MEET OUR 2026 LEADERSHIP PANEL

This year’s conference features a distinguished group of influential leaders, including Erik Brynjolfsson, Bill Cohan, Mitch Daniels, Thomas Fuchs, Stu Jones, Mark Halperin, Joe Manchin, Maya McGuineas, Bruce Mehlman, Mike Pence, Adam Posen, Condoleezza Rice, Toby Rice, Nela Richardson, Mike Rowe, Luigi Zingales, and more.

Join us as we explore the key issues shaping America’s future. We will begin with an in-depth look into the science of happiness, revealing the complexities of fulfillment and uncovering the path to a life of deeper meaning. Next, engage in compelling discussions on the future of U.S. global influence and its evolving role in a changing world. Challenge your understanding of American healthcare through innovative solutions aimed at creating a more accessible, effective system. Explore how technology is transforming national defense, boosting economic stability, and driving innovation that will define the next era of progress. This is a rare opportunity to contribute to these topics alongside some of the most influential thinkers of our time.

OUR HOSTS

Mitch Daniels

Senior Advisor to the Liberty Fund, President Emeritus of Purdue University and a Former Governor of Indiana

Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. served as a two-term governor of the state of Indiana from 2004 to 2012 and as the 12th president of Purdue University from 2013 to 2022. He currently serves as a Distinguished Scholar and Senior Advisor at the Liberty Fund. He was elected governor in his first bid for any elected office, and then re-elected with more votes than any candidate in the state’s history.

At Purdue, Daniels prioritized student affordability and reinvestment in the university’s strengths. He ended 36 straight years of rising prices by freezing tuition and mandatory fees at 2012 levels for all students. The freeze is still in place today. As a result, the total cost of attendance is lower today than in 2012, even without adjusting for inflation and aggregate student borrowing has declined 37%.

Prior to becoming governor, Daniels served as chief of staff to Senator Richard Lugar, senior advisor to President Ronald Reagan and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush. He also was the CEO of the Hudson Institute and had an 11-year career as an executive at Eli Lilly and Company.

Daniels earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a law degree from Georgetown. He is the author of three books and a contributing columnist in the Washington Post.

He and his wife Cheri have four daughters and eight grandchildren.

Joe Manchin

Senior United States Senator from West Virginia

Joseph Manchin III served as a United States Senator for West Virginia from 2010 to 2025, bringing decades of leadership and a commitment to pragmatic, results-driven public service. Throughout his tenure, he was a key member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where he served as Chair, as well as the Appropriations, Armed Services and Veterans’ Affairs Committees. Prior to his time in the Senate, he served as the 34th Governor of West Virginia (2005-2010) and as West Virginia Secretary of State (2001-2005).

A staunch advocate for bipartisanship and commonsense policymaking, Senator Manchin focused on energy security, economic development, and national defense. He championed an all-of-the-above energy strategy that harnessed coal, natural gas, nuclear, and renewables, while emphasizing innovation and sustainability to ensure both environmental and economic stability. His leadership helped shape policies that strengthened American energy independence, revitalized domestic manufacturing, and supported job creation in West Virginia and beyond.

Beyond public office, Senator Manchin remains deeply committed to his home state, supporting education, workforce development, and civic engagement initiatives. He continues to advocate for responsible governance, fiscal accountability, and solutions that bridge the partisan divide. A graduate of West Virginia University with a degree in business administration, he has dedicated his life to fostering economic growth and ensuring that the American Dream remains within reach for future generations.

OUR SPEAKERS

Erik Brynjolfsson

Professor and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, and Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab

Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson is a Professor at Stanford and the Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab at the Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI). He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and holds appointments at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Stanford Department of Economics. Prof. Brynjolfsson is one of most widely-cited researchers studying the digital economy and co-author of five books including “The Second Machine Age.”

Jim Bullard (moderator)

Former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

James “Jim” Bullard, Former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and one of the nation’s foremost economists and respected scholar-leaders, was chosen in July 2023 as the inaugural dean of the reimagined Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business at Purdue University.

Bill Cohan (Moderator)

Veteran Wall Street Journalist, Bestselling Author, Founding Partner of Puck

William D. Cohan, a former senior Wall Street M&A investment banker for 17 years at Lazard Frères & Co., Merrill Lynch and JPMorganChase, is the New York Times bestselling author of five non-fiction narratives: three about Wall Street: Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World; House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street; and, The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co., the winner of the 2007 FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

His book, The Price of Silence, about the Duke lacrosse scandal was published in April 2014 and was also a New York Times bestseller. His 2022 book Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon, about the rise and fall of GE, once the world’s most powerful, valuable and important company, was published in November 2022 by Penguin Random House. It was long-listed for the 2022 FT Business Book of the Year Award. It was a New York Times bestseller and on the best book of the year lists published by The New Yorker, The Economist, The Financial Times and the Deal book section of the New York Times. His new book, Apollo Unbound, is about Leon Black and the Wall Street powerhouse, Apollo Global Management, and will be published in 2025.

He is also the author of Why Wall Street Matters, which was published by Random House in February 2017. His book, Four Friends, about what happened to four of his friends from Andover, his high school, was published by Flatiron Press, a division of Macmillan Publishers, in July 2019.

Cohan is also a founding partner of Puck, a digital publication owned and operated by journalists, and a writer-at-large for Air Mail. For 13 years, he was a special correspondent at Vanity Fair. He also writes, or has written, for Pro Publica, The Financial Times, The New York Times, Institutional Investor, Bloomberg Business Week, The Atlantic, Fast Company, The Nation, Fortune, Politico, Art News, and Barron’s. He previously wrote a bi-weekly opinion column for The New York Times, an opinion column for Bloomberg View, as well as for the Deal book section of the New York Times.He appears on CNN, on MSNBC and the BBC-TV. He has also appeared three times as a guest on the Daily Show, with Jon Stewart, The News Hour, The Charlie Rose Show, The Tavis Smiley Show, and CBS This Morning as well as on numerous NPR, BBC and Bloomberg radio programs. He was formerly a contributing editor for Bloomberg TV and CNBC.

He is a graduate of Phillips Academy (Andover), Duke University, Columbia University School of Journalism and the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts and now lives in New York City with his wife and, more occasionally these days, his two sons.

Thomas FUchs

Senior Vice President and Chief AI Officer at Eli Lilly

Thomas Fuchs is the Senior Vice President and Chief AI Officer at Eli Lilly.

Mark Halperin

Editor-in-chief of the 2WAY Video Platform and Host of “Next Up” on the Megyn Kelly Media Network

Mark Halperin, the editor-in-chief of the 2WAY video platform and the host of “Next Up” on the Megyn Kelly media network, has long been one of American political journalism’s top reporters, analysts, anchors, executives, digital pioneers, and innovators.

Halperin is also the founder and editor of the Wide World of News Concierge Coverage, a premium, unbiased, members-only suite of services providing actionable political and policy insights beyond dumbed-down cable news chatter or social doom scrolling, giving members the inside track on what will happen next and why.

During his career, Halperin has been a reporter, analyst, host, and writer at ABC News, TIME magazine, Bloomberg News, NBC News, and Showtime. He is also the co-author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers “Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime” (2010) and “Double Down: Game Change 2012” (2013), along with three other books.

Stu Jones

Former United States Ambassador to Iraq

Ambassador Stuart Jones joined the Middle East Institute (MEI) as its 18th president in January 2025. Stu came to MEI from Bechtel Corporation, a global engineering, construction, and project management firm, where he was a senior vice president and President for Regions and Corporate Affairs. He retired from Bechtel in 2024.

Prior to Bechtel, Stu served for three decades as a US Foreign Service Officer in the Department of State. His tours included US Ambassador to Iraq (2014-17), during the height of the ISIS crisis, and US Ambassador to Jordan (2011-14). Other foreign tours included Turkey, Egypt, El Salvador, and Colombia. He retired as the senior bureau officer (SBO) for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, in 2017.

Hailing from Philadelphia, Stu is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Duke University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy. He resides with his wife, Barbara Jones, also a former Foreign Service Officer, in Falls Church, Virginia.

maya macguineas

President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

Maya MacGuineas is the president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Her areas of expertise include budget, tax, and economic policy. As a leading budget expert and a political independent, she works closely with members of both parties and serves as a trusted resource on Capitol Hill.

MacGuineas testifies regularly before Congress and has published broadly, including in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Atlantic, and numerous other outlets. She also appears regularly as a commentator on television.

MacGuineas oversees a number of the Committee’s projects including FixUS, a project seeking to better understand the root causes of our nation’s growing divisions and deteriorating political system, and TEC, which focuses on technology, the economy, and capitalism.

Previously, MacGuineas worked at the Brookings Institution and on Wall Street, and in the spring of 2009 she did a stint on The Washington Post editorial board, covering economic and fiscal policy. MacGuineas serves on a number of nonprofit boards and is a native Washingtonian.

Bruce Mehlman

Founder, Mehlman Consulting

Bruce Mehlman leads the bipartisan firm he founded after serving at senior levels in politics, policy and business. Mehlman Consulting helps Fortune 500 companies and innovative startups understand, anticipate and navigate the ever-evolving policy environment and trends likely to impact the global marketplace.

A highly sought-after public speaker, Mehlman frequently presents to Boards of Directors, global conferences and strategic planning sessions. His“Age of Disruption” Sunday Substack reaches tens of thousands of readers across business, government, NGOs and global investment firms each week.

Mehlman’s “famous” infographics on political trends are frequently covered in leading publications, including the Washington Post, Axios, Politico, CNN, Bloomberg, and Fox News. He has lectured on “winning business–government relations” at the Harvard Kennedy School, Yale School of Management and Georgetown University, among others.

Mehlman previously held the post of Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology Policy, having been nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2001. Before Commerce, he worked at Cisco Systems, the House of Representatives, and at a Washington law firm.

Mehlman is widely regarded as an expert in running issue campaigns, managing C-suite associations and developing strategies that achieve impactful policy outcomes. He also serves as Executive Director of the Technology CEO Council.

Peggy Noonan (moderator)

Columnist for The Wall Street Journal and Contributor to NBC News and ABC News

Peggy Noonan is a writer and author. She is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, where her weekly column, Declarations, has run since 2000.

In 2017 she won the Pulitzer prize for distinguished commentary. She is also the author of nine books on American politics, history and culture, including the bestsellers “What I Saw at the Revolution,” “When Character Was King.” “John Paul the Great,” and “Simply Speaking.” She is one of ten historians and writers who contributed essays on the American presidency for the book, “Character Above All.” Noonan was a special assistant and speechwriter for president Ronald Reagan.

In 2010 she was given the Award for Media Excellence by the living recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor. She has been a fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, and has taught at Yale University.

Before entering the Reagan White House, Noonan was a producer and writer at CBS News in New York, and an adjunct professor of Journalism at New York University. She was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up there, in Massapequa Park, Long Island, and in Rutherford, New Jersey. She is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University in Rutherford. She lives in New York City.

Mike Pence

48th Vice President of the United States

Mike Pence was born in Columbus, Indiana into a family that epitomized the American Dream, instilling in him values of hard work, faith, and family. After graduating from Hanover College and Indiana University School of Law, he embarked on a multifaceted career, including law practice, hosting a talk show, serving as a Congressman for six terms, and championing limited government and fiscal responsibility.

Pence then was elected the 50th Governor of Indiana, focusing on tax cuts, job creation, education reform, and infrastructure investment while maintaining fiscal responsibility. His accomplishments in Indiana led to his selection as the 48th Vice President of the United States. Pence’s conservative philosophy, inspired by Ronald Reagan, led to his founding Advancing American Freedom which continues to advocate for faith, family, and liberty as foundational American values.

Adam Posen

President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics

Adam S. Posen is President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He has contributed to research and public policy on G20 macroeconomic policies, inflation targeting and central bank independence, European economic integration since the euro, Japan’s recovery from its Great Recession, and recently a series of influential articles on the future of globalization amidst China-US conflict.

From 2009 to 2012, Posen served as an external voting member of the Bank of England’s rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). He served seven terms on the Panel of Economic Advisors to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. He is the recipient of the CBE medal for his service to British economic policy and of the Order of the Rising Sun with Gold Rays for his contributions to Japanese economic policy. He received his BA and PhD from Harvard University.

Condoleezza Rice

Political scientist and former United States Secretary of State

Condoleezza Rice is the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution, Senior Fellow on Public Policy, and Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at Stanford GSB. She is a founding partner of Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC, an international strategic consulting firm.

Rice served as the 66th U.S. Secretary of State (2005–2009) — the second woman and first Black woman to hold the post — and as National Security Advisor (2001–2005), the first woman in that role. She was Stanford’s provost (1993–1999) and has been on its Political Science faculty since 1981, earning two of its highest teaching honors.

Earlier, she served on President George H.W. Bush’s NSC staff (1989–1991) as Director, then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs, and in 1986 as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Her books include To Build a Better World (2019), Democracy (2017), No Higher Honor (2011), Extraordinary, Ordinary People (2010), and Political Risk (2018), among others.

In 1991, she co-founded the Center for a New Generation, an after-school enrichment program that merged with the Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula in 1996 and has since expanded nationally. She is currently Vice Chair of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America Board of Governors and a trustee of the Aspen Institute. She also sits on the boards of C3.ai and Makena Capital Management.

In 2022, Rice became a part-owner of the Denver Broncos. She served on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee from 2013–2017.

Rice holds a B.A. (cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Denver, and an M.A. from the University of Notre Dame. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds over 15 honorary doctorates.

Toby Rice

President and Chief Executive Officer of EQT Corporation

Toby Z. Rice is the President and Chief Executive Officer of EQT Corporation, America’s leading integrated natural gas producer and a driving force in advancing the role of natural gas in the global energy landscape. He co-founded Rice Energy in 2007 and built it into a top-ten U.S. natural gas producer through disciplined capital allocation, operational innovation and strategic acreage development, culminating in its acquisition by EQT in 2017. In 2019, he took over as President and CEO of EQT.

Since becoming CEO of EQT in 2019, Rice has led a comprehensive transformation of the company, building one of the most efficient and technologically advanced operating platforms in the global natural gas industry. Under his leadership, EQT has reduced per-unit costs by approximately 30%, increased production by roughly 50%, and more than doubled profitability, while strengthening its balance sheet and free cash flow profile. He has overseen more than $20 billion in strategic acquisitions, including Chevron Appalachia, Alta Resources, Tug Hill, Equitrans Midstream and Olympus Energy, creating unmatched scale across upstream and midstream operations and positioning EQT as a premier integrated natural gas enterprise.

Rice is a committed champion of natural gas as a cornerstone of modern life and economic development. He has consistently advocated for expanding U.S. natural gas production and LNG exports as a pragmatic pathway to enhance global energy security, lower costs for consumers and accelerate emissions reductions by replacing higher-emitting coal around the world. He frequently engages policymakers, industry leaders and global audiences on the opportunity to materially reduce global carbon emissions through coal-to-gas switching, while maintaining energy reliability and affordability.

Under his leadership, EQT has driven measurable environmental performance improvements, achieving some of the lowest methane emission intensities in the industry and advancing toward net-zero operational targets through technology deployment, operational excellence and data-driven emissions management.

Deeply committed to addressing global energy poverty, Rice founded Energy Corps, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to modern energy for the billions of people who still lack reliable electricity and clean fuels. Energy Corps mobilizes industry expertise and partnerships to deliver scalable energy solutions that unlock economic opportunity, improve living standards and support human development.

Through operational excellence, disciplined growth and global advocacy, Rice continues to position EQT, and U.S. natural gas writ large, as critical drivers of economic prosperity, energy security and meaningful emissions reduction worldwide.

Nela Richardson (moderator)

Chief Economist and ESG Officer for ADP Inc.

Mike Rowe

Emmy-Award winning TV Host, CEO of the mikeroweWORKS Foundation

Mike Rowe is a writer, narrator, producer, recording artist, Emmy-Award winning TV Host, New York Times Best Selling author, and the CEO of the mikeroweWORKS Foundation. As the creator and host of the iconic TV series Dirty Jobs, Mike is best-known as “the dirtiest man on TV,” but his true calling is storytelling. From Somebody’s Gotta Do It to Returning the Favor, The Story Behind the Story, Six Degrees, and The Way I Heard It, Mike continues to tap the country on the shoulder and say, “These are people you should know.” In his role as a perpetual apprentice, Mike has highlighted hundreds of workers in dozens of essential industries. His foundation has awarded millions of dollars in work ethic scholarships, and his commitment to reinvigorate the skilled trades is unrivaled.

Luigi Zingales

Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Director of the Stigler Center

Luigi Zingales is a Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and director of the Stigler Center. In 2014, he was President of the American Finance Association. According to SSRN, he is the seventh most-cited author in economics. His research on capitalism is summarized in two widely acclaimed books: Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists (2003, with Raghu Rajan) and A Capitalism for the People (2012). He also co-hosts the podcast Capitalisn’t.

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Conversations exploring the intersection of technology, economics, and social trends.

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