World Bank President Ajay Banga and the Bahamas’ Prime Minister Philip E. Davis will be there. So too Hollywood stars Jose Andres, Orlando Bloom, and Matt Damon. Those are just some of the people who have put their hands up to attend the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) 2023 next month in New York City.
All the Clinton family will be on hand to personally meet them, too, along with major corporations including Cisco, JetBlue and Pfizer, who will help with charitable funding.
Former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and Clinton Foundation Vice Chair Chelsea Clinton announced Monday the conference this year would seek even more commitments to “address climate change, health care issues, gender-based violence, the war in Ukraine and a host of other issues.”
The call for financial contributions follows a long and controversial tradition with the CGI, an organisation which famously had its genesis on a celebrity-laden private plane flight to Davos in 2015, and its assertions of charitable efforts around the globe.
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“Every day, billions of people around the world, even in the face of the most dire circumstances, make a profound decision to choose hope and keep going,” the former president told the Associated Press in an emailed statement. “At CGI, we’re focusing on how to move forward in the face of daunting challenges—to act now, find new partners, and stick with it to make a positive difference in people’s lives.”
The list of attendees embraces local U.S. politicians as well.
Governors Maura Healey, from Massachusetts, Kathy Hochul, from New York, Wes Moore, from Maryland, and J.B. Pritzker, from Illinois, as well as Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, have all told CGI to expect them to attend.
File/Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton applauds actor Ben Affleck, right, during the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual awards on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013, in New York. Clinton and Joe Biden appeared together during the event. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
File/U.S. President Bill Clinton speaks as Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, listens during the closing session of the Clinton Global Initiative 2015 on September 29, 2015, in New York City. (AP)
AP reports Oscar-winning directors The Daniels, artist Ai Weiwei, supermodel Karlie Kloss, and television host and author Padma Lakshmi will also be on hand, along with David Miliband, CEO of the International Rescue Committee, and Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF.
Monday’s guest list revelation follows an announcement made last week that Bill Clinton’s presidential center is planning a major expansion that will include a new Hillary Rodham Clinton Institute holding personal archives from the former Democratic presidential nominee and first lady.
Hillary Clinton’s papers from her time as first lady are already securely held in the Clinton presidential library’s archives.