundation, National Audubon Society, and the Rockefeller-Roosevelt Conservation Roundtable. In 2015 he was awarded the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks by the National Parks Conservation Association. In 2016 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service honored him with their annual Heritage Award.

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Six of his books have been selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year.His most recent book, American Moonshot:  John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race, was a New York Times bestseller. His book The Great Deluge covers more recent history, offering a careful chronicle of Hurricane Katrina through the eyes of its survivors, and received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for writing which reflects RFK’s concern for the powerless and his struggle for even-handed justice. His two-volume annotated The Nixon Tapes won the Arthur S. Link – Warren F. Kuehl Prize. His book, Cronkite, draws upon letters, diaries, and artifacts from the Cronkite Archive to offer a personal portrait of the famed news anchor, won the Sperber Prize for outstanding biographies in the field of journalism. Brinkley has also received a Grammy Award for the Jazz ensemble album Presidential Suite, as well as seven honorary doctorates in American Studies. 

[Brinkley with actor Sean Penn (left) helping with relief work in the wake of Hurricane Katrina] 

[Brinkley with actor Sean Penn (left) helping with relief work in the wake of Hurricane Katrina] 

[Brinkley, wife Anne and daughter Cassady, with John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge]

[Brinkley, wife Anne and daughter Cassady, with John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge]

Brinkley with Author Kurt Vonnegut, 1994

Brinkley with Author Kurt Vonnegut, 1994

A graduate of The Ohio State University and Georgetown University, Brinkley lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and three children.  

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The Common Good was pleased to host him on several occasions in the past, including Assessing the Presidency with Lesley Stahl, Douglas Brinkley, Jonathan Alter and Ed Rollins on April 11th, 2013 and in 2018 alongside Roger Cohen, David Frum, Dana Perino, and Ed Rollins at the “Trump – Year One” Panel.

Brinkley currently serves as a member of The Common Good Honorary Advisory Board. 

Twitter: @ProfDBrinkley 

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Selected Media:

Books Published: 

  • American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race, 2019

  • JKF: A Vision For America, 2018

  • Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America 2016 

  • The Nixon Tapes : 1971-1972 and The Nixon Tapes: 1973, 2015, with coauthor Luke A. Nichter

  • Cronkite, 2012

  • The Quiet World: Saving Alaska’s Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960, 2011

  • The Notes: Ronald Reagan's Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom, 2011

  • Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938 9th edition with Stephen Ambrose, 2010

  • The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, 2009

  • Gerald R. Ford, The American Presidents Series, 2007

  • The Ronald Reagan Diaries, Edited by Brinkley, 2007

  • Kerouac: Road Novels 1957-1960, selected journals edited by Brinkley, 2007 

  • The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, 2006

  • Parish Priest: Father Michael McGivney and American Catholicism, 2006

  • Rosa Parks: A Life,  2005

  • Voices of Courage: The Battle for Khe Sanh, Vietnam, with co-author Ronald Drez, 2005

  • The Boys of Pointe Du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day, and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion, 2005

  • Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, 2004

  • Voices of Valor: D-Day: June 6, 1944, words and recorded voices of those who served at D-Day, edited by Brinkley, 2004

  • Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress, 2003

  • The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today, with Stephen Ambrose, 2002 

  • Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist, collected letters of Hunter S. Thompson, edited by Brinkley, 2000

  • Witness to America: An Illustrated Documentary of the History of the United States from the Revolution to D-Day, 1999

  • The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter’s Journey Beyond the White House, 1998

  • American Heritage: History of the United States, 1998

  • Hunter S. Thompson: The Proud Highway, Saga of a Distemperate Southern Gentleman 1955-1967, collected letters, edited by Brinkley, 1997

  • FDR and the Creation of the U.N., 1997

  • The Majic Bus: An American Odyssey 1993

  • Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years, 1953-71 1992

  • Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal, 1992

More can be found at http://douglasbrinkley.com/all-books/ 

Robert Friedman

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Robert friedman

CEO of Bungalow Media & Entertainment

Robert Friedman is well known in the entertainment business world as his 30 year long career exemplifies. In this field he has developed, produced, and distributed all forms of filmed and experiential content across traditional and digital media platforms. Friedman has held an array of senior executive positions including President of RadicalMedia & Entertainment; President of AOL, Interactive Marketing, TV, & Ad Sales; Co-Chairman of New Line Cinema in charge of Worldwide Theatrical Marketing and Licensing and President of New Line Television, which he launched for the company. Friedman was an original member of the start-up team at MTV.

Friedman serves on the boards of AccuWeather, Mount Sinai Health System, Columbia Graduate School of Business, NATPE, The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and is a trustee emeritus of Vassar College.

The Common Good hosted Friedman on February 12, 2019: Screening and Discussion of The Panama Papers. Moderated by Stephanie Ruhle, Friedman spoke alongside Alex Winter and Kevin Hall at the event.

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Gordon Chang

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Gordon Chang

American columnist, author

Gordon Chang has lived and worked in Shanghai and Hong Kong for almost two decades, and now writes primarily on China, Asia, and nuclear proliferation. He is the author of two Random House books, The Coming Collapse of China and Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World. His writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Commentary, and The Weekly Standard, among other publications. He blogs at World Affairs Journal. He has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg, CNBC, and PBS. He has also served two terms as a trustee of Cornell University.

Chang has spoken at many universities, including Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Yale, and at The Brookings Institution, The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, RAND, the American Enterprise Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, and others. He has given briefings at the National Intelligence Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department, and the Pentagon. He has also spoken before industry and investor groups including Bloomberg, Sanford Bernstein, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia. Chang has appeared before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Gordon Chang spoke at The Common Good in 2018: "North Korea: Progress or Stalemate?" - September 24, 2018.

Twitter: @GordonGChang

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Ari Berman

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Ari Berman

Writer

Ari Berman is a former senior contributing writer for The Nation magazine and a Fellow at The Nation Institute. His book, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, was published in August 2015 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. He has written extensively about American politics, civil rights, and the intersection of money and politics. His stories have also appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian, and he is a frequent guest and commentator on MSNBC and NPR. His first book, Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics, was published in 2010 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Berman was hosted by The Common Good in 2015: “Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America” - October 7, 2015.

Twitter: @AriBerman

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