POSITIVE RSVP http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/schafer.html
The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs will host a Directors' Lunch with Ed Schafer on Wednesday, April 30th in the Belfer Center Library (L369).
Secretary Schafer brings his record as an innovative two-term governor of North Dakota to USDA, along with extensive private sector experience as both an entrepreneur and a business executive. Schafer served as North Dakota's governor from 1992 to 2000 and made diversifying and expanding North Dakota's economy a top priority. He worked to normalize trading relations with China and develop it as an export market for North Dakota farm products. As chair of the Western Governors Association, Schafer led regional efforts to demonstrate how technology could improve the efficiency and lower the cost of delivering government services, such as health benefits and food stamps. Schafer was elected chair of the Republican Governors Association in 2000 and that same year he co-founded and co-chaired the Governors Biotechnology Partnership to increase public understanding and support for the benefits of agricultural biotechnology.
Before entering public life, Schafer was an executive with the Gold Seal Company in Bismarck, a successful marketer of nationally-known consumer products such as "Mr. Bubble" bubble bath, "Glass Wax" glass cleaner and "Snowy Bleach." The company had been founded by his father, Harold Schafer. He also served as a director of the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation that oversees the historic town's operations and became active in leading several other nonprofit and citizens advocacy groups in North Dakota.
Born and raised in Bismarck, North Dakota, Schafer graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1969 with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and earned an MBA from the University of Denver in 1970.
RSVP REQUIRED!
To RSVP, please visit: http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/schafer.html
