New York Public Library

David Offensend is the Chief Operating Officer of The New York Public Library. Prior to joining the Library in 2004, he spent nine years at Evercore Partners Inc., a private equity and investment banking firm he co-founded in 1995. Evercore operates in four lines of business with approximately $1.3 billion of capital under management. Prior to founding Evercore, Mr. Offensend spent five years in the investment organization of Robert M. Bass, the Texas investor. Based in New York, Mr. Offensend was responsible for the leveraged acquisitions portfolio of Acadia Partners, L.P., a $1.8 billion investment partnership. Prior to joining the Bass organization in 1990, he spent thirteen years at Lehman Brothers, where he was responsible for founding and building that firm's merchant banking operations. While there he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the $1.3 billion Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking Partnership. Mr. Offensend received a B.A., magna cum laude, in public and international affairs from Princeton University in 1975 and an M.B.A., with high distinction, from the Harvard Business School in 1977, where he was a Baker Scholar.

Jean Strouse is the author of Morgan, American Financier (1999) and Alice James, A Biography (1980), which won the Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy. Her essays and reviews in have appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Washington Post. She has recently served as President of the Society of American Historians (2001-2002) and as a consultant (oral historian) to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (2000-2002), and she is a Fellow of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

John T. Ma was born into a family with a strong artistic tradition in Wenzhou, China in 1920. His father was a professor of calligraphy and an unclea??a professor of Chinese paintinga??were among a group of leading artists. During the Sino-Japanese War John joined the AVG, nicknamed a??The Flying Tigersa??. He went to the United States in 1947 and received his MA from the University of Wisconsin and MS in Library Service from Columbia University. After a series of positions at Columbia University, Cornell University, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Sinological Institute of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, he became the Chinese Librarian at the New York Public Library. He is currently a Visiting Professor at several universities in China and a Consultant at the New York Public Library. In addition, he is President of the U.S.-China Cultural and Economic Council and Convener of the Working Team of the Books-for-China Project, an organization that donates books and journals to universities in China.

Alberto Vitale was recently the chairman of the supervisory board of Random House, Inc., which oversaw key strategic opportunities and directions for the publisher worldwide. Random House, a division of Bertelsmann AG, is the world's largest English-language general trade book publisher. Previously, Mr. Vitale was chairman and chief executive officer of Random House, Inc. from 1989 to 1998. Born in Italy in 1933 and educated in Europe, he received his doctorate in economics from the University of Turin. He came to the United States in 1957 as a Fulbright Scholar to attend the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1975, Vitale entered the publishing world when he joined Bantam books as vice president of administration. When Bertelsmann acquired Bantam in 1977, Mr. Vitale became executive vice president and chief operating officer, as well as president of Bertelsmann Publishing Group, Inc. In June 1985, he was named CEO of Bantam and by January 1987, he had become president and CEO of the newly formed Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Mr. Vitale joined Random House as chairman, president and CEO in November 1989. He was named chairman of Random House's supervisory board in July 1998 when the company was acquired by Bertelsmann, bringing together Random House and Bantam Doubleday Dell into one company known as Random House, Inc. Mr. Vitale is also a current member of the Board of the Association of American Publishers; co-chairman of the Publishers Committee at the New York Public Library; and a member of the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania Library. In addition to being honored for his work by Brandeis Universiy, the Anti-Defamation League, and the French government, he was the first recipient of the Fulbright Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement. Mr. Vitale is a member of the Century Club, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of New York.

Mr. Kennedy has been our Executive Vice President Human Capital Management since December 2001. From 1999 until 2001, he served as a member of the Executive Office. From 1994 to 1999, he served as head of the Americas Group, in the Investment Banking Division, and, from 1988 to 1994, as head of Corporate Finance. Mr. Kennedy is a life trustee and a former Chairman of the Board of Hamilton College, a Managing Director and Secretary and Treasurer of the Board of the Metropolitan Opera, a trustee of the New York Public Library, a member of the Board of Directors of the Wallace Foundation and an honorary trustee of the Chewonki Foundation.

Executive Vice President Sabrina Kleier Morgenstern graduated with honors from Horace Mann and continued her education at the University of Pennsylvania where she graduated magna cum laude. She is still active at both of her alma maters - at Horace Mann she serves on the Alumnae Council Board, and at Penn she interviews prospective students, and is a Friend of the Kelly Writers House. She was born and raised on the Upper East Side, where she still resides. She is a member of the Central Park Conservancy, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The New York Public Library. She is a dog lover who supports the ASPCA, Bide A Wee, and the Humane Society. She started her career at NBC's Access Hollywood covering celebrity events and created and produced a segment called "Hot Spots" covering what's hot in New York. After much success there she decided to join her family business, Gumley Haft Kleier, as a broker covering all areas of Manhattan. Sabrina feels equally at home uptown and downtown where she has successfully brokered high profile coops and condos. She is a member of REBNY and the broker specialist on 923 Fifth Avenue, 521 Park Avenue, 525 Park Avenue, 524 East 72nd, 116 Central Park South, 181 East 90th, and 205 East 63rd Street.

Stephen A. Schwarzman is Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone and the Chairman of the board of directors of its general partner, Blackstone Group Management L.L.C. He has been involved in all phases of the firm’s development since its founding in 1985. Mr. Schwarzman began his career at Lehman Brothers, where he was elected Managing Director in 1978 at the age of 31. He was engaged principally in the firm’s mergers and acquisitions business from 1977 to 1984, and served as Chairman of the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions Committee in 1983 and 1984. Mr. Schwarzman is Chairman of the Board of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations and The Business Council. He is on the board of The New York Public Library, The New York City Ballet, and The Asia Society. He also serves on The JP Morgan Chase National Advisory Board, The New York City Partnership Board of Directors and The Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing. Mr. Schwarzman is also a Trustee of The Frick Collection in New York City. Mr. Schwarzman holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has served as an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management and on the Harvard Business School Board of Dean’s Advisors.