Ambassador John Danforth - Until nominated to serve as President Bush's Representative to the United Nations in June 2004, former United States Senator John C. Danforth was a partner with the law firm of Bryan Cave LLP, a diversified national and international law practice. With 800 lawyers, Bryan Cave ranks among the 20 largest law firms in the United States.
In September, 1999, Danforth was appointed Special Counsel by Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate the federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.
On September 6, 2001, President Bush appointed Danforth as Special Envoy for Peace to Sudan in northern Africa, representing the U.S. government in ongoing peace talks to help settle the 17 year old civil war between the northern and southern Sudanese.
Danforth represented the State of Missouri in the United States Senate for 18 years. Prior to his retirement from the Senate at the end of 1994, Danforth ranked 21st in seniority among the 100 senators and served on three key committees: the Committee on Finance; Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation; and the Select Committee on Intelligence.
Leonard E. Greenberg - A native of Hartford, Leonard E. Greenberg originally prepared himself for a business career at Weaver High School during the 1940s. But the summer after his graduation, he decided to apply to Trinity College, where Dean Thurman Hood admitted him on a provisional basis.
In just two-and-a-half years, Mr. Greenberg earned his Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and Phi Beta Kappa honors. He distinguished himself by participating on the student newspaper and in the Glee Club. With three other students, he established the College’s first Hillel and persuaded the College to allow Jewish students to fulfill the chapel requirement by attending synagogue for Sabbath services.
After graduation in 1948, Mr. Greenberg joined the family business, the Connecticut Leather Company, which remade itself into Coleco Industries in 1961. Under the leadership of Mr. Greenberg and his brother Arnold, Coleco became the third largest toy maker in the country.
In the midst of his business career, Mr. Greenberg remained intensely interested in religion. He earned a M.S. in the philosophy of religion at the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York in 1978. He also helped found the Beth El Temple in West Hartford, and has served as a presidential appointee to the U.S. Holocaust Museum council, on the board of the Jewish Museum in New York City, and as a governor on the American Jewish Committee.
Mr. Greenberg also devoted time to Trinity, serving on its Board of Trustees for almost 20 years. In 1998, on the 50th anniversary of his graduation, Trinity awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
Lodi G. Gyari - Lodi G. Gyari was born in Nyarong, Eastern Tibet in 1949 where he received a traditional monastic education. Mr. Gyari and his family fled from Tibet to India in 1959. Realizing that Tibetans need to publicize their struggle tSpecial Representative of H.H. the Dalai Lamao the world he became an editor for the Tibetan Freedom Press and founded the Tibetan Review, the first English language journal published by Tibetans in-exile.
Mr. Gyari was one of the founding members of the Tibetan Youth Congress, an organization of over 10,000 members. He served as President of the Congress in 1975. Mr. Gyari was elected to the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies, the Tibetan Parliament in exile, and subsequently became its Chairman. He then served as Deputy Cabinet Minister with responsibilities for the Council for Religious Affairs and the Department of Health. In 1988 he became Senior Cabinet Minister for the Department of Information and International Relations (Foreign Ministry.)
Currently he is the Special Envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Mr. Gyari is the lead person designated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to commence negotiations with the Chinese Government.
Mr. Gyari is also the Executive Chairman of the Board of the International Campaign for Tibet, an independent Washington based human rights advocacy group.
Mr. Gyari lives in McLean, Virginia with his wife Dawa Chokyi and their six children.
Representative Alcee L. Hastings - Alcee Lamar Hastings (born September 5, 1936) is a U.S. politician, who was an impeached and removed federal judge and is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing Florida's 23rd congressional district.
Born in Altamonte Springs, Florida, Hastings was educated at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee; Howard University in Washington, D.C.; and Florida AM University.
A Representative since 1993 and a Democrat, Hastings was a lawyer and judge of the circuit court of Broward County, Florida, and United States District Court judge for the Southern District of Florida (1979 to 1989), until he was impeached and removed from office for corruption and perjury. He is only the 6th federal judge to be impeached and removed from office in American history.
Hastings was elected to the House of Representatives in 1992. He is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and was elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in July 2004. Today, as a Senior Democratic Whip, Hastings is an influential member of the Democratic Leadership. Congressman Hastings is also a member of the powerful House Rules Committee and is a senior Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). On the HPSCI, Hastings is the Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
Robert Newmark - Robert Newmark concentrates his practice in the areas of business and transactional counseling. His practice includes mergers and acquisitions, general commercial counseling, joint ventures and strategic alliances, private offerings of securities and other issues arising under federal and state securities laws.
Mr. Newmark has experience representing public companies, closely held businesses, venture capital firms, investment partnerships and financial institutions, and has considerable experience representing portfolio companies of venture capital and buyout firms. He counsels companies in a number of industries, including manufacturing, finance, neutriceuticals and telecommunications.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Newmark was a management consultant with Mercer Management Consulting in Washington, DC, where he advised Fortune 200 companies on business strategy issues. He also was an associate with another law firm in St. Louis, Mo. Mr. Newmark is an adjunct professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, where he teaches a course on mergers and acquisitions law.
Bruce Ramer - A board member of the Pacific Council, Bruce Ramer is a Senior Partner in the law firm of Gang, Tyre, Ramer and Brown. He is Executive Director of the Entertainment Law Institute of the University of Southern California Law School, where he also is on the Board of Councilors.
Mr. Ramer is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Geffen Playhouse at UCLA, and sits on the Boards of the L.A. Urban League, the UCLA School of Medicine and Medical Center, the University of Southern California and the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles. He was named as one of the 100 most powerful lawyers in the state by California Business Lawyer in 2001.
Representative Chris Shays - Christopher H. Shays (born October 18, 1945) is an American politician. He has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1987, representing the 4th District of Connecticut, which includes 17 towns in Southwest Connecticut.
Matthew Skolnick - Matthew Skolnick is the American Jewish Committee's Chapter President in Connecticut.
