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Stephen A. Ogden Jr. ’60 Memorial Lecture
Paul Volcker To Deliver Ogden Lecture: “Is the U.N. Up to Its Job?”
Economist and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, will deliver a Stephen A. Ogden Jr. ’60 Memorial Lecture on International Relations on Saturday, May 27, 2006, in the Salomon Center for Teaching. His address titled “Is the U.N. Up to Its Job?” is part of the annual Commencement Forums, offered during Brown University’s Commencement Weekend. The public is welcome. PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Economist Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, will deliver a lecture titled “Is the U.N. Up to Its Job?” on Saturday, May 27, 2006, at 1 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, Room 101. His address, a Stephen A. Ogden Jr. ’60 Memorial Lecture on International Relations, is one of 15 Commencement Forums offered during Brown’s Commencement Weekend. The lecture is free and open to the public. 
Volcker is one of the University’s eight distinguished honorary degree recipients. He will be awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D) during the University’s 238th Commencement Ceremony on Sunday, May 29, 2006. Perhaps best known as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, Volcker is widely credited with instituting policy changes that helped lower the U.S. inflation rate from a high of 13.5 percent in 1981 to 3.2 percent by 1983. He has spent more than three decades in international banking in both the private and public sectors before becoming Fed chairman and since leaving the post. He also pursues interests in public policy. In 2000, he became chairman of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation and, in the wake of the Enron bankruptcy, headed an independent oversight board at Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm that was responsible for auditing Enron. He also led an international committee established to investigate the Swiss bank accounts of victims of the Nazi holocaust. In April 2004, Volcker was asked by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to chair the Independent Inquiry Committee investigating allegations of corruption in the U.N. Oil-for-Food Program. The committee concluded that the program was riddled with fraud. The committee’s work is ongoing. Volcker is currently chairman of the board of the Group of Thirty, a private, nonprofit, international body composed of very senior representatives of the private and public sectors and academia that aims to deepen understanding of international economic and financial issues. Stephen A. Ogden Jr. ’60 Memorial Lecture Since 1965, the Ogden Lectureship has presented the University and its neighboring communities with authoritative and timely addresses about international affairs. The lectureship was established in memory of Stephen A. Ogden Jr., a member of the Brown Class of 1960, who died in 1963 from injuries he suffered in a car accident during his junior year. His family created the series as a tribute to Ogden’s interest in the advancement of international peace and understanding. Dozens of heads of state, diplomats, and observers of the international scene have participated in the series, including Queen Noor of Jordan, former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, President of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, media mogul Ted Turner, and astronaut Sen. John Glenn. For more information on this event, call the Office of University Events at (401) 863-2474. ###### Media Relations Home | Top of File | e-Subscribe | Brown Home Page | ||||