Speaker History

2022-2023

  • Tom Friedman and David Brooks with David Gergen
  • Lonnie G. Bunch III
  • Tara Stoinski
  • Marlee Matlin
  • Ian Bremmer
  • Jonathan Haidt
  • Robert P. George and Cornel West
  • Martha Stewart

2021-2022

  • Jon Meacham and Fareed Zakaria with David Gergen
  • George W. Bush
  • Jerome Adams
  • Ayesha Khanna
  • Walter Isaacson
  • Carla Harris
  • Kendra Scott

2020-2021

  • Michael Beschloss and Jon Meacham with David Gergen
  • David Axelrod and Karl Rove
  • Spike Lee
  • Arthur C. Brooks
  • Tammie Jo Shults
  • Kara Swisher
  • Bob Costas
  • Zanny Minton Beddoes
  • Adm. William H. McRaven
  • Paul Nicklen

2019-2020

  • Robert Gates and James Stavridis with David Gergen
  • Shiza Shahid
  • Raj Chetty
  • David Rubenstein
  • Misty Copeland
  • Brian Grazer
  • Zanny Minton Beddoes
  • David Axelrod and Karl Rove

2018-2019

  • James Baker, III and Leon Panetta with David Gergen
  • Jon Meacham
  • Thomas Friedman
  • Siddhartha Mukherjee
  • Bill Browder
  • Lisa Randall
  • Howard Schultz
  • Amy Cuddy
  • Kathy Bates

2017-2018

  • Richard Haass and Fareed Zakaria with David Gergen
  • Amanda Lindhout
  • Sarah Parcak
  • Ian Bremmer
  • Darren Walker with Walter Isaacson
  • David Petraeus
  • Shawn Achor
  • Jeff Bridges

2016-2017

  • Tom Brokaw and Doris Kearns Goodwin with David Gergen
  • Bryan Stevenson
  • Scott Kelly
  • David Leonhardt
  • Angela Duckworth
  • Brandon Stanton
  • Indra Nooyi
  • Alan Alda

2015-2016

  • Richard Haass and Condoleezza Rice with David Gergen
  • Robert Edsel
  • Shankar Vedantam
  • Ken Burns
  • Sarah Kay
  • Rob Lowe
  • Keith Alexander and Kevin Mandia
  • James Carville and Karl Rove with Jim Lehrer

2014-2015

  • Madeleine K. Albright and Colin L. Powell with David Gergen
  • Peter Thiel
  • David Brooks
  • Platon
  • Robin Roberts
  • Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • Michio Kaku
  • Nate Silver

2013-2014

  • Robert Gates and Leon Panetta with David Gergen
  • Robert A. Caro
  • Sir Ken Robinson
  • Erskine Bowles, Alan Simpson
  • Khaled Hosseini
  • Garry Kasparov
  • A.J. Jacobs
  • Cokie Roberts, Susan Stamberg, Nina Totenberg, Linda Wertheimer

2012-2013

  • William Bennett and Chris Matthews with David Gergen
  • Regis Philbin
  • Jane McGonigal
  • Sanjay Gupta
  • Michael Beschloss, Douglas Brinkley
  • M.K. Asante, Jr.
  • Niall Ferguson
  • Álvaro Uribe

2011-2012

  • James A. Baker, III and Fareed Zakaria with David Gergen
  • Special event: Robert M. Gates
  • Neil DeGrasse Tyson
  • Katie Couric
  • Michael Lewis
  • Dambisa Moyo
  • Michael Pollan
  • Walter Isaacson
  • Charles Krauthammer and Bill Moyers

2010-2011

  • Richard Haass and Robert Rubin with David Gergen
  • Ray Kurzweil
  • Michael J. Fox
  • Joseph Stiglitz
  • T.D. Jakes
  • Joshua Cooper Ramo
  • Geoffrey Canada and Margaret Spellings
  • Tina Brown

2009-2010

  • Thomas L. Friedman and Fareed Zakaria with David Gergen
  • Clarence Thomas
  • Christopher Buckley
  • Buzz Aldrin
  • Ian Bremmer, Stephen Hadley and Claire Shipman
  • Jill Bolte Taylor
  • Kenneth Cole
  • Special Event: George W. Bush and Laura W. Bush
  • Diane Keaton

2008-2009

  • James A. Baker, III and Sam Nunn with David Gergen
  • Clark T. Randt, Jr.
  • Quincy Jones
  • Philippe de Montebello
  • Chris Jordan
  • Nicholas D. Kristof
  • Her Excellency President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
  • Cokie Roberts

2007-2008

  • Jim Lehrer and George Stephanopoulos with David Gergen
  • Marcus Buckingham
  • Dick Rutan and Brian Binnie
  • Azar Nafisi
  • Martin Sheen with Gary Cogill
  • Bob Woodruff with Lee Woodruff
  • Special event: Tony Blair
  • Ralph J. Cicerone, Harvey V. Fineberg and Charles M. Vest
  • Douglas Brinkley

2006-2007

  • Tom Brokaw and Ted Koppel with David Gergen
  • Lee Kuan Yew
  • Anderson Cooper
  • Malcolm Gladwell
  • Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • Vicente Fox
  • Steve Levitt
  • Jared Diamond

2005-2006

  • Colin Powell with David Gergen
  • David McCullough
  • Eliot Spitzer
  • Carly Fiorina
  • Frank Gehry
  • Isabel Allende
  • Juan Enriquez
  • Christiane Amanpour

2004-2005

  • Bob Dole and Al Gore with David Gergen
  • Michael Lewis
  • Fareed Zakaria
  • Ward Connerly and Tavis Smiley with Catherine Crier
  • Ken Burns
  • Laurie Garrett
  • Wade Davis
  • Barbara Walters

2003-2004

  • Bill Cohen and George Mitchell with David Gergen
  • Zahi Hawass
  • Tom Clancy with Rena Pederson
  • James A. Baker, III
  • William Bennett, Jack Valenti with Michelle Malkin
  • Stockard Channing with John Guare
  • George Will
  • Michael Dell with Alan Webber

2002-2003

  • Thomas Friedman and Bernard Shaw with David Gergen
  • Sidney Poitier
  • Rosabeth Moss Kanter
  • Paul Sereno
  • Chris Matthews and Bill O'Reilly
  • Ward Connerly, Bob Gates and Charlie Rose
  • John Irving
  • Gary Hamel 
  • Dick Cheney

2001 - 2002

  • Jane Goodall
  • Dave Barry
  • Elizabeth Dole and Robert Dole
  • Sandy Berger and Richard Holbrooke with David Gergen
  • Francis Collins
  • Robert Hughes
  • David Halberstam
  • Special event: Rudolph W. Giuliani
  • Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward with Hugh Sidey
  • Madeleine Albright

2000 - 2001

  • Bill Kristol and Bill Moyers with David Gergen
  • Pat Conroy
  • Ambassador Richard Butler
  • Walter Cronkite
  • Hanan Ashrawi and Itamar Rabinovich with Tom Friedman
  • Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard
  • Lou Dobbs
  • Robert Ballard
  • Julie Andrews

1999 - 2000

  • Cokie Roberts and William Safire with David Gergen
  • Archbishop Desmond Tutu
  • George Stephanopoulos
  • Marvin Hamlisch
  • Sam Abell and Dr. Stephen Ambrose
  • F. W. de Klerk
  • Ann Compton
  • Newt Gingrich and Sam Nunn with Tim Russert
  • Stephen Jay Gould

1998 - 1999

  • Bill Moyers and George Will with David Gergen
  • Mikhail Gorbachev
  • Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • Professor Stephen Hawking
  • Mary Matalin
  • Dr. Robert Ballard
  • Li Lu
  • John Major
  • Dick Cheney, Robert Crandall and Eckhard Pfeiffer with Jane Bryant Quinn
  • President George H.W. Bush

1997 - 1998

  • Bill Bradley and Jack Kemp with David Gergen
  • David McCullough
  • Bernadine Healy, M.D.
  • General Brent Scowcroft
  • Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  • The Honorable Oscar Arias and The Honorable Lech Walesa
  • Ted Turner
  • Robert Reich
  • Barbara Bush

1996 - 1997

  • David Brinkley, Andrea Mitchell and Pierre Salinger with David Gergen
  • Herb Cohen
  • Carol Burnett
  • Paul Harvey
  • Dr. Nicholas Negroponte
  • Tom Brokaw and General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
  • Dr. Johnnetta Cole
  • Ambassador James Laney
  • James Carville, John Sununu and Judy Woodruff with Warren Rudman

1995 - 1996

  • Gregory Peck
  • Dr. Nannerl Keohane
  • President George H.W. Bush
  • Brian Mulroney
  • Sam Donaldson and William Safire
  • Maya Angelou
  • Herbert D. Kelleher
  • Peter Jennings

1994 - 1995

  • General Colin Powell
  • The Honorable Margaret Thatcher
  • President Jimmy Carter
  • Dr. Francis Collins
  • Cokie Roberts
  • Dr. Lester Thurow
  • John Grisham
  • Marian Wright Edelman
  • Professor Stephen Hawking

1993 - 1994

  • Larry King
  • Akio Morita
  • Jack Kemp
  • Bill Moyers
  • Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar
  • Secretary Dick Cheney
  • Tom Peters
  • Hodding Carter III and Dr. Jeane Kirkpatrick
  • Benno Schmidt

1992 - 1993

  • Charles Kuralt
  • William Bennett and Mayor Edward Koch
  • Dr. Sally Ride
  • Gov. Mario Cuomo
  • Dr. Red Duke
  • Dan Rather
  • Ambassador Vernon Walters
  • Jesse Jackson

1991 - 1992

  • David Brinkley Edwin Newman
  • William F. Buckley, Jr and George McGovern
  • George F. Will
  • The Honorable Winston Churchill III
  • Carlos Fuentes
  • Beverly Sills
  • Special event: General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

1990 - 1991

  • Robert MacNeil
  • Judge Robert Bork
  • Dr. Henry Kissinger
  • Alistair Cooke
  • Art Buchwald
  • William Safire
  • Elizabeth Dole
  • The Crisis in American Education

1989 - 1990

  • Tom Brokaw
  • David Stockman
  • Simon Wiesenthal
  • Vladimir Sakharov
  • Liv Ullmann
  • Tom Wolfe
  • Alex Haley

1988 - 1989

  • Mike Wallace
  • The Honorable Caspar Weinberger
  • Financial Institution and Markets for the 1990's
  • Dr. Richard Leakey
  • President Gerald Ford

1987 - 1988

  • Sam Donaldson
  • Dr. Robert Ballard
  • The Right Honorable Edward Heath
  • Elie Wiesel

1986 - 1987

  • Drs. Christiaan Barnard and William DeVries
  • Edwin Newman
  • Charlton Heston
  • Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

1985 - 1986

  • Dr. Jeane Kirkpatrick
  • Dr. Rollo May
  • George F. Will
  • Steve Allen

1984 - 1985

  • Dr. Jonas Salk
  • Dr. Carl Sagan
  • Eric Sevareid
  • Jane Bryant Quinn

1983 - 1984

  • George Ball
  • Ted Koppel
  • Lorin Hollander
  • William F. Buckley, Jr.

1982 - 1983

  • Dr. Henry Kissinger
  • Sander Vanocur
  • Beverly Sills