CSR Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC, - June 26, 2008 - The Aspen Institute announces the 12th annual Socrates Society Summer Seminar session, June 27-30 in Aspen, Colorado. Since 1996, the Aspen Institute Socrates Society has brought together next-generation leaders for two long weekends each year in the idyllic venue that is Aspen to grapple with the most pressing leadership issues of the day. Through moderated, thoughtful conversation, time devoted to informal relationship-building, and guest speakers, Socrates engages a community of young leaders faced with tackling the global challenges of the 21st century. Participants are entrepreneurs and investors, corporate attorneys and executives, heads of leading NGOs, policy officials and experts, journalists, and authors.

And with successful entrepreneurs, former members of Congress, former cabinet secretaries, award-winning journalists, former high-ranking United Nations officials, and public intellectuals among those moderating the conversations, Socrates Society has become a favored venue for a growing number of members of the global leadership class. Moderators and topics for the upcoming session include:

• "Media and Our Conflicting Values", Moderator: Michael Powell, former Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
  
• "Ethnic Conflict and International Security", Moderator: Stefan Wolff, advisor to two Eastern European governments
  
• "The Intersection of Foreign Aid with Security, Morality, and Business", Moderator: Mary K. Bush, Chairman, U.S. HELP Commission
  
• "Sexuality, Power & Culture", Moderators: Kate Roberts, Vice President, Population Services International and Amita Vyas, Johns Hopkins University
  
• "Humanity, Power, Leadership: Strategizing Success", Moderator: Leigh Hafrey, Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan

Highlights of the weekend include a June 27 opening plenary with all of the moderators in conversation with Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaacson, and a June 28 dinner, "Campaign 2008: The Road to The White House" with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer and Walter Isaacson. Guest speakers at past dinners include New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, Sen. Barack Obama, and Sen. John McCain.

The Aspen Institute, founded in 1950, is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering enlightened leadership and open-minded dialogue. Through seminars, policy programs, conferences and leadership development initiatives, the Institute and its international partners seek to promote nonpartisan inquiry and an appreciation for timeless values. The Institute is headquartered in Washington, DC, and has campuses in Aspen, Colorado, and on the Wye River near the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Its international network includes partner Aspen Institutes in Berlin, Rome, Lyon, Tokyo, New Delhi, and Bucharest, and leadership initiatives in Africa, Central America, and India.

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