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Chapter 1. Members of the Forum
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members of the forum • 15 chapter 1 Members of the Forum The Forum represented the largest gathering of former White House chiefs of staV since the inception of the oYce in the post–World War II era. They came together for one extraordinary day to accomplish two goals: First, they wanted to publicly share their thoughts on governing from the White House and to demonstrate that regardless of partisan diVerences, the experience presented a number of lessons common to them all. “Some of us tried to run others of us out of oYce,” said former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, “but we all have similar lessons to convey and we all cherish this oYce for its importance to the presidency.” Second, the former chiefs of staV wanted to lend their personal support to the notion that major presidential candidates needed to plan early for the presidential transition and that the public should see this planning as responsible. The Forum consisted of four discussions, each including some subset of former chiefs of staV and each coordinated by a convener. The latter included a former member of Congress, two journalists, and a respected presidential scholar. BIOGRAPHIES OF PARTICIPANTS Howard H. Baker, Jr., served President Ronald W. Reagan as White House chief of staV from February, 1987, until July, 1988. He is a native of Tennessee. Currently, Senator Baker is U.S. ambassador to Japan. He is also a partner in the Washington law Wrm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman and Caldwell. In 1966, Senator Baker became the Wrst Republican ever popularly elected to the U.S. Senate from Tennessee, and he won reelection by wide margins in 1972 and Untitled-5 6/17/04, 12:01 PM 15 16 • chapter 1 1978. He concluded his Senate career by serving two terms as Minority Leader (1977–81) and two terms as Majority Leader (1981–85), which Senator Baker called the “best job in Washington.” Senator Baker serves on the Board of Directors of Pennzoil–Quaker State Company. He serves as a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents, and he is the chairman of Cherokee Aviation. James A. Baker, III, served longer and more presidents as the White House chief of staV than any other living individual. He served President Ronald W. Reagan as chief of staV from 1981 to 1985 and President George H. W. Bush in 1992. He is a native Texan. Long active in American presidential politics, Mr. Baker led presidential campaigns for Presidents Ford, Reagan, and Bush over the course of Wve consecutive presidential elections from 1976 to 1992. After leaving the White House, Mr. Baker served as the sixty-seventh secretary of the treasury from 1985 to 1988 under President Reagan. Mr. Baker also served as the nation’s sixty-Wrst secretary of state from January, 1989, through August, 1992, under President Bush. During his tenure at the State Department, Mr. Baker traveled to ninety foreign countries as the United States confronted the unprecedented challenges and opportunities of the post–Cold War era, including the Desert Storm conXict. Mr. Baker is presently a senior partner in the law Wrm of Baker Botts and senior counselor to the Carlyle Group, a merchant banking Wrm in Washington, D.C. Mr. Baker is honorary chairman of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University. He also serves on the boards of Rice University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Erskine Bowles served President William J. Clinton as White House chief of staV from November, 1996, until November, 1998. Mr. Bowles was assistant to the president and deputy chief of staV from October, 1994, through December , 1995. He is a native of North Carolina. Currently, Mr. Bowles is a general partner with both Forstmann Little, a major New York private equity Wrm, and Carousel Capital, the Charlotte-based merchant bank that he cofounded in 1996. Mr. Bowles also serves as chairman of Intelisys Electronic Commerce, a business-to-business e-commerce company. Mr. Bowles now serves as vice chairman of Carolinas HealthCare Authority. He also previously served as president of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. Before serving in the White House, Mr. Bowles was administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration from May, 1993, through September, 1994. Richard Cheney served President Gerald R. Ford as White House chief of staV from November, 1975, through January, 1977. Mr. Cheney is a native of Wyoming . He has served Wve terms as a member of the U.S. House of...