Renaissance Weekend

Renaissance Weekend is an exclusive elite retreat, founded in 1981 by Philip Lader, the former U.S. Ambassador to the UK, and his wife, Linda LeSourd Lader, who is President of the Renaissance Institute. Renaissance Weekends are private, invitation-only retreats for leaders in business and finance, government, the media, religion, medicine, science, technology and the arts.

Conversations are strictly off the record and subject matter ranges widely, tending to focus heavily on policy and business issues.

Background
Renaissance Weekends are "family retreats for innovative leaders now organized by the Renaissance Institute". 

The Renaissance Weekend between December 27, 2004, and January 1, 2005, in Charleston, South Carolina, was billed as attracting 1200 "mover and shakers" including Richard Viguerie and Frank Luntz. "Civility prevails; partisanship is frowned upon, and commercialism is banned. The participants' only common denominators are innovative achievement, a 'renaissance spirit' with broad-ranging intellectual interests, and personal qualities which allow more light than heat," Lader wrote in a media release. 

Notable Participants

 * Stephen Case
 * Wesley Clark
 * Bill Clinton
 * Hillary Rodham Clinton
 * Gerald Ford
 * Richard Karlgaard
 * Joel Klein
 * Andrew Lack
 * Les Moonves
 * Arno Penzias
 * William J. Perry
 * Alan K. Simpson
 * Lawrence Summers
 * Strobe Talbott
 * Richard Thornburgh

Advisory Board

 * William Jefferson Clinton
 * Gerald R. Ford
 * Buzz Aldrin (Astronaut)
 * Adam Aron (Chairman, Vail/Rock Resorts Inc.)
 * Henry Bienen (President, Northwestern University)
 * Veronica Biggins (Sr. Partner, Heidrick & Struggles)
 * Theodore Bikel (Actor)
 * Alan Blinder (Former Vice Chm. Federal Reserve Board)
 * Julia Chang Bloch (President, U.S.-China Education Trust/Former U.S. Ambassador to Nepal)
 * Guy Bluford (Astronaut)
 * Baruch Blumberg (Medicine Nobel Laureate/Former Master, Balliol College, Oxford)
 * Charles F. Bolden (Former Astronaut & Marine Corps General)
 * Richard Bolles (Author, What Color is My Parachute?)
 * Timothy Bottoms (Actor)
 * Rita Braver (TV News Correspondent)
 * Stephen Breyer (Associate Justice of U.S. Supreme Court)
 * Molly Corbett Broad (Former President, University of North Carolina)
 * William Broyles (Editor/Sreenwriter, "Apollo 13")
 * James MacGregor Burns (Pulitzer Prize-winning Historian)
 * Louis Cabot (Former Chm., Cabot Corp. & Brookings Institution)
 * Thomas Campbell (Former U.S. Congressman & Dean, Haas School of Business)
 * Tony Campollo (President, Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education)
 * Jack Canfield (Author, Chicken Soup Series)
 * Mary Chapin Carpenter (Composer/Vocalist)
 * Hodding Carter (President, Knight Foundation/Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State)
 * Steve Case (Former Chm., AOL Time Warner)
 * Joie Chen (TV News Correspondent)
 * Wesley Clark (Former Supreme Allied Commander, NATO)
 * Gordon Conway (President, Rockefeller Foundation)
 * James Cronin (Director, Enrico Fermi Laboratories/Physics Nobel Laureate)
 * Walt Cunningham (Astronaut)
 * Robert Denham (Attorney, Munger, Tolles & Olson/Former Chm., Salomon, Inc.)
 * Rita Dove (Former U.S. Poet Laureate)
 * Esther Dyson (Editor-at-large, CNET/Former Chair, Electronic Frontier Foundation)
 * Richard Elkus (Former Co-Chairman, KLA-Tencor Instruments)
 * Marsha Evans (Former President, American Red Cross/Retired U.S. Navy Admiral)
 * Craig Fields (Former Chm., Defense Science Board & Director, D.A.R.P.A)
 * Howard Fineman (Chief Political Correspondent, Newsweek/TV Commentator)
 * Joel Fleishman (Former President, Atlantic Philanthropies & Chm., Urban Institute)
 * Leighton Ford (Minister)
 * Jerome Freidman (Physics Nobel Laureate)
 * Arthur Frommer (Travel Writer-Editor)
 * Millard Fuller (Founder, Habitat for Humanity)
 * Robert Gallucci (Dean, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service)
 * Howard Gardner (MacArthur Prize-winning Author, Changing Minds)
 * Gordon Gee (President, Vanderbilt University)
 * Phyllis George (Former "Miss America" / TV Host)
 * David Gergen (Former Presidential Advisor/Editor-at-large, U.S. News & World Report)
 * Nathan Glazer (Professor Emeritus of Sociology & Education, Harvard University)
 * Paul Goldberger (Dean, Parsons School of Design)
 * George G. W. Goodman (Financial Author-Broadcaster, "Adam Smith")
 * Bob Graham (U.S. Senator & Florida Governor)
 * Sir Jeremy Greenstock (Former British Ambassador to the United Nations)
 * Amy Gutmann (President, University of Pennsylvania)
 * Paul Haaga (Executive Vice President, Capital Research & Management)
 * Ken Hakuta (Entrepreneur/"Dr. Fad")
 * Michael Hammer (Author, Reengineering the Corporation)
 * Michael Helfer (General Counsel, Citigroup/Former Managing Partner, Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering)
 * Ricki Tigert Helfer (Former Ch., Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)
 * Alexis Herman (Former U.S. Secretary of Labor)
 * Frances Hesselbein (Former Chair, Peter Drucker Foundation & President, Girl Scouts USA)
 * Rush Holt (U.S. Congressman)
 * Arianna Huffington (Political Commentator)
 * John Jakes (Author, North & South)
 * Myron Kandel (Former Financial Editor, CNN)
 * Rosabeth Moss Kanter (Professor, Harvard Business School/Author, World Class)
 * Rich Karlgaard (Publisher, Forbes)
 * David A. Keene (Chairman, The American Conservative Union)
 * William Kennard (Partner, Carlyle Group/Former Chm., Federal Communications Commission)
 * Wolfgang Ketterle (Physics Nobel Laureate)
 * Jim Kolbe (U.S. Congressman)
 * Harold Kushner (Author, When Bad Things Happen to Good People)
 * Jacqueline Leo (Editor-in-Chief, Reader's Digest)
 * John Leo (Contributing Editor, US News)
 * Leon Lederman (Physics Nobel Laureate)
 * Marty Liquori (Olympian/Sports Commentator)
 * Jim Lovell (Apollo 13 Astronaut)
 * Li Lu (Human Rights Activist/Author, Moving the Mountain)
 * Frank Luntz (Political Consultant)
 * Fred Malek (Chm., Thayer Capital)
 * Doug Marlette (Pulitzer Prize-winning Editorial Cartoonist)
 * Martin Marty (Professor Emeritus of Religion, University of Chicago)
 * Walter Massey (President, Morehouse College)
 * Boyd Matson (TV Host)
 * Mickey Maudlin (Former Executive Editor, Christianity Today)
 * Sir Deryck Maughan (Chm., Citigroup International)
 * Newton Minow (Former Chm., F.C.C. & RAND Corp.)
 * Leslie Moonves (Chm., CBS)
 * Edwin Moses (Olympic Gold Medalist)
 * Joseph Murray (Medicine Nobel Laureate)
 * Bill Nelson (U.S. Senator)
 * Jay Nordlinger (Managing Editor, National Review)
 * Peter Norton (Creator, Norton Utilities)
 * Joseph Nye (Frmr. Dean, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University)
 * Dean Ornish (President, Preventative Medicine Research Institute)
 * Norman Ornstein (Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute)
 * Elaine Pagels (Professor of Religion, Princeton University)
 * Richard North Patterson (Author, Degree of Guilt)
 * Deval Patrick (Frmr. U.S. Asst. Atty.-General, & Gen. Counsel, Texaco and Coca-Cola Companies)
 * Martin Perl (Physics Nobel Laureate)
 * William Perry (Former U.S. Secretary of Defense)
 * William Phillips (Physics Nobel Laureate)
 * Michael Porter (Author, The Competitive Advantage of Nations)
 * David Pottruck (Former Chief Executive Officer, Charles Schwab Corp./Co-Author, Clicks & Mortar)
 * Clyde Prestowitz (Chm., Economics Strategy Institute)
 * Mary Lou Quinlan (CEO, Just Ask A Woman/Former Cheif Exec., N.W. Ayer & Partners Advertising)
 * Richard Riley (Former U.S. Secretary of Education & South Carolina Governor)
 * Charles Robb (Former U.S. Senator & Virginia Governor)
 * Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Former N.A.T.O. Secretary-General)
 * Judith Rodin (Frmr. President, University of Pennsylvania)
 * Paul Russo (Former Sp. Asst. to President Reagan)
 * David Salzman (Film Producer)
 * Lamin Sanneh (Professor of World Religions, Yale University)
 * Diane Sawyer (TV News Host)
 * Robert Schuller II (Minister)
 * William Sharpe (Economics Nobel Laureate)
 * Christopher Shays (U.S. Congressman)
 * Gail Sheehy (Author, Passages)
 * Ruth Simmons (President, Brown University)
 * Dean Smith (Former Head Basketball Coach, University of North Carolina)
 * Stan Smith (Former Wimbledon & U.S. Open Tennis Champion)
 * Paula Stern (Former Ch., International Trade Commission)
 * Amy Tan (Author, The Joy Luck Club)
 * Deborah Tannen (Linguistics Professor, Georgetown University/Author, You Just Don't Understand)
 * John Templeton, Jr. (President, Templeton Foundation)
 * Shashi Tharoor (Novelist/Under Secretary-General of the United Nations)
 * Richard Thornburgh (Former U.S. Attorney-General & Pennsylvania Governor)
 * Tyler Tingley (Principal, Philips Exeter Academy)
 * Andrew Tobias (Financial Writer)
 * David Trimble (Nobel Peace Prizewinner & Former First Minister, Northern Ireland)
 * Mark Udall (U.S. Congressman)
 * Tom Udall (U.S. Congressman)
 * Art Ulene (Physician/TV Commentator)
 * Craig Venter (President, Center for the Advancement of Genomics)
 * Richard Viguerie (Former Publisher, Conservative Digest)
 * Joseph Wapner (Former Judge/TV Personality)
 * Murray Weidenbaum (Former Chm., Pres. Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers)
 * Ruth Westheimer (Therapist)
 * Josh Weston (Former Chm., ADP Inc.)
 * Ann Wexler (Founder, Wexler Public Policy)
 * Marina von Neumann Whitman (Frmr. Member, President Nixon's Council of Economic Advisers)
 * William Winter (Former Mississippi Governor)
 * Tim Wirth (President, United Nations Foundation/Former U.S. Senator)
 * Philip Yancey (Former Editor-at-large, Christianity Today/Author)
 * Ben Zander (Conductor, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra)

Contact Details
Fax: (843) 577-2250 Email: register AT renwkd.org Web: http://www.renaissanceweekend.org/

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Bilderberg Group
 * Bohemian Grove