Rotary Club of Milwaukee Tuesday Speaker Series

James Hedrick, Co-Founder and CEO of Azul 3d, was recently named to the 2020 Forbes 30 under 30 in the Manufacturing and Industry category. He talked about the surge of developments in 3D printing and what it means—tailored for a lay audience.  This was a joint program with the Kellogg and Harvard Business School alums.

From "Procrastinate and Flourish" to "We're in a Good Place"

Procrastinate and Flourish!  This was a favorite saying of former Federal Reserve Chairman, Paul Volcker.  Using his career as a reference point, Sara discussed the changing role of global Central Banks and the expectations and limitations they face.  This backdrop created the foundation for an economic and capital markets review and outlook.  Consumer activity was under the magnifying glass in an effort to separate noise from outcomes as we begin 2020.   All of this was designed to help inform business decisions and personal investment decisions as well as answer any questions audience members had.

A Non-Partisan Guide to Impeachment

Is it possible to have a non-partisan discussion about impeachment?   Former Circuit Judge John Franke believes the answer is “yes,” and will ring in the New Year with a cheerful look at the ultimate check and balance given to us by our Constitution.  The President cannot fire Congress; why is it that Congress has the power to send the President packing?  In what ways is an impeachment quite different than a criminal proceeding?  What should we expect of our elected representatives in what has been a highly partisan process?  We will have a highly non-partisan discussion about the history and development of our impeachment procedures and consider why an impeachment need not so divide us.

RCM recognized our new Paul Harris Fellows, heard updates about Light the Hoan and the MKE Urban Stables.

The Reveling Rotarians RCM choir had their second holiday performance singing a variety of holiday songs.

The Case for a New Deal 3.0

Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal (1933-1938) created four clusters of federal policy: (1) broad-based economic security programs; (2) means-tested welfare programs; (3) market regulation; and (4) market manipulation.

Within this structure, policymakers added programs for 80 years. But since the 1970s, the New Deal model has sputtered in the face of international competition and disruptive technology.

We urgently need another fundamental reform. “Putting Government in Its Place: The Case for a New Deal 3.0” makes the case for strengthening broad-based economic security programs and bolstering market regulation.  But means-tested welfare programs and market-manipulating subsidies would end. The result: America’s next birth of freedom.

We joined CARW and GMAR for this unique program. Steve Glickman is the Co-Founder and former CEO of the Economic Innovation Group (EIG), a bipartisan research and policy organization in Washington, D.C. focused on addressing economic inequality through the creation of a new marketplace for private equity investments in distressed communities. In a presentation and conversation with Mark Kass, Editor-in-Chief of the Milwaukee Business Journal, Steve discussed the status of the Opportunity Zone program in the US including successes and challenges in the first two years of the program – as well as best practices for investing in a fund. Under Steve’s leadership, EIG was the architect of the $6 trillion Qualified Opportunity Zones program, the largest community investment incentive in U.S. history. EIG conceptualized the program and drafted the underlying legislation — the “Investing in Opportunity Act” — championed by Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), which received nearly 100 bipartisan congressional cosponsors before being passed into law in 2017.

Click here to view Steve's PowerPoint presentation.

Darcy Winslow spent 21 years working at Nike, holding several executive positions, and most notably leading four complex systemic change initiatives within and extending well beyond Nike. She is a prominent leader in sustainability and has worked in all sectors of society, assisting organizations to deeply integrate these principles.

Darcy co-founded the Academy for Systems Change in 2010 and has had the honor of leading this organization since 2011. The heart of the Academy’s work is to contribute to and grow the emerging field of Awareness Based Systems Change, working with committed leaders around the world, and most recently with a heightened focus on climate change.

Motoring Stupidity on a Global Scale

Rotarian Richie Burke interviewed three Shorewood guys, Charlie Hawks, Henry Sanders, and Ben Selig, for the GoGedders Podcast. They just completed the grueling Mongol Rally and drove nearly 14,000 miles in a 2002 Suzuki.

Milwaukee’s War Memorial and Art Museum:  A History

In the last century Milwaukee’s Downtown Lakefront has changed drastically from a railyard which cut the City off from the waterfront, to the gleaming collection of civic buildings and spaces we enjoy today.   Architect Jim Shields, FAIA traced the history of this dramatic transformation in a talk illustrated with historic drawings and photographs of Juneau Park, the Lincoln Memorial, the Saarinen War Memorial, the Kahler Wing expansion, the Calatrava Addition, Discovery World, and the most recent expansion to the Milwaukee Art Museum completed in 2015.

The Rotary Office has a copy of Jim's presentation, if you would like to view the photographs.

The U.N. and the Realities of Interdependence

Dr. Payam Akhavan joins us for our 15th annual U.N. Day Program. He teaches and researches on public international law, international dispute settlement, international criminal law, human rights and cultural pluralism at McGill University.   In 2017, he delivered the CBC Massey Lectures, In Search of a Better World. A Human Rights Odyssey, in five different Canadian cities. He was the first Legal Advisor to the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda at The Hague (1994-2000) and made significant contributions to its foundational jurisprudence. He has also served in the field with the UN in Bosnia, Croatia, Cambodia, Guatemala, Timor Leste, and Rwanda. He is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and the New York State bar and has appeared as counsel and advocate in leading cases before the various international courts and the Supreme Courts of Canada and the United States.