Business, Government, and Society Forum

Stanford’s first Business, Government, and Society Forum took place on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Our theme for the day was Responsible Leadership in a Polarized World.

This event brought together leaders from business, nonprofit organizations, government, and academia for constructive dialogue on the issues of the day, including free markets, technology, and sustainability.

View the Recordings

Keynote Speakers

Jerome Powell
Chair, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Wednesday, April 3, 2024
9:10 – 9:55 am

Sundar Pichai
CEO, Google and Alphabet Inc.

Wednesday, April 3, 2024
10:00 – 10:45 am

Poppe
CEO, PG&E Corporation

Wednesday, April 3, 2024
4:15 – 5:00 pm

Additional Sessions, by Invitation Only

AI, Policy, and Business Impact

Susan Athey (Moderator), The Economics of Technology Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Professor of Economics, by courtesy, School of Humanities and Sciences, Founding Director, Golub Capital Social Impact Lab, Stanford University; Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research; President, American Economic Association

Erik Brynjolfsson, Director, Stanford Digital Economy Lab; Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Professor and Senior Fellow, Stanford HAI; Ralph Landau Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Eric Horvitz, Chief Scientific Officer, Microsoft

Mark Papermaster, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Technology and Engineering, AMD

Yakaira Nuñez, Vice President, Research & Insights, Salesforce

Business Sustainability Revolution

William P. Barnett (Moderator), The Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Professor, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability; Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

Gretchen Daily, Director, Center for Conservation Biology; Faculty Director, Natural Capital Project; Bing Professor of Environmental Science, Stanford Department of Biology; Stanford University; Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment

Ivo Stivoric, Vice President, X, the moonshot factory

Clare Westwood, Regional Director, Episcopal Commission for Creation Justice for Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei

Business, Taxation, and Society

Alfred Johnson, Former Deputy Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Treasury; Founder/CEO of Crux

Rebecca Lester (Moderator), Associate Professor of Accounting, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Jué Lin, Former Head of International Tax, Meta

Nick Maduros, Director of the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration

Gary Sprague, Baker & McKenzie partner; Business Representative to the OECD for Taxation of Business Profits

Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, Professor of Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research; José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones SUPERCHARGED Initiative Faculty Fellow for 2023–2024

Democracy and Capitalism

Anat Admati, The George G.C. Parker Professor of Finance and Economics, and Faculty Director of the Corporations and Society Initiative, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Professor of Economics, by courtesy, School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University; Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Patrick Alley, Cofounder and Director, Global Witness

David Leonhardt, Senior Writer, The New York Times

Bethany McLean (Moderator), Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair; Coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room

Energy and Decarbonization

Steve Callander (Moderator), The Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management and Professor of Political Economy, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Professor, by courtesy, of Economics and Political Science, School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University; Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Steven Chu, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Physics of Molecular and Cellular Physiology and of Energy Science and Engineering, Stanford University; Former, U.S. Secretary of Energy

Jim Coulter, Founding Partner, Executive Chair and Director, TPG Inc.

Arun Majumdar, Dean, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability; Jay Precourt Professor, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, of Energy Science & Engineering, of Photon Science, by courtesy, of Materials Science & Engineering, Stanford University; Senior Fellow, by courtesy, Hoover Institution

Maria Pope, President and CEO, Portland General Electric

Innovation Policy

Ann E. Harrison, Dean of the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley

Peter Henry (Moderator), Class of 1984 Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Dean Emeritus of New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business

Sanjay Mehrotra, President and CEO, Micron Technology

Bob Sternfels, Global Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company

Misinformation in the Digital Age

Neil Malhotra (Moderator), The Edith M. Cornell Professor of Political Economy, Graduate School of Business; Professor of Political Science, by courtesy, School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University; Coulter Family Faculty Fellow for 2023–2024

Michael W. McConnell, Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and Director of the Constitutional Law Center, Stanford Law School; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution

Neal Mohan, CEO, YouTube

Talia Stroud, Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Founder and Director, Center for Media Engagement, The University of Texas at Austin

Strategic China Competition

Elizabeth Economy, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution; Former Senior Advisor for China, U.S. Department of Commerce

Allan Gabor, Principal, Goal Advisory and Board Chair, American Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai

Xiangwei Gong, President of Aptar Asia, AptarGroup Inc.

Keith Hennessey (Moderator), Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Former Director, The White House National Economic Council

Matt Turpin, Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution; Senior Advisor, Palantir Technologies; Former Director, U.S. National Security Council for China and Senior Advisor on China to the Secretary of Commerce

Unsustainable: Our Broken Healthcare System

Michele J. Gelfand (Moderator), The John H. Scully Professor in Cross-Cultural Management and Professor of Organizational Behavior, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Professor of Psychology, by courtesy, School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University

Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO, Thrive Global

Lloyd B. Minor, Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean of the School of Medicine, Vice President for Medical Affairs, Stanford University, Professor of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, and Professor of Neurobiology and of Bioengineering, by courtesy, Stanford University

Alice L. Walton, Founder, Alice L. Walton Foundation