Ford School Public Events

A panel discussing the 2006 midterm election results.

Danny Leipziger is the Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) and Head of the PREM Network of more than 700 economists and other professionals working on economic policy, lending, and analytic work for the World Bank's client countries. In this capacity he provides strategic leadership and direction to Regional PREM units as well as groups working on economic policy formulation in the area of growth and poverty, debt, trade, gender, and public sector management and governance. He is heavily involved in positioning the Bank on major economic policy issues and in managing the Bank's overall interactions on these issues with key partner institutions - including the IMF, OECD, regional development banks and the European Union. He works closely with Regional Vice Presidents on leading edge and cross-country economic matters.

José Miguel Insulza, Secretary General, Organization of American States.

Brief program at 5pm on the architecture and interior design of Weill Hall with remarks from Rebecca Blank, Dean of the Ford School, and Sue Gott, University Planner.

Kemal Dervis, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme.

Dawei Liu is the Chief Financial Officer of China Development Bank and Professor at the Graduate School of China People's Bank. Through its role as a development financial institution of the government of China, China Development Bank has been an implementer of development financing while strengthening the competitiveness of China and improving the living standard of its people. Prior to joining the China Development Bank, Professor Liu served in various roles such as the Director of Research with the Beijing Municipal Government, the President of the China XinDa Trust Investment Company, and as the President of the China Investment Bank. In 2004 he presented case studies on infrastructure projects at the Asia-Pacific Infrastructure Forum.

Several alumni activities are scheduled to take place October 13 - October 14 in conjunction with the Joan and Sanford Weill Hall Building Dedication.

Co-sponsored by the U-M Ethics in Public Life Initiative.

Panelists included: Tony Pipa, Founding Member, Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, and author of the Aspen Institute report, Weathering the Storm; Bernadette Orr, Gulf Coast Emergency Program Manager, Oxfam America; and Lynn McGee, Senior Program Officer, Foundation of the Mid South.

Presenter: Susan Kaufmann, Associate Director for Advocacy, Center for the Education of Women

Panelists: Carol Hollenshead, CEW Director; Patricia Gurin, Nancy Cantor Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Psychology and Women's Studies; Faculty Associate, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research, Research Director for The Program on Intergroup Relations, College of LS&A; John Matlock, Associate Vice Provost and Director, Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives

Juan R.I. Cole, Professor of Middle East and South Asian History, University of Michigan, has written extensively about modern Islamic movements in Egypt, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. Since the 2002 launch of his weblog, 'Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion,' Cole has become a prominent media commentator and has published political writings in The Guardian, the San Jose Mercury News, Salon.com, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Nation. His books include 'Sacred Space and Holy War: The Politics, Culture and History of Shi`ite Islam' (I.B. Tauris, 2002.)

Charge to the Graduating Class presented by Dr. Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Dr. Holtz-Eakin is the director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and the Paul A. Volcker Chair in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He most recently served as the sixth director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), where he was appointed for a four-year term beginning February 4, 2003.

Lieutenant General David Petraeus, Commander of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth. General Petraeus served in Iraq as the first commander of the Multinational Security Transition Command – Iraq from June 2004 to September 2005, during which he was responsible for helping organize, train, and equip Iraq 's security forces. He previously commanded the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in the first year of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

A symposium designed to explore the latest thinking from microfinance practitioners and academics on improving microfinance programs.

Aaron David Miller is currently a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC, where he is writing a book about America and the Arab-Israeli conflict.Between 2003 and 2006 he served as president of Seeds of Peace, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering young leaders from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to advance coexistence and reconciliation.

It is clear that Michigan is in the midst of serious structural economic trouble, perhaps the worst since the Great Depression.Northwest Airlines and Delphi Corp. are already in Chapter 11. There are rumors and real concern about the stability of General Motors, Ford and much of the auto parts industry. There is a real possibility of descent into receivership for both the City of Detroit and the Detroit school system. Many county and local governments around the state are facing severe fiscal difficulties.

Sheldon H. Danziger, Henry J. Meyer Distinguished University Professor of Public Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and Research Professor, Population Studies Center at the Institute for Social Research, discusses why poverty persists in the U.S. and what policy reforms can reduce the incidence of poverty. Danziger, who is also co-director of the National Poverty Center and director of the Research and Training Program on Poverty and Public Policy, is nationally recognized for his research on the causes and consequences of poverty.

Prior to his position at the EBRD, President Lemierre was Head of the French Private Office of the Minister of Economy and Finance and Director of France's Treasury. This Citigroup lecture was presented in conjunction with the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the International Policy Center.

Ronna Cook, Associate Director of the Human Services Research Group, Westat, Inc. and Maris Vinovskis, A. M. and H. P. Bentley Professor of History and Professor of Public Policy, University of Michigan, moderated by Edward Gramlich, Interim Provost, University of Michigan; Richard A. Musgrave Professor at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. The program is sponsored by National Poverty Center and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

Tom Bombelles, Director of International Government Relations at Merck & Co., Inc. speaks on Merck's HIV/AIDS program in Botswana and the pricing of essential medicines in developing markets, more specifically on what sort of business challenges exist in these markets – establishing prices, logistical constraints, pushback/support from governments, the WTO/intellectual property rights, other corporations, NGOs, etc.

Margaret Kruk, MD, MPH School of Public Health, will speak on health care financing in the developing world.