Former chief of staff Podesta to speak

Former chief of staff Podesta to speak

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News staff

Former President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, John Podesta, will discuss U.S. technology policy and the challenge of striking a balance between knowledge and security when he visits the Rice campus April 18.

Invited by the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and the Baker Institute Student Forum, Podesta is considered one of Washington’s leading experts in technology policy.

Now president and chief executive officer of the Center for American Progress, Podesta is also a visiting professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center, his alma mater.

He served as Clinton’s chief of staff from October 1998 until January 2001, with responsibility for directing, managing and overseeing all policy development, daily operations, congressional relations and staff activities of the White House. He also served as a principal on the National Security Council. Earlier in the Clinton administration, Podesta was a senior policy adviser on government information, privacy, telecommunications security and regulatory policy.

Podesta’s lecture will begin at 6 p.m. in James A. Baker III Hall.

Rice faculty and staff who want to attend should R.S.V.P. by e-mail to <BIPPRSVP@rice.edu> or fax (713-348-5993). Rice students should R.S.V.P. to <BISF@rice.edu>. The R.S.V.P. deadline is April 15.