Economic Club Of Minnesota

Michael Froman was sworn in as the 11th United States Trade Representative (USTR) on June 21, 2013. As USTR, he is President Obama’s principal advisor, negotiator and spokesperson on international trade and investment issues.Ambassador Froman leads the Office of the United States Trade Representative in its work to open global markets for U.S. goods and services, enforce America’s rights in the global trading system, and foster development through trade. Key initiatives ongoing under his leadership are negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement in the Asia Pacific; the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union; negotiation of agreements on services, information technology and trade facilitation at the World Trade Organization; and monitoring and enforcement U.S. trade rights, including through the Interagency Trade and Enforcement Center (ITEC).Prior to becoming USTR, Ambassador Froman served at the White House as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Securit

Brian Cornell is board chairman and CEO of Target Corp. He is responsible for Target’s global business, including more than 1,800 U.S. stores and Target.com, more than 347,000 team members and millions of guests. Cornell leads the retailer’s executive leadership team in accelerating Target’s performance, advancing its digital evolution and delivering on its “Expect More. Pay Less.” promise to guests. Cornell joined Target in August 2014 after more than 30 years in escalating leadership positions at leading retail and global consumer product companies, including three CEO roles and more than two decades doing business in North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America. His past experience includes time as both a vendor partner and a competitor to Target, and he brings insights from those roles to the company today. Cornell has served on the board of directors for Yum! Brands since September 2015 and is a past director of Polaris Industries, Inc. He also serves on the board for UCLA’s Anderson School of Managemen

Ian Bremmer is the president and founder of Eurasia Group, the leading global political risk research and consulting firm. He is a prolific thought leader and author, regularly expressing his views on political issues in public speeches, television appearances, and top publications, including Time magazine, where he is the foreign affairs columnist and editor-at-large. Dubbed the "rising guru" in the field of political risk by the Economist, he teaches classes on the discipline as a global research professor at New York University. His latest book, Superpower: Three Choices for America's Role in the World, was released in May 2015. In 1998, Bremmer established Eurasia Group with just $25,000. Today, the company has offices in New York, Washington, London and Tokyo, as well as a network of experts and resources in 90 countries. Eurasia Group provides analysis and expertise on how political developments and national security dynamics move markets and shape investments across the globe. As the firm's president a

David MacLennan, Chairman & CEO of Cargill, Inc. Chris Policinski, President & CEO of Land O’Lakes, Inc. James “Joc” O’Rourke, President & CEO of the Mosaic Company Doug Baker, Chairman of CEO of Ecolab, Inc. Moderator for Panel I & Panel II:Alan Bjerga, Agricultural Policy Reporter for Bloomberg News

Greg Page, Executive Director of Cargill, Inc. Jeffrey Harmening, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of General Mills Jeffrey Ettinger, Chairman, President & CEO of Hormel Foods Sally Smith, CEO & President of Buffalo Wild Wings Moderator for Panel I & Panel II: Alan Bjerga, Agricultural Policy Reporter for Bloomberg News  

John B. Taylor is the Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University. He formerly served as the Director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research where he is currently a Senior Fellow. He is also the George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution. Taylor’s fields of expertise are monetary policy, fiscal policy, and international economics. Taylor has an active interest in public policy. He served as senior economist on President Ford's Council of Economic Advisers, as a member of President George H.W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, and as economic adviser to the Bob Dole and George W. Bush presidential campaigns. For four years from 2001 to 2005, Taylor served as Under Secretary of Treasury for International Affairs where he was responsible for U.S. policies in international finance, including currency markets, trade in financial services, foreign investment, international debt and development, and oversight of the International Monetary Fund a

William C. Dudley became the 10th president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on January 27, 2009. In that capacity, he serves as the vice chairman and a permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the group responsible for formulating the nation's monetary policy. Previously, Mr. Dudley served as executive vice president of the Markets Group at the New York Fed, where he also managed the System Open Market Account for the FOMC. The Markets Group oversees domestic open market and foreign exchange trading operations and the provisions of account services to foreign central banks. Prior to joining the Bank in 2007, Mr. Dudley was a partner and managing director at Goldman, Sachs & Company and was the firm's chief U.S. economist for a decade. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 1986, he was a vice president at the former Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. Mr. Dudley was an economist at the Federal Reserve Board from 1981 to 1983. Mr. Dudley received his doctorate

Governor General David Johnston is The Queen’s representative in Canada and exercises the duties of Head of State. Since being sworn in as Canada’s 28th Governor General in October 2010, he has traveled on behalf of Canada to Europe, India, China, Brazil, and the United States as a leading speaker on education, innovation and trade. David Johnston began his professional career as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University in 1966, joining the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law in 1968. He became dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario in 1974. In 1979, he was named principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University, and in July 1994, he returned to teaching as a full-time professor in the McGill Faculty of Law. In June 1999, he became the fifth president of the University of Waterloo, Canada’s most innovative university recognized for advanced research and teaching in science, engineering and mathematics. His academic specializations include securities regul

Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda was appointed the 31st Governor of the Bank of Japan on March 20, 2013. He started his career at the Ministry of Finance in Japan in 1967. In the early years, he was seconded to the International Monetary Fund as Advisor to the Executive Director. His responsibilities at the Ministry encompassed fields such as international finance and national and international tax as well as services in the finance minister's office including as secretary to the then Finance Minister Murayama. He represented the Ministry at a number of international monetary conferences as Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, including meetings of the Group of Seven Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, International Monetary Fund/World Bank Joint Annual Meetings, and bilateral meetings between Japan and other countries/regions. From 2003, he served as Special Advisor to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Koizumi, while teaching economics and finance as Professor at the Graduate School of Economics of H

Bill Frenzel Champion of Free Trade Award Carla A. Hills is Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Hills & Company. Ambassador Hills served as U.S. Trade Representative (1989-93) in the Bush (41) Administration and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, in the Ford Administration. Over the years, Ambassador Hills has served on a number of publicly traded corporate boards and currently sits on one. She also serves on a number of not-for-profit boards including as Chair of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and of the Inter-American Dialogue; Co-Chair of the Council on Foreign Relations; member of the Executive Committee for the Peterson Institute for International Economics and of the Trilateral Commission, Co-Chair of the Advisory Board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and member of the board of the International Crisis Group. Before entering government, Ambassador Hills co-founded and was a part

Jay Timmons is president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the largest manufacturing association in the United States representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector. He became NAM president in January 2011. Mr. Timmons is a leading advocate for the nearly 12 million men and women who make things in America, educating the public and policymakers on issues that affect this critical sector of the U.S. economy. He promotes a broad-based agenda to strengthen U.S. competitiveness and bring about a manufacturing renaissance. He is driven by the principles instilled in him by his roots in the manufacturing town of Chillicothe, Ohio, where his grandfather worked at a Mead plant for nearly four decades and where he witnessed manufacturing's ability to raise the quality of life for families and communities. Mr. Timmons' knowledge and expertise is valued and respected by influential policymakers on both sides of the aisle in Congress and the Administration. He knows how to

The Risky Business report, the first-ever analysis of its kind, summarizes the findings of an this independent risk assessment of the potential costs of climate change on coastal infrastructure, energy services, labor productivity, agriculture, and public health, combining existing data on the current and potential impacts of climate change with original research that quantifies potential future costs across the United States. The analysis behind Risky Business expands upon the extensive research of other major climate reports and adds significantly more detailed local results, down to state-level impacts. While the costs results vary tremendously by location, the report shows that climate change has the potential to seriously affect businesses’ bottom lines if we continue on a business-as-usual path. America’s businesses are fully capable of rising to the challenges of climate change. Understanding the risks of climate change will enable let business leaders to capitalize on the opportunities that addressing

Mark Penn, Pollster for President Bill Clinton Executive Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation Mark Penn is Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Microsoft Corporation, responsible for working on core strategic issues across Microsoft's products, value propositions, and investments and leading the company's competitive research and analysis. Penn reports to CEO Satya Nadella and serves on Microsoft's Senior Leadership Team. He oversees an interdisciplinary strategy team and works with product and other teams across the company. Previously, Penn was worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller and CEO of Penn Schoen Berland, serving as senior adviser to global corporate and political leaders including Bill Gates, Bill Ford, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Bill Clinton. For six years, Penn served as White House Pollster to President Clinton and was a key strategy adviser in his 1996 re-election,

Doug Baker, 55, is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Ecolab Inc. A trusted partner at more than one million customer locations, Ecolab is the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services that protect people and vital resources. With 2013 sales of $13 billion and 45,000 associates, Ecolab delivers comprehensive solutions and on-site service to promote safe food, maintain clean environments, optimize water and energy use and improve operational efficiencies for customers in the food, healthcare, energy, hospitality and industrial markets in more than 170 countries around the world. Ecolab was recently ranked #2 on the Barron’s 500, #6 on Newsweek’s list of the World’s Greenest Companies and #7 in Corporate Responsibility’s annual ranking of Russell 1000 companies. Ecolab has been named to Ethisphere’s list of the World's Most Ethical Companies for eight consecutive years, and Forbes’ ranking of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for four consecutive years. Ecolab al

John S. Watson is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Chevron Corporation, a position he has held since 2010. Previously Watson served as vice chairman of the board from 2009 to 2010 and was responsible for business development; mergers and acquisitions; strategic planning; corporate compliance; policy, government and public affairs; procurement; and the Project Resources Company. In 2008, he was elected executive vice president for strategy and development. In 2005, Watson was elected president of Chevron International Exploration and Production Company. In 2000, he led the company’s integration effort following the Chevron-Texaco merger and then became the corporation’s chief financial officer. In 1998, he was elected a vice president of the corporation, with responsibility for strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to being elected president of Chevron Canada Limited in 1996, he held financial, analytical and supervisory positions. Watson serves on the board of directors an

Narayana Kocherlakota took office as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis on Oct. 8, 2009. In that capacity, Kocherlakota serves on the Federal Open Market Committee, the policymaking arm of the Federal Reserve System. In addition to his responsibilities as a monetary policymaker, Kocherlakota oversees all operations of the bank, including supervision and regulation, and payments services. Before his appointment as president, Kocherlakota served as a member of the Minneapolis Fed's Research staff, as well as a Research consultant for the Bank. His prior experience also includes professorships at the University of Minnesota, where he was chair of the Economics Department, and at Stanford University. Kocherlakota has published more than 30 articles in academic journals on a variety of topics, including monetary and financial economics. His work includes theoretical and empirical contributions to monetary economics and financial economics.. Kocherlakota was named one o

Patricia A. Woertz is chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Archer Daniels Midland Company. She joined ADM as CEO and president in April 2006. She was named chairman of the board in February 2007. Since joining ADM, Woertz has led the company to record financial results while growing its sourcing, transportation and processing networks through select acquisitions, strategic capital investments, and a number of global joint ventures and partnerships. She has also worked with ADM's board and senior leadership to strengthen the Company's strategic focus and planning, and to promote safety, continuous learning and sustainability initiatives companywide. Woertz began her career as a certified public accountant with Ernst & Ernst — later Ernst & Young — in Pittsburgh. Attracted to the complexity and opportunity of a global company, she joined Gulf Oil Corporation in 1977, where she held various positions in refining, marketing, strategic planning and finance. Following the merger

Dr. Douglas W. Elmendorf is the eighth Director of the Congressional Budget Office. He was initially appointed on January 22, 2009, to complete the previous four-year term of office; he was later reappointed to serve through January 3, 2015. Before he came to CBO, Doug Elmendorf was a senior fellow and the Edward M. Bernstein Scholar in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. He was previously an assistant professor at Harvard University, a principal analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, a senior economist at the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, a deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department, and an assistant director of the Division of Research and Statistics at the Federal Reserve Board. In those positions, he worked on budget policy, Social Security, Medicare, health care issues, financial markets, macroeconomic analysis and forecasting, and other topics. He earned his Ph.D. and A.M. in economics from Harvard University, where he was a Nation

Former Senator Mark Kennedy, Former Congressman Tim Penny, Canadian and Mexican ambassadors, Mr. Mack McLarty, Ambassador Carla Hills, Mr. James Weekes, Dr. Luis de la Calle, Congressman Erik Paulsen, Former Congressman Bill Frenzel.