Published on March 6, 2012 by Mary Wimberley  

Former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman will speak at Samford University Wednesday, March 28, at 5:30 p.m. on the topic “Politics in an Age of Partisanship: A Prescription for Change.” The lecture in Brock Recital Hall is free and open to the public.

Whitman and her husband, international businessman and consultant John Whitman, will be at Samford March 27-30 as Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows. During their stay, they will meet and dialogue with various groups of Samford students, faculty, alumni and community friends.

Christine Todd Whitman is president of The Whitman Strategy Group (WSG), a consulting firm that specializes in energy and environmental issues, and is co-chair of the Republican Leadership Council. New Jersey’s first woman governor from 1994 until 2001, she was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the cabinet of President George W. Bush from 2001 until 2003.

She serves on boards of directors of several national corporations and co-chairs Clean and Safe Energy, a coalition that supports nuclear energy. She is the author of a 2005 New York Times best seller, It’s My Party Too.

John Whitman is co-founder and president of Sycamore Management Corporation, which since its founding in 1995 has raised and managed more than $600 million in eight venture and private equity funds. The firm has investment operations in the U.S., China and India. A former chairman and chief executive officer of Prudential-Bache Interfunding Inc., he has been an advisor to major corporations such as Ford Motor Company and Prudential Securities Inc. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.

While at Samford, he will share his expertise in investments and international business and finance with Brock School of Business students, including student managers of the Bulldog Investment Fund.

The Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows program sponsors prominent artists, diplomats, journalists, business leaders and other professionals to campuses across the U.S. for dialogue with students and faculty members. Through classes, seminars, lectures and informal discussions, Fellows can create better understanding and new connections between the academic and nonacademic worlds.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.