Capital Exchange: Growth in the Heartland

Capital Exchange events feature candid conversations about how business and government can better collaborate to create jobs and economic growth. Featuring top lawmakers, CEOs and administration officials, Capital Exchange will focus on the confluence of policy, business and money. Events will cover such topics as Innovation and Regulation; Immigration Policy and the Economy; Finance, Markets and Banking in the Trump Era; The New American Labor Force.

Who should attend: Institutional investors, asset managers, government agency staff, BDMs, policymakers, congressional aides, lobbyists, think-tank leaders

Speakers

Steve Case

Steve Case is one of America’s best-known and most accomplished entrepreneurs, and a pioneer in making the Internet part of everyday life.

For the past 15 years, Steve’s focus has been on starting and scaling Revolution, the Washington DC-based investment firm that now backs entrepreneurs at every stage of their development. Revolution Growth has invested nearly $1 billion in growth-stage companies including Sweetgreen, Tempus, Tala, DraftKings, and Clear. Revolution Ventures has backed more than two dozen venture-stage companies, including Framebridge and PolicyGenius. The Rise of the Rest Seed Fund has invested in more than 200 startups in over 100 U.S. cities, in partnership with many of America’s most successful entrepreneurs and investors.

Steve’s entrepreneurial career began in 1985 when he co-founded America Online (AOL). Under Steve’s leadership, AOL became the world’s largest and most valuable Internet company, helping to drive the worldwide adoption of a medium that has transformed business and society. AOL was the first Internet company to go public, and the best performing stocks of the 1990s, delivering a 11,616% return to shareholders. At its peak, nearly half of Internet users in the United States used AOL. In 2000, Steve negotiated the largest merger in business history, bringing together AOL and Time Warner in a transaction that gave AOL shareholders a majority stake in the combined company. To facilitate the merger, Steve agreed to step down as CEO when the merger closed.
Steve’s passion for helping entrepreneurs remains his driving force. Recently named co-chair of the National Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Council will advise on the development of a National Entrepreneurship Strategy and continue to support policies that will ensure America’s competitiveness globally. He was the founding chair of the Startup America Partnership— an effort launched at the White House in 2011 to accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation. Steve also was a member of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, where he chaired the subcommittee on entrepreneurship.

Steve has been a leading voice in shaping government policy on issues related to entrepreneurship, working across the aisle to advance public policies that expand access to capital and talent. He was instrumental in passing the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act and the Investing in Opportunities Act, and is active in advocating on behalf of immigration reform and legislation that supports and accelerates the emergence of startup ecosystems in rising cities.

Steve also serves as the Chair of the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum and research complex. In this role, Steve leads the Board of Regents’ efforts to increase the Institution’s reach, impact and relevance.

Steve is also Chairman of the Case Foundation, which he established with his wife Jean in 1997. Together the Cases have invested in hundreds of organizations, initiatives and partnerships with a focus on leveraging the Internet and entrepreneurial approaches to strengthen the social sector.

In 2010, Steve and Jean joined The Giving Pledge, and publicly reaffirmed their commitment to give away the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.

Steve is also the author of forthcoming book Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream as well as New York Times bestselling book The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future. In The Third Wave, Case recounted many of the lessons he learned from building businesses, and outlined the growing importance of place, policy and partnerships.

Steve was born and raised in Hawaii and retains active ties to his home state, but has lived in the Washington D.C. area for more than 30 years.

Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr.

Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. is the 12th president of Purdue University and the former governor of Indiana. He was elected Indiana’s 49th governor in 2004 in his first bid for any elected office, and then re-elected in 2008 with more votes than any governor in the state's history. During his tenure, Indiana went from an $800 million deficit to its first AAA credit rating, led the nation in infrastructure building and passed sweeping education and healthcare reforms. After a series of transformations, which included the biggest tax cut in state history, the nation’s most sweeping deregulation of the telecommunications industry and a host of other reforms aimed at strengthening the state’s economy, Indiana was rated a top five state for business climate and number one for state infrastructure and effectiveness of state government as Daniels exited office. Indiana’s business climate is now rated among the nation’s best. At Purdue, Daniels has prioritized student affordability and reinvestment in the university’s strengths. Breaking with a 36-year trend, Purdue has held tuition unchanged from 2012 through at least the 2020-21 academic year. Simultaneously, room rates have remained steady, meal plan rates have fallen about 10%, and student borrowing has dropped 33% while investments in student success and STEM research have undergone unprecedented growth. It is less expensive to attend Purdue today than it was in 2012. In recognition of his leadership as both a governor and a university president, Daniels was named among the Top 50 World Leaders by Fortune Magazine in 2015 and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019. Prior to becoming governor, Daniels served as chief of staff to Senator Richard Lugar, senior advisor to President Ronald Reagan and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush. He also was the CEO of the Hudson Institute, a major contract research organization. During an 11-year career at Eli Lilly and Company, he held a number of top executive posts including president of Eli Lilly’s North American pharmaceutical operations. Daniels earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a law degree from Georgetown. He is the author of three books and a contributing columnist in the Washington Post. He and his wife Cheri have four daughters and six grandchildren.

John Lettieri

John Lettieri is President and CEO of the Economic Innovation Group (EIG).

John's career in public policy has included time in both the public and private sectors working with a diverse set of policymakers, entrepreneurs, investors, and global business leaders.

Prior to EIG, John was the Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs for a leading business association, the Organization for International Investment (OFII), where he led the organization's state and federal policy work on such issues as tax reform, trade, investment promotion, and manufacturing. Before joining OFII, John was Director of Public and Government Affairs for a global aerospace manufacturer. He previously served as a foreign policy aide to former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel, who was then a senior member of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

John's commentary and research have been cited in the AP, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, Daily Beast, Fast Company, Financial Times, Fox News, The Hill, NPR, New York Times, Time, USA Today, Vox, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, San Francisco Chronicle, and others.

John is a graduate of Wake Forest University where he studied political science and global commerce. He serves on the Board of Regents at The Fund for American Studies, the Board of Directors for Lincoln Network, and the Board of Directors for Friends of the National Zoo. He lives with his wife and children in Washington, D.C.

Todd Young

Senator Todd Young represents Hoosiers in the United States Senate. He currently serves on the Senate Committees on Finance; Foreign Relations; Commerce, Science & Transportation; and Small Business and Entrepreneurship. A fifth-generation Hoosier, Todd grew up watching his parents work hard in order to support the family. His first jobs were delivering newspapers, mowing lawns, and providing janitorial services at the family business. Todd is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He graduated with honors in 1995 and accepted a commission in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 2000, Todd was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps as a Captain. While serving in the Marines and working as a business consultant, Todd earned an MBA and his law degree. In 2010, he ran for Congress and served three terms representing Indiana’s 9th District. He was elected to the US Senate in 2016. Todd married his wife Jenny in 2005 and worked together at a small law firm in Paoli, Indiana started by Jenny’s great-grandfather. Today, they reside in Greenwood, Indiana with their four young children: a son, Tucker, and three daughters, Annalise, Abigail and Ava.

AGENDA

7:30AM

REGISTRATION & NETWORKING

8:00AM

ON-STAGE INTERVIEWS BEGIN

Small and medium sized businesses are the engine of the U.S. economy, as well as local economies. As once struggling regional cities experience a renaissance with companies and young workers returning to the urban core, we ask how policy and incumbent businesses can turbocharge this trend.

9:30AM

EVENT CONCLUDES

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