James E. Smith Midwest Conference on World Affairs coordinator, 308.865.8944
America’s Long Term Challenges: How the Tri-Deficits Can Affect America’s Future and Role in the World is the subject of the University of Nebraska at Kearney 2006 World Affairs Conference keynote address next week on the campus.
Peter G. Peterson, a Kearney native who held a cabinet post during the Nixon administration, cofounded a major investment firm and has authored a number of books on the economy, will speak at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 12, in the Nebraskan Student Union Ponderosa Room. After his presentation, Peterson will be awarded an honorary doctorate from UNK.
A Kearney native, Peterson is a senior chairman and cofounder of The Blackstone Group, a New York-based investment and advisory firm. Peterson teamed up with Stephen A. Schwarzman to open the firm in 1985 with a small office, a $400,000 balance sheet and a staff of four, including the cofounders. Today the Blackstone Group is one of the most active and successful investors in the global real estate market.
According to the organization’s Web site, the group “seeks real estate investments with a minimum of $20 million in equity capital.”
Peterson has written several books on economics in America. His most recent book, Running on Empty: How The Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It, discusses the consequences of the current course of action in the American government.
Peterson began his government service as an assistant to President Nixon for International Economic Affairs. In 1972, President Nixon appointed
Peterson secretary of commerce. Peterson has also served as the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York and as the chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations.
In addition, he has served as a member of the board for 3M, Black and Decker, General Foods and other nationally recognized companies.
A 1942 Kearney High School graduate, Peterson graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern University in 1947 and earned his MBA from the University of Chicago. He is the recipient of several honorary PhD. degrees
from major universities.
