So, again, encouraging people to take their seats. Good evening, everyone. My name is kai bird, im the new executive director of the Leon Levy Center for biography which is celebrating its tenth year now all due to shelby white and the leon levy foundation. And i want to advertise, first of all, our new alliance with bio. This is our first sort of jointlysponsored event with them, but we are also, courtesy of will swift here the president of bio, we are also going to be doing, cosponsoring their great annual conference on biography next may. And that will also be happening here at cuny. Should be a great event with over 200 biographers. I also want to advertise and put out the word, we have a december 15th deadline for our new, our annual fellowship, and there are four fellowships given out every year of 65,000 a pop for aspiring biographers. So if you know of people who are aspiring, please encourage them to apply. And finally, i just, you know, im really thrilled that were able to do
Good evening, everyone. I am the new executive director celebrating its tenth year now and i want to advertise the alliance with the bio. Courtesy of the president bio we are going to be cosponsoring their conference will also be happening here. For the new indigo fellowship there fellowships given out every single year. Im thrilled to this event and owner bob and i introduced now go swift will take it from here. Those of you who dont know it stands for the Biographers International organization and i want to think before we such a good friend and those whom ive mastered now for being so helpful and also cathy curtis is amazing and put this whole event together. But she already has so much to do because she is so amazing. It is as well as the biographers are masters of the field and we are excited to inaugurate a New Fellowship that allows people to apply and travel if they win the fellowships traveled to have the funds to go to the places their subjects lived so they could get a more
Encouraging people to take their seat. Good evening, everyone. I am the new executive director celebrating its tenth year now and i want to advertise the alliance with the bio. Courtesy of the president bio we are going to be cosponsoring their conference will also be happening here. For the new indigo fellowship there fellowships given out every single year. Im thrilled to this event and owner bob and i introduced now go swift will take it from here. Those of you who dont know it stands for the Biographers International organization and i want to think before we such a good friend and those whom ive mastered now for being so helpful and also cathy curtis is amazing and put this whole event together. But she already has so much to do because she is so amazing. It is as well as the biographers are masters of the field and we are excited to inaugurate a New Fellowship that allows people to apply and travel if they win the fellowships traveled to have the funds to go to the places their s
Its hard to imagine anyone more suited to the topic of a career in intelligence than mr. James clapper. Its a great treat to have him here this evening. As you can see from his background, hes had over five years of experience in the Intelligence Community, in the military side, on the civilian side, inside and outside government and overseas as well and maybe its not listed in his bio but maybe someone can ask him a question to tell you about his 2014 visit to north korea to rescue a couple of americans who got caught up there. I first met mr. Clapper in the 1990s when i was a baby bureaucrat in the pentagon and he was head of Defense Intelligence agency. I was, i confess, a little bit scared of him when i first encountered him but my boss, ash carter, and the rest of the pentagon civilian leadership held him in such high regard and respect that we were all grateful to have him part of the team. Most recently, i logged many hours with mr. Clapper in the white house situation room disc
Begins with an intelligence update so it was almost like a ritual prayer. Mr. Clapper would intel be intoned the latest update on whatever heart problems were at the table that day. Its been my pleasure over my entire career to work with a talented members and in particular and the white house who worked with mr. Clapper directly. For legions of intelligence professionals noting the integrity and humanity with which he has led the Intelligence Community from and he truly personifies the leader. And so its a special honor to introduce you tonight. The other thing that shows the humility of that is i did a little bit of surveying some of his former teammates and they said a favorite saying of his is that their job was to be in the engine room show boring shoveling the cold so i am sure we will have more than coal from the conversation he offers us today, so it is my distinct honor to invite mr. James clapper to the podium. Thank you very much. [applause] thanks very much. Its great to be