Keynote Speakers
Gene Sperling
Former National Economic Adviser and Director of the National Economic Council
As director of the NEC, Mr. Sperling coordinated the administration's economic policy and played a key role in the 1993 and 1997 Deficit Reduction Acts, and the policy of saving the surplus for Social Security and debt reduction.
Mr. Sperling helped design and pass several of President Clinton's early initiatives, including: the increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit; the Direct Student Loan Program; Empowerment Zones and the Community Development Financial Institutions program; and the Technology Literacy Initiative.
Mr. Sperling was a principal negotiator for the 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement, a principal negotiator with Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers in finalizing the Financial Modernization Bill, and together with U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, successfully concluded the historic China-WTO agreement in Beijing.
In January 2001, Mr. Sperling joined the Brookings Institution as a guest scholar in the economic, foreign policy, and governmental studies programs.
At Brookings, in addition to overall economic and fiscal issues, Mr. Sperling focuses on universal education in the world's poorest countries, especially Africa. In April 2000, Sperling led a U.S. delegation to a conference in Dakar, Senegal, where a new international goal of universal education by 2015 was established.
Mr. Sperling graduated from the University of Minnesota and Yale Law School, and attended The Wharton School.
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