NACDS today announced the Business Program speakers for the 2024 NACDS Annual Meeting, which will be hosted April 27-30 in Palm Beach, FL. Author, journalist and professor Walter Isaacson will speak during the Sunday Business Program on April 28. Author and social scientist Arthur C. Brooks is set to speak at the Tuesday Business Program on April 30.
Walter Isaacson
Walter Isaacson is a professor of history at Tulane University and an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg, a financial services firm based in New York City. He has been the CEO of the Aspen Institute, the CEO of CNN and the editor of TIME Magazine.
Isaacson’s most recent biography, Elon Musk (2023), is an intimate chronicle based on spending two years by Musk’s side. He is also the author of The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race (2021); Leonardo da Vinci (2017), The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014); Steve Jobs (2011); Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007); Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003); and Kissinger: A Biography (1992); and coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986).
He is a host of the show “Amanpour and Company” on PBS and CNN, a contributor to CNBC and host of the podcast “Trailblazers, from Dell Technologies.”
Isaacson is a graduate of Harvard College and of Pembroke College of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. In 2023, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Joe Biden. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of the Arts and the American Philosophical Society. Isaacson serves on the board of United Airlines and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Arthur C. Brooks
Arthur C. Brooks is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Public and Nonprofit Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses on leadership, happiness and social entrepreneurship. He is also a columnist at The Atlantic, where he writes the popular “How to Build a Life” column.
Brooks is the author of 13 books, including the 2022 #1 New York Times bestseller From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life and the recently released Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier with co-author Oprah Winfrey. He speaks to audiences around the world about human happiness and works to raise well-being within private companies, universities, public agencies and community organizations.
Brooks began his career as a classical French hornist, leaving college at 19, touring and recording in the US and Spain. In his late twenties, while still performing, he returned to school, earning a Bachelor of Arts through distance learning. At 31, he left music and earned a Master of Philosophy and a Ph.D. in public policy analysis from Pardee RAND Graduate School.
In 2009, Brooks became the president of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. Over the following decade, he was selected as one of Fortune Magazine’s “50 World’s Greatest Leaders” and was awarded seven honorary doctorates.
“NACDS looks forward to welcoming Walter Isaacson and Arthur Brooks to the NACDS Annual Meeting,” said NACDS President and CEO Steven C. Anderson. “Renowned authors and thought leaders, Isaacson and Brooks are sure to bring their expert insights — and unique perspectives — on the social and political issues facing the nation today.”
NACDS invites all chain and associate members to register and attend the 2024 NACDS Annual Meeting, to be held April 27-30.
