President Clinton Announces the Program for the 2012 CGI America Meeting

Meeting will convene nearly 1,000 leaders from business, government, and the nonprofit sector to address economic growth in the United States through job creation, innovation, education and workforce development June 7-8 in Chicago

Featured participants to include Chelsea Clinton; Regina E. Dugan, former director of DARPA, U.S. Department of Defense; Rahm Emanuel, mayor, City of Chicago; Donna Gambrell, director, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, U.S. Department of the Treasury; Lisa Hall, president and CEO, Calvert Foundation; Bill Haslam, governor, State of Tennessee; Jim Koch, chair and founder, The Boston Beer Company, Inc.; Ai-jen Poo, director, National Domestic Workers Alliance; Jerry Sanders, mayor, City of San Diego; Mark Vachon, vice president, Ecomagination, General Electric; Robert G. Wilmers, chairman and CEO, M&T Bank Corporation; and Randi Weingarten, president, American Federation of Teachers

NEW YORK, May 3, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, President Bill Clinton announced the program for the second Clinton Global Initiative America (CGI America) meeting to be held in Chicago, June 7-8, 2012 at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers. CGI America will bring together hundreds of leaders from business, government, and nonprofit sectors to devise real and effective solutions for economic recovery and job creation in the United States.

"At our first CGI America meeting last June, we brought together national leaders from all sectors of society who shared the common purpose of putting people back to work," said President Clinton. "Those leaders made more than 100 commitments, which when completed, will create or fill thousands of jobs in the United States. I hope this year's meeting will generate more innovative solutions and more jobs to improve the American economy."

The two-day convening is a working meeting to promote cross-sector collaboration. CGI America participants will join one of the 12 topic-specific Working Groups that will provide them with opportunities to share knowledge, build partnerships, and generate Commitments to Action. The 12 Working Group topics include: Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Electricity and Efficiency, Clean Fuel and Transportation, Early Childhood Education, Entrepreneurship, Financial Inclusion, Housing Recovery, Reconnecting Youth, Small Business, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) Education, Wellness, and Workforce Development. During the Working Group sessions, participants will develop Commitments to Action: new, specific, and measurable plans that address a challenge facing the United States.

The full agenda for 2012 meeting of CGI America can be found at cgiamerica.org.

Featured participants at this year's CGI America meeting will include: John S. Butler, director, IC2 Institute, The University of Texas at Austin; Chelsea Clinton, board member, Clinton Global Initiative and William J. Clinton Foundation; Regina E. Dugan, director, DARPA, U.S. Department of Defense; Rahm Emanuel, mayor, City of Chicago; Donna Gambrell, director, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, U.S. Department of the Treasury; Lisa Hall, president and CEO, Calvert Foundation; Bill Haslam, governor, State of Tennessee; John Hope Bryant, founder, chairman and CEO, Operation HOPE, Inc.; Ted Howard, executive director, The Democracy Collaborative; Jim Koch, chair and founder, The Boston Beer Company, Inc.; Ann Miura-Ko, managing partner, FLOODGATE; Ai-jen Poo, director, National Domestic Workers Alliance; Jerry Sanders, mayor, City of San Diego; Christine Shapard, executive director, Colorado Cleantech Industry Association; Jerry Sue Thornton, Ph.D., president, Cuyahoga Community College; Laura D'Andrea Tyson, S.K. and Angela Chan Professor of Global Management, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley; Mark Vachon, vice president, Ecomagination General Electric; Robert G. Wilmers, chairman and CEO, M&T Bank Corporation; and Randi Weingarten, president, American Federation of Teachers.

The CGI America plenary sessions include:

• Jumpstart Nation: Getting America Back to Work, which will highlight economic recovery strategies that are working across America and showcase how to replicate them.
• Place-Based Innovation: Creating Centers of Prosperity, which will explore the ways partnerships and cooperative efforts, can spur innovation, grow businesses, and create jobs in communities across the U.S.
• Sustainable Finance, which will examine innovative models to make capital available for existing businesses and new ventures.
• Pathways to Opportunity, which will address critical components needed to preserve the "American Dream" for future generations, including education and training, equitable workforce practices, and financial inclusion.
• What's Next?: Towards a More Perfect Union, which will explore America's economic identity in an increasingly globalized world, as well as what we can do to ensure a creative, innovative, and sustainable tomorrow.

CGI America is grateful for the support of its sponsors: J.B. & M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation, Allstate Insurance Company, The Joyce Foundation, The Dow Chemical Company, and APCO Worldwide.

For more information please visit cgiamerica.org. Follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative for meeting news and highlights. The event hashtag is #CGIAmerica.

Press registration is now open to members of the media. To apply, please complete the form at: http://bit.ly/Iwr7d0.

ALL PRESS MUST BE CREDENTIALED BY THE CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE. All media must apply for credentials and must be approved by CGI in order to attend. The deadline to apply is Tuesday, June 5 at 6:00 p.m. EDT. Journalists may apply for credentials on-site, but pre-registered media will be given priority. For questions about press registration, please email [email protected].  

Members of the press who have received email confirmation from CGI to attend the CGI America meeting are encouraged to pick up their credentials on Wednesday, June 6 from 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. CDT at the press registration desk on the first floor of the Sheraton Hotel. To pick up your credential, a valid government-issued ID is required.

In addition to the CGI America meeting, CGI also convenes the CGI Annual Meeting, which brings together global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges. The 2012 CGI Annual Meeting will be held on September 23-25 in New York City.

About CGI America
President Clinton established the Clinton Global Initiative America (CGI America) to address economic recovery in the United States. CGI America brings together leaders in business, government, and civil society to generate and implement commitments to create jobs, stimulate economic growth, foster innovation, and support workforce development in the United States. Since its first meeting in June 2011,CGI America participants have made more than 100 commitments valued at $11.8 billion. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will improve the lives of three million people, create or fill more than 150,000 jobs, and invest and loan $354 million to small and medium enterprises in the United States. The 2012 CGI America meeting will take place June 7-8 in Chicago. To learn more, visit cgiamerica.org.

About the Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date CGI members have made more than 2,100 commitments, which are already improving the lives of nearly 400 million people in more than 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at $69.2 billion.

CGI's Annual Meeting is held each September in New York City. CGI also convenes CGI America, a meeting focused on collaborative solutions to economic recovery in the United States, and CGI University (CGI U), which brings together undergraduate and graduate students to address pressing challenges in their community or around the world. For more information, visit clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.

SOURCE Clinton Global Initiative Press Office