RALPH W. BABB, Jr.
Chairman and CEO
Comerica

Friday, August 27, 2010
Rosewood Crescent Court

Ralph W. Babb Jr. is chairman and chief executive officer of Comerica Incorporated and Comerica Bank.  He also serves as a director of both organizations. 

Mr. Babb joined Comerica in 1995 as executive vice president and chief financial officer. He was named a vice chairman in 1999, responsible for a number of business units.  He was named president and chief executive officer in January 2002, completed his service as chief financial officer in April of that year and added the title of chairman in October 2002. 

Before joining Comerica, Mr. Babb served as vice chairman for Mercantile Bancorporation Inc. He joined Mercantile in 1978 as controller after seven years of service with Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co., where his last position was audit manager. He was named treasurer of Mercantile in 1979, chief financial officer in 1983 and vice chairman in 1987. 

Mr. Babb holds a B.S. degree in business administration from the University of Missouri. 

Among his professional and community affiliations, Mr. Babb serves as a member of the Texas Instruments (TI) Board of Directors.  He also serves as a board member of The Clearing House, the Dallas Citizens Council and the Dallas Regional Chamber.

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HARVEY KRONBERG
Noon, Friday, October 1, Fairmont Hotel

Editor, Quorum Report, the Newsletter of Political Texas since 1989.  Quorum Report is a non-partisan online publication covering state politics and government from an insider's perspective. The site can be found at www.quorumreport.com. 

Initiated the web site which is half free/half password protected – over 2,000,000 hits a month.  More than 5 million hits during May, 2007 when the House tried to remove Speaker Tom Craddick. Political analyst for News8 Austin -- 24 hour news channel.  Former contributing columnist to the Austin American Statesman. 

Quoted in publications as diverse as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Congressional Quarterly, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle,  Christian Science Monitor, etc. Has received no prestigious awards cuz he is just too much of a pain in the ass.   

However the February 2005 Texas Monthly declared him one of the 25 most powerful individuals in Texas politics. 

What Others Have to Say: 

Texas Monthly:  "Who reads Harvey Kronberg's dispatches from the State Legislature?  Everyone.  The nexus of political gossip right now isn't the Cloak Room, the Austin Club or any of the dark-whisky soaked haunts where politicos while away their evenings.  It is the precise location at any given time, of Harvey Kronberg. 
Campaigns  & Elections Magazine: #1 Online Political Newsletter in the country
Houston Press awarded Quorum Report "Best Source for Texas Political Info".

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JOHN C. LEICHLITER
Chairman, President and CEO
Eli Lilly & Co.

Noon, October 29, 2010, Fairmont Hotel

John C. Lechleiter, Ph.D, is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company.  Lechleiter chairs the company’s operations committee, as well as its executive committee.  Lechleiter served previously as president and chief operating officer of Lilly, beginning in 2005, when he also joined the board. In 2004, he became Lilly’s executive vice president, pharmaceutical operations.  Prior to that, he had served as executive vice president for pharmaceutical products and corporate development since 2001.

Lechleiter received a bachelor of science degree summa cum laude in chemistry from Xavier University (Cincinnati, Ohio) in 1975. He studied organic chemistry as a National Science Foundation Fellow at Harvard University, where he received his master’s and doctorate degrees. In 2006, Lechleiter received an honorary doctorate of business administration from Marian College of Indianapolis.

Lechleiter is a member of the American Chemical Society.  He serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and as a member of the Business Roundtable and the Business Council.  In 2004, he was appointed to the Visiting Committee of Harvard Business School and to the Health Policy and Management Executive Council of the Harvard School of Public Health. He also serves as a member of the board of trustees of Xavier University (Cincinnati, Ohio). In addition, he is a distinguished advisor of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, a member of the board of directors and executive committee of Fairbanks Institute, and a member of the United Way of Central Indiana board of directors. He also serves on the board of Indianapolis Downtown, Inc.

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PAULA A. KERGER
President and CEO
Public Broadcasting System
Fairmont Hotel 

 

Paula A. Kerger is president and chief executive officer of PBS, the nation’s largest non-commercial media organization with more than 350 member stations throughout the country.

 

Ms. Kerger joined PBS as its sixth president and chief executive in March 2006. Since her arrival, Ms. Kerger has made particularly strong commitments to the arts, news and public affairs, high-quality content for education, diversity, and the use of new technology to bring public media into the lives of all Americans. Among her accomplishments are Ken Burns’ and Dayton Duncan’s  fall 2009 12-hour documentary, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea”; the debut of such acclaimed children’s programs as “Dinosaur Train,” “Curious George” (the number one show for children ages 2-5 since 2006), “Word World,” “Super Why!,” “Martha Speaks,” and “Sid the Science Kid”; new primetime science and arts series; and comprehensive online sites for parents and caregivers -- PBS Parents -- and for educators -- PBS Teachers. In 2009, PBS programs were honored with 30 Emmys, including 13 Daytime Emmys, nine Primetime Emmys, six News and Documentary Emmys and two Emmys for Business and Financial Reporting; six George Foster Peabody awards; three IDA Documentary awards; three Writers Guild of America awards; one Academy Award nomination (for documentary feature); 15 Parents’ Choice awards for television; and five Parents’ Choice awards for websites. PBS’s critically praised online video portal and innovative digital partnerships with such companies as iTunes, YouTube, Microsoft’s Xbox, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and Comcast’s On Demand service ensure that PBS programming is accessible across multiple platforms and, increasingly, to a global audience.

 

In addition to leading PBS, Ms. Kerger is president of the PBS Foundation, an independent organization that raises private sector funding for PBS, and a director of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. For the past four years, the Hollywood Reporter has included Ms. Kerger in the “Women in Entertainment Power 100,” an annual survey of the nation’s top women executives in media. In 2005, she was named to the Women’s Forum, an organization of 300 leading women in New York’s arts and business scenes. In 2008, Ms. Kerger received the Woman of Achievement Award from Women in Development, New York.

 

Prior to joining PBS, Ms. Kerger served for more than a decade at Educational Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), the parent company of Thirteen/WNET and WLIW21 New York, where her ultimate position was executive vice president and COO. Her tenure boasts many achievements, including WNET’s completion in 1997 of the largest successful endowment campaign ever undertaken by a public television station.

 

Ms. Kerger received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Baltimore, where she serves on the Merrick School of Business Dean’s Advisory Council. In addition, she is a member of the board of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. Ms. Kerger and her husband, Joseph Kerger, live in Washington, D.C.