REGISTER NOW FOR PERSPECTIVES 2007!

September 21, 2007 | Sacramento Convention Center 
Doors open at 8:30 am

Ticket Prices:

INDIVIDUAL TICKET
Metro Chamber Member $195 / Nonmember $245
TABLE OF 10
Metro Chamber Member $1,950 / Nonmember $2,450   
EXECUTIVE TABLE SPONSORSHIP
$3,500 (Metro Chamber Members ONLY)

Seat assignments and table locations are determined by ticket purchase date and sponsorship level. Tickets will be mailed in early September, along with lunch and parking vouchers and free Light Rail pass and ridership information.

For more information call 916-444-1919.

Perspectives is Northern California's largest and longest running public affairs forum, and your chance to hear the views of world renowned public figures while attending the Metro Chamber's premier business networking event. Host your best clients, prospects or top performing employees at this day-long, first-class presentation.  

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES STILL AVAILABLE
(Metro Chamber Members ONLY):

PROGRAM SPONSORSHIP
$12,500 
EVENT SPONSORSHIP
$5,000
EXECUTIVE TABLE SPONSORSHIP
$3,500 
EXHIBIT SPONSORSHIP
$3,000

Sponsorship Opportunities

Seat assignments and table locations are determined by ticket purchase date and sponsorship level. 

For more information or to reserve your sponsorship, contact Susan Harris-Brown at 916-321-9144 or sbrown@metrochamber.org.

PERSPECTIVES 2007 SPEAKERS

LAWRENCE SUMMERS
Former Secretary 
of the Treasury

Lawrence H. Summers is one of the most distinguished voices in America today on issues ranging from the global economy to education to the United States role in the world. After stepping down from the Harvard presidency he looks forward to actively participating in ongoing debates regarding both the short run global financial outlook, and the longer run structural changes in the global economy.

Perhaps the most important economist of his generation, Larry Summers has served as President of Harvard University, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States and Chief Economist of the World Bank. One of the youngest tenured professors in the modern history of Harvard, he is the only social scientist ever to receive the National Science Foundation's $500,000 Alan T. Waterman Award for Scientific Achievement.

Throughout his term at Harvard from July 2001 to June 2006, President Summers was an outspoken and forceful advocate of reform in higher education. His accomplishments included the elimination of tuition burdens for low and middle income families with incomes under $60,000;the placement of the life sciences at the center of Harvard's work with the launch of major institutes to harness the promise of stem cells and genomics as well as new programs in bioethics and global health; the establishment of programs that will assure that every college student has a meaningful international experience; and significant curriculum changes to promote contact between students and faculty. As President of Harvard, Larry Summers was a vigorous participant in national debates on a ranging from the role of the military on college campuses to equality of opportunity to the importance of scientific literacy to resurgent antisemitism.

Larry Summers served in senior positions in the Treasury department throughout the administration of President Bill Clinton rising to serve as Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001. His service coincided with the longest period of sustained economic growth in United States history. He was closely involved in every major economic policy decision of the Administration ranging from the fiscal policies that created budget surpluses and enabled a historic paydown of government debt, to the enactment of NAFTA, the World Trade Organization, and China's WTO accession, to the response to financial crises in Mexico, Asia and Russia. A Time Magazine story cover story dubbed Bob Rubin, Alan Greenspan and Larry Summers the "Committee to Save the World" in recognition of their efforts to contain the Asian finanical crisis. At the end of his term Mr. Summers was awarded the Alexander Hamilton Medal, the treasury department's highest honor.

Prior to joining the Treasury Larry Summers served as Chief Economist of the World Bank where he developed deep interest and experitise with respect to the economies of developing countries. He oversaw major reports on the Asian growth miracle, the global environment and global health issues. His own work included a highly influencial economic analysis arguning that providing primary and secondary education to girls was the highest return investment available in many developing countries. 

CHRIS GARDNER
Self-made Millionaire, 
Author of "The Pursuit of Happyness"

Christopher Gardner is president and CEO of the Chicago-based brokerage firm Gardner Rich & Co., which he founded in 1987. Prior to launching his own firm, Mr. Gardner worked for several prestigious Wall Street firms. He landed his first job in the securities industry in 1981 with Dean Witter Reynolds, coming out of their training program. Later, he spent four years with Bear Stearns & Co., where he became a top earner. A self-made multi-millionaire, Gardner is intent on giving back to the communities where he conducts business because he has never forgotten his humble beginnings or the odds he has surmounted. Christopher Gardner’s accomplishments are extraordinary on their own merit, but are all the more astonishing because of the unimaginable obstacles he encountered on the road to success.

Always hard working and tenacious, a series of circumstances in the early 1980’s left Gardner homeless in San Francisco and the sole guardian of his toddler son. Unwilling to give up Chris Jr. or his dream of financial independence, Gardner started at the very bottom of the financial industry ladder and pulled his way up, often spending his nights in a church shelter or a bathroom at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Oakland. The amazing story of Gardner’s life was published as an autobiography, The Pursuit of Happyness, by Amistad/Harper Collins on May 23, 2006, and is the subject of a movie with the same title starring Will Smith as Gardner to be released by Columbia Pictures in December 2006.

Born February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Gardner never knew his father. He lived with his mother, Bettye Jean Gardner, and her family and, when necessary, in foster homes. Despite a life of hardship and emotional scarring, he always had supreme love and admiration for his mother, who was a trained schoolteacher. His mother taught him some of the greatest lessons of his life, which he follows to this day. When Gardner told her he wanted to be the great jazz trumpeter Miles Davis she said, "Son, there's only one Miles Davis and he got that job. So you have to do something else.” He understood from that day forward that his job was to be Chris Gardner – whatever that entailed. Bettye Jean also taught him that in spite of where he came from, he could attain whatever goals he set for himself by saying, “If you want to, one day you could make a million dollars.” Gardner believed this to be fact, and it allowed him to persevere through the years when he and his son were struggling for survival and a better life.

Straight out of high school, Gardner enlisted in the Navy, just like his uncles, his role models, had done previously. After the military, Gardner went to San Francisco and took a job as a medical supply salesman. Then he reached a turning point in his life. In a parking lot, he met a man driving a red Ferrari. "He was looking for a parking space. I said, 'You can have mine, but I gotta ask you two questions.' The two questions were: What do you do? And how do you do that? Turns out this guy was a stockbroker and he was making $80,000 a month." 

That pivotal encounter gave Gardner a clear career goal, but he still needed a way into the world of high finance. Without experience, connections, a degree, or pedigree, Gardner began knocking on doors, applying for training programs at brokerages, even though it meant he would have to live on next to nothing while he learned. When he was finally accepted into a program, he left his job in medical sales. But his plans collapsed when the man who offered him the training slot was fired, and Gardner had no job to go back to. Things got worse. He was put in jail for $1,200 in parking violations that he couldn't pay. Chris Jr.’s mother left and Gardner, despite his circumstances, fought to keep his son because, as he says, "I made up my mind as a young kid that when I had children, my children were gonna know who their father was." 

Although he managed to enter a training program at Dean Witter Reynolds, Gardner’s meager stipend as a trainee meant he, like so many working poor in America, had a job but couldn't make ends meet. Chris’s co-workers never knew he spent his evenings trying to arrange day care, find food and a safe place for him and his son to sleep. After spending nights in a locked bathroom at an Oakland subway station, Gardner persuaded Rev. Cecil Williams, founder of a new shelter program for homeless women at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, to let him and Chris Jr. stay at the shelter. 

Gardner passed his licensing exam in 1981 on the first try. He arrived early, stayed late and worked the phones day after day to lure new clients. He and Chris Jr. got an apartment, and in 1983 he joined Bear, Stearns & Company. After becoming a top producer, first in San Francisco and later in New York, Gardner left in 1987 to establish Gardner Rich & Company, Inc., an institutional brokerage firm specializing in the execution of debt, equity and derivative products transactions. 

With a network of offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, GRC has grown by focusing on its commitment to provide quality service and excellent trade executions for clients. The firm executes trades for some of the nations largest institutions, public pension plans and unions. Under Mr. Gardner's directions, GRC has adopted a "give back to the community" program. The Company donates 10% or more of the company's earnings toward school and educational projects in the communities it serves.

Chris Gardner’s remarkable story of struggle, faith, entrepreneurialism, and fatherly devotion has catapulted him beyond the notoriety he has found on Wall Street. He has been featured on CBS’ Evening News with Dan Rather, twice on ABC’s 20/20, as well as being the subject of profiles in newspapers and national magazines.

RUSH LIMBAUGH
Conservative Talk
Show Host

Rush Limbaugh launched his phenomenally successful radio broadcast into national syndication on August 1, 1988, with 56 radio stations. Nineteen years later it is heard on nearly 600 stations by approximately 20 million people each week and is the highest rated national radio talk show in America.
Known as the media pundit who reshaped the political landscape with his entertaining and informative brand of conservatism, Mr. Limbaugh is also widely credited with resuscitating AM radio by many industry experts. 
In addition to his radio program, broadcast weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. ET, Mr. Limbaugh hosts “The Rush Limbaugh Morning Update,” a 90-second commentary which debuted in March 1992 and airs Monday through Friday. “The Rush Limbaugh Show” and “The Rush Limbaugh Morning Update” are produced and distributed by Premiere Radio Networks.
With his diverse media background, Mr. Limbaugh is also the author of “The Limbaugh Letter,” the most widely read political newsletter in the country, as well as two best-selling books, The Way Things Ought to Be and See, I Told You So, which have sold more than 8.9 million copies. The sales of See, I Told You So set an American publishing record. 
In 2000, Mr. Limbaugh tackled the Internet, expanding his media dominance with the launch of RushLimbaugh.com. Employing cutting edge technology, it is one of the most popular radio broadcasting websites. It offers subscribers the opportunity to experience his show via video and audio Podcasting and live streaming audio.

Mr. Limbaugh has been profiled on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” ABC’s “20/20,” and in numerous publications including US News and World Report, National Review, Time Magazine and USA Weekend. Other guest television appearances include “Nightline” with Ted Koppel, “Crossfire,” “Good Morning America,” “CBS This Morning,” “The Today Show,” “The Phil Donahue Show,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Tonight Show,” “This Week,” with David Brinkley, and “Meet the Press” with Tim Russert. 
Recognized for his achievements, Mr. Limbaugh received the Marconi Award for Syndicated Radio Personality of the Year given by the National Association of Broadcasters in 1992, 1995, 2000 and 2005. In 1993, he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame and in 1998, into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. 
Born Rush Hudson Limbaugh III in Jan. 1951 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to a family with generations of attorneys, he chose to explore his passion for broadcasting at age 16 by working on-air as a disc jockey for a radio station in his hometown. After four years, he left for Pittsburgh to work at the former ABC owned and operated KQV. He later moved to Kansas City where he eventually tired of disc jockey life and left broadcasting for business. He joined the Kansas City Royals as director of group sales in Feb. 1979 and later served as director of sales and special events.

By 1983, Mr. Limbaugh got the broadcasting bug back and re-entered radio as a political commentator for KMBZ in Kansas City. A year later, he was the host of a daytime talk show on 
KFBK in Sacramento, Calif., where he nearly tripled the program’s ratings in four years. From there, he went to New York in 1988 where his record-breaking national show was born.

COLIN QUINN
Political and Social Comedian

Colin Quinn began his comic career in New York as a regular on the comedy show circuit. Colin also the Co-Hosted MTV's popular game show "Remote Control." At the end of that show's run he hosted his own MTV show, "Colin Quinn's Manly World," a sports/comedy show. While also at MTV he wrote and starred in the comedy short "Going Back to Brooklyn" with Ben Stiller. Colin took on the hosting duties for "Caroline's Comedy Hour," a weekly show on the A&E network that showcased up and coming as well as popular stand-up comics as well.

In addition to his television work, Colin has also appeared in movies, including Who's the Man?, Married to the Mob, The Roxbury Guys and most recently, Comedian. He has also wrote the screenplay for Celtic Pride.. Colin was also Associate Producer on the project.

Colin was also a writer and feature player on NBC's, "Saturday Night Live,” hosting Weekend Update. He also established the recurring characters 'The Thank you Guy.”

Colin Quinn's most recent work was on Comedy Central called "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn". An "in-your-face" discussion forum held with other stand-up comedians. 

REGISTER NOW FOR PERSPECTIVES 2007!