The Aspen Institute

Presented as part of the McCloskey Speaker Series.
Featuring Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, and New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu in conversation with Elliot Gerson, executive vice president of Policy Programs and International Partners at the Aspen Institute. The governors will share how they are leading and making progress in their respective states.
Paepcke Auditorium, doors at 4:00 pm

While attendance at the events is free and open to everyone, registration is required, and capacity is established on a first-come, first-served basis. Register here.

As a 501(c)(3), the Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. To the extent elected officials are present today, they are attending solely in their official capacity and not as political candidate(s). Further, the views of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of the Aspen Institute.

Parking
Parking is very limited. Please carpool, walk, bike, or ride RFTA. 

As the 65th Governor of Mississippi, Tate Reeves continues to build on his strong record as a conservative leader who fights to guard taxpayers’ dollars, improve educational opportunity, and grow new careers so that our state’s best and brightest can raise their families and thrive here at home.

Governor Reeves has continued to make history throughout his public service career. When elected in 2003 for his first public office, Governor Reeves became the youngest state treasurer in our country and the first Republican to hold the office in Mississippi. His business training in the banking sector made him our state’s foremost advocate for balancing the state budget while minimizing state debt.

He was elected in 2011 and re-elected four years later as the 32nd Lieutenant Governor, leading the Mississippi Senate. His conservative management helped fill our state’s Rainy Day Fund to over $550 million—the most in state history—and reduce the overall debt burden. He fought for transparency in how agencies spend tax dollars and stronger reporting requirements on taxpayer-funded incentive programs.

A Rankin County native, Governor Reeves is a graduate of Florence High School and an honors graduate of Millsaps College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. Governor Reeves and his wife, Elee, are the proud parents of three daughters, Tyler, Emma, and Maddie.

Governor Kevin Stitt is leading Oklahoma with a vision to become Top Ten in job growth, infrastructure, education and more. He is an entrepreneur who founded Gateway in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2000. Starting with only $1,000 and a computer, he grew Gateway into a nationwide mortgage company operating in 42 states and servicing more than $20 billion in residential mortgages. In 2018, he led Gateway through a merger and established Gateway First Bank, which today is one of Oklahoma’s 10 largest banks by assets with over $2 billion in assets, 166 mortgage centers across the U.S., and more than 1,600 employees.

Governor Stitt has taken a groundbreaking approach to his administration by appointing the most female cabinet secretaries in state history and tapping expert advisors from the private sector, including the first chief operating officer in state history.

He is committed to delivering taxpayers more for their money, and his fiscally conservative leadership helped the state build its largest savings account in history, which proved to be prophetic in the face of an oil and gas downturn. Stitt is a fourth-generation Oklahoman and a graduate of Oklahoma State University. He and his wife, Sarah, have been married for 25 years and they have six children.

Christopher T. Sununu is the 82nd Governor of the State of New Hampshire and is currently serving his fourth term, receiving in 2020 more votes ever than any candidate in state history. With Governor Sununu’s leadership, New Hampshire is ranked the #1 state in the country for personal freedoms by Cato Institute. Having been named the nation’s most fiscally responsible governor by Cato Institute, Governor Sununu has delivered four balanced state budgets with no new taxes.

Early in his tenure Governor Sununu created The Doorway and the Recovery Friendly Workplace initiative, both of which have become national models for prevention, treatment and recovery from substance use disorder and are consistently improving results for the citizens of New Hampshire. According to the CDC, New Hampshire in 2021 was one of just four states to reduce drug overdose deaths.

Chris grew up in Salem, NH. He graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) with a BS in Civil/Environmental Engineering. As an environmental engineer, Chris worked for ten years cleaning up hazardous waste sites across the country. Governor Sununu lives in Newfields with his wife, Valerie, and their three children.

Elliot Gerson is the Executive Vice President at The Aspen Institute responsible for its Policy Programs and its International Partners. The Institute’s Policy Programs, approximately 30, account for the majority of the Institute’s operations and revenue. They foster candid, problem-solving dialogue among leaders and policy experts of diverse views; host leadership fellowships and seminars; range broadly in focus across domestic and foreign policy to the arts, culture, and philosophy; work for impact in communities both nationally and globally; host important public conferences such as the Aspen Security Forum, Aspen Ideas: Health, and Project Play; and offer The Aspen Words Literary Prize. Along with Walter Isaacson and Kitty Boone, Mr. Gerson launched The Aspen Ideas Festival in 2005, and continued to oversee it as well until 2023.

The Institute has 14 International Partners and Initiatives, in Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa. They work to create a global community of leaders committed to the greater good and elevate non-partisan dialogue to address the world’s biggest challenges.

After degrees from Harvard, Oxford and Yale, Mr. Gerson worked as a Supreme Court clerk, practiced law in government and privately, held executive positions in state and federal government, and was president of start-ups in healthcare and education, and of two leading national insurance and health-care companies. He has served on many non-profit boards, especially in the arts. From 1998 to 2023, he was American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, administering the 32 annual Rhodes Scholarships allocated to the United States.

Support Aspen Community Programs

Did you know that we host more than 70 days of public programming each year? If you appreciate what we do for the Aspen community, we invite you to become more involved with the Institute by joining as an Aspen Community Donor today. Your contribution will support affordable year-round programming for the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond, as well as scholarships for those in need. Learn more at www.aspeninstitute.org/acp-donate.