Community Calendar

Lecture: Hon. Barbara Hackman Franklin
July 23, 2009

LECTURE — The Hon. Barbara Hackman Franklin, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Barbara Hackman Franklin is president and Chief Executive Officer of Barbara Franklin Enterprises, a private investment and consulting firm headquartered in Washington, DC. She is a respected advocate for and adviser to American companies doing business in international markets, notably China, and considered an expert on corporate governance, auditing and financial reporting practices. As the 29th U.S. Secretary of Commerce in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, she achieved a major goal — increasing American exports — with emphasis on market-opening initiatives in China, Russia, Japan and Mexico. Her historic mission to China in 1992 normalized commercial relations with that country and removed one of the sanctions — the ban on ministerial contact — that the U.S. had imposed following the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Franklin is chair of the National Association of Corporate Directors, chair emerita of the Economic Club of New York and a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) Advisory Council. She has been a director of 14 public companies and is currently a director of two — Aetna Inc. and The Dow Chemical Company. She is also a director or trustee of three funds in the American Funds family of mutual funds, a director of J.P. Morgan Value Opportunities Fund, and a member of the International Advisory Board of LaFarge, Paris, France. Franklin graduated with distinction from the Pennsylvania State University and was one of the first women graduates of the Harvard Business School from which she has received an Alumni Achievement Award. Chautauqua Institutition. For more info 716-357-6200.