Tag Archives: born Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev

Four People To Watch in the Second Post 9/11 Decade

This is the last installment of names in my list of one hundred names of People to Watch in the Second  Post 9/11 Decade. I am glad to have this basic list done and in an uncertain world it is surely possible that this will be the end of the project. However, before September 10, 2011 I hope to put out a ranked list of the Ten Most Watchable People in the Second Post 9/11 Decade. However, there is something a bit more absurd about doing that there is about this already presumptuous project.  That and the post discussing those who almost made this list are extensions from and developments upon the basic project which is simply to finish this list. For me I always finish any significant project with the sense of having made my  life a little more complete my eventual death a little less frightening.  However, I do think the list has some real value in itself and I will set out a  bit more clearly what that value may be at the end of this post.   

My first post on this list appeared in its original version September 11, 2010 and had twenty-five names:

Series Link 1.  https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/the-last-year-of-the-9-11-decade-has-begun/

President Barack  Hussein Obama , Josef Ratzinger, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Her Britannic Majesty, Elizabeth, HRH Charles Prince of Wales, David Cameron, Sarah Palin, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Glen Beck,  Hillary Clinton, President Nicolas Sarkozy, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Carl Svanberg, UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon, Hu Jin Tao, Timothy Geithner, Al Franken, Barney Frank, Vladimir Putin,  Bobby Jindal, Bill Richardson, Bill Clinton and Osama Bin Laden

The second portion had fifteen people to watch:

SL 2.  https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/fifteen-more-people-to-watch-in-9112011-9112021/

Barons Rothschild, Britney Spears, Carl A. Brasseaux, Philip Lord Norton Baron of Louth, Carlos Slim Helu, Charles Bolden, Taylor Swift, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands,  Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, Kate Middleton,  Catherine Princess of Wales, Princess William of Wales, Princess Catherine, Prince Luís of Orléans-Braganza (born Luís Gastão Maria José Pio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga de Orléans e Bragança e Wittelsbach, Ms. Gail J. McGovern, Me,  His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani and Prince William of Wales

The third portion of my list had ten people watch:

SL 3.  https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/ten-more-people-to-watch-from-9112011-9112021/

Gaudencio Borbon Cardinal Rosales, Queen Sofia of Spain, Su Graciosa Majestad Sofia la Reina Catolica, Oprah Winfrey, Bill O’Reilly, Julie Ann Yannatta, Vitaly Alexandrovich Lopota, Amy Grant, Ratan N. Tata, Mark Zuckerberg and Jean-Cristophe Niel 

The fourth portion of my list had five people to watch:

SL 4.  https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/five-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/

Liu Zhijun: 刘志军, King George Tupou V, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Heinz-Otto Peitgen,  Julie Taymor

The fifth post had thirteen  people to watch:

 Charles Alan Murray, Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr, Professor Ei-ichi Negishi, Drew Brees, Angela Dorothea Merkel(- Kasner),  General Stanley Allen McChrystal, Danica Sue Patrick, Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French, Marilyn Vos Savantt, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi, Madame Nicolas Sarkozy,  Air Defense Commander Shigeru Iwasaki and Amy Hungerford

 SL 5.

  https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/thirteen-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/

My sixth post in this series had eight  people to watch:

Howard Lutnick, His Serene Highness Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi), Elbert Leander “Burt” Rutan, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i ( سید علی حسینی خامنه ای), Dr.Tracy E. Caldwell – Dyson(Ph.D.),  Lang Lang,  Natalie Portman  ( נטלי פורטמן‎, Natalie Hershlag), John ChristopherJohnnyDepp II

SL 6.

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/eight-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-9-11-decade/

My seventh post added thirteen more people to watch. In it I also published a final decision to make the list one hundred names long.

Joanne JoRowling, OBE, J. K. Rowling , Nicholas Sparks, Nicholas Charles Sparks, Maria Ioannidou, Μαρία Ιωαννίδου, Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, Дми́трий Анато́льевич Медве́дев, Buzz Aldrin, Dr. (Col. {retired})Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr., Dalai Lama,  Zachary Richard, Chett Chiasson, Dr. E. Joseph Savoie, ” ‘Tit Jo’” Savoie 

SL 7. 

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/nine-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/

My second to last post had eleven names:

Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,  Bill Ford, William Clay Ford, Jr.,  Michael Fred Phelps, Patriarch Kirill I, or Cyril I Кирилл, Патриарх Московский и всея Руси, born Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev,  Владимир Михайлович Гундяев,   His Suinine Majesty, Carl XVI Gustaf, Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus , General David Howell Petraeus, Commander International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) , Father Adolfo Nicolás Pachón S.J., S.T.D.  , The Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Serena Jameka Williams , Shakira,  Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, Letizia Moratti  née Letizia Brichetto-Arnabold , Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall,Camilla Rosemary née Shand, previously Parker Bowles

SL.8

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/eleven-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/

1. Ben Shelley  is the  recently elected President of the Navajo Nation. Born in a Navajo Hogan in Thoreau, New Mexico,  was in the terms of Navajo familial and tribal structure born into To’aheedlinii and for Ts’ah Yisdk’idnii. His maternal grandfather is Ashiihi and his paternal grandfather is Totinii.    In the United States of America there are approximately 275 Indian land administered as Indian reservations (reservations, pueblos, rancherias, communities, etc.). The largest is the Navajo Reservation of some 16 million acres of land in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Many of the smaller reservations are less than 1,000 acres with the smallest less than 100 acres. On each reservation, the local governing authority is the tribal government.  The diversity of these people and the complexity of this system and the need for all of its members to be included in the  Societal and constitutional transformation of the United States is something that is hard to reduce to a few words. But tHe President of the Navajos is someone who must be taken into account in all of this and in lager hemispheric issues as the United States begins to refocus on its own region if it adjusts to survive. Navajo Nation President Shelly graduated at the top of his class from Snowflake High School. Leaving his home and the lands of the Navajo Nation for a time Mr. Shelly pursued higher education in Chicago, Illinois, where he received a  technical degree in business management and certification in heavy equipment mechanics. For more than ten years Mr. Shelly used the knowledge and skills he acquired to operate his own opened and managed his own small business on the Navajo Nation for over a decade.  In tribal politics Mr. Shelly began his public service as a Navajo Nation Council Delegate from Thoreau Chapter. Elected in 1991, he served as a member of the Transportation and Community Development, Economic Development, Intergovernmental Relations, and Budget/Finance Committees.  In mainstream New Mexico  politics Mr. Shelly also served twelve years as a McKinley County Commissioner and Chairman of the McKinley County Democrats. After serving four years as chairman of the Navajo Nation Council Budget and Finance Committee, Mr. Shelly was elected by the Navajo people and sworn into office on January 09, 2007 as the Vice President of the Navajo Nation.He now leads the Navajo People as the Navajo Nation President as he was sworn in on January 11, 2011. I lived and worked for a good part of one winter in and around Thoreau and the nearby parts of Navajoland. I have friends who largely grew up in that area and  the pople are part of novels by Hillerman and Bova and others set in the present and the future.  Issues of religion, language, history, economics and  race all go beyond any easy comment here but Mr. Shelly is poised to play a role in any future restoration and renewal of this nation and probably could speak well with fellow list member Bill Richardson on very important challenges. 

2. Helene Valerie Hayman née Middleweek , Baroness Hayman,  was born 26 March 1949 inWolverhampton  and  is the first, current and only Lord Speaker of the  House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. As a member of the Labour Party she was a Member of Parliament from 1974 to 1979/ This was am arguably crucial time in the history of the party which allowed her to be really recognized by the rising “New Labour” of  Blair tenure at the head of Her Majesty’s Government and  for that and other accomplishments she became a Life Peer in 1996. Outside politics, she has been involved in health issues, serving on medical ethics committees and the governing bodies of bodies in the National Health Service and health charities. In 2006, she won the initial election  among the Peers of the House of Lords for the newly created position of  Lord Speaker. She has had to and done well in leading the House through varied reforms and a change of government.  Baroness Heyman has also worked extensively with such outreach programs and communications programs as the Peers in education. Further, she hosted his Holiness Benedict XVI and delivered a historic and well-crafted speech when he visited Westminster Palace last year.  

3. Phyllis Miller Taylor Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Taylor Energy Company LLC since the death of her husband, Patrick F. Taylor, in 2004. In 2005 she was the one and only listed billionaire on the Forbes magazine list who was a citizen and resident of Louisiana. She has fallen off the list in recent years possibly because of philanthropic giving  which has long typified her life.  She has been described even by relatively callous and objective reporters as  ” dedicated”, “compassionate”  and “visionary”. Phyllis M. Taylor has been very active in the realm of philanthropy over the past 25 years. Phyllis Taylor serves as Chairman and President of the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation which is the philanthropic organization she founded with her late husband in 1985.  The most famous achievement of this institution is its promotion of the Taylor Plan/TOPS which helped create educational opportunity for millions inLouisiana where students have been able to attend college because of these plans. Students who excel in secondary education are given money for tuition in college as long as they meet minimum maintenance standards. TOPS  However,  the Foundation she has long worked with also supports law enforcement, the military, and other worthy causes.  In 2008 the Louisiana legislature recognized  The Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) and the late Pat Taylor’s contribution to the implementation of the program by changing the “T” in TOPS, an acronym, from “Tuition” to “Taylor.”  The Taylors used their own money as a seed and their own time to nuture the seed  in creating this program making state-paid college tuition available to academicaly qualified students. Twenty-one other states have adopted versions of the “Taylor Plan.”  Phyllis Miller Taylor was born in  Abbeville the town where both my parents and three of my grandparents were born and which is my hometown. This is the Parish seat which is in the heart of Vermilion Parish where I currently live.  Taylor earned a bachelor’s degree at University of Southwestern Louisiana where I earned my bachelor’s degree  and a post-graduate law degree at Tulane University which I twice attended but not where I got my only graduate degree. She clerked for my grandfather the late Louisiana Chief Justice Frank Wynerth Summers and she is my cousin. In this region were are neither very distant cousins nor close cousins but in most of the US today we would be considered distant cousins. We have seen eachother at family reunions and other events but have never been close.  In the tradition of her late husband, her true passion is to ensure that tomorrow’s generation has the opportunity to obtain a college education.  The TOPS program developed by Patrick Taylor and promoted by the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation has been her main preoccupation. This program uses accountability and prior achievement to create much better returns on investment than comparable programs offered by the US government since before and after its founding and establishment as a Louisiana endowment.  Although the details are more obscure than those related to TOPS she is also known to have invested much of her own time, money and energy in rebuilding New Orleans after Katrina.  Still working on these projects after the major media had moved on to other stories, Taylor told an interviewer in regional media  “Katrina has given the Greater New Orleans area a chance to remedy and remold many aspects of the area that would never have been possible otherwise. My concern is that we take advantage of this opportunity and get it right, rather than focus on the time it takes.”  During the worst period Taylor Energy moved its company offices to Lafayette which is the parish bordering on Vermilion. Taylor and several of her employees stayed in Abbeville where she was born and reared as wells as other employees eslewhere in Acadiana. Taylor employees were located temporarily in a three parish area, Vermilion, Lafayette, and Iberia. It was wonderful to stay at the Caldwell in Abbeville for that time and revisit, on an extended basis, my home town.  Discussing that time  in the same interview mentioned above Taylor said, “I was not able to take advantage of all that is available since we had many issues within the Company operations to consider, but I did my best. Many of the Taylor Energy employees explored the area fully and fell in love with the place. For me, that was a great chance for them to learn a bit about where I came from.”

4. Robert De Niro, Jr.  was born August 17, 1943 and is an American actor, director, and producer. His father was a well-respected expressionist painter who was well-educated and whose own father was an Italian-American but whose mother was Irish American. Serious artistic respect runs in the family. This living DeNiro is widely considered one of the greatest actors of his generation and just a day or so before this posting he received the Cecile B. DeMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association ans that is a high ranking lofetime achievement ward presented at the Golden Globes. DeNiro’s first major film role was in 1973’s Bang the Drum Slowly. In 1974, he played the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II, where he created a legendary niche for himself with an iconic character in a role that won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He made the first of a number of significant films Martin Scorsese in 1973 when he played in  Mean  Streets.  Later  DeNiro worked with Scorsese  and earned an Academy Award for Best Actor  for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in the 1980 film, Raging Bull. Other Scorsese films for which he was nominated  but did not win were  Taxi Driver (1976) and  Cape Fear (1991). In addition, he received nominations for his acting in Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter (1978) and Penny Marshall’s Awakenings (1990). This was one of the many roles he has done which was outside of the urban American tough guy.   Outside of the Oscars he earned four nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy: New York, New York (1977), Midnight Run (1989), Analyze This (1999) and Meet the Parents (2000).  He has made a large number of appearances in film and has succeeded as a director as well as an actor.  However DeNiro makes this list largely because he founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002 with Craig Hatkoff and Jane Rosenthal.  This festival is part of Deniro’s identity as a New Yorker and was founded  in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center  and the many faced loss of vitality  and hope in the TriBeCa neighborhood and the rest of  Manhattan. The festival has featured hundreds of films and is making the world more aware of New York’s significant role in world of film. DeNiro  has tied himself into the story with which this seies and this list is intimately tied.

Eleven More People to Watch in the Second Post 9/11 Decade

This is the second to last installment of my list of People to Watch in the Second Post 9/11 Decade.  This is really the very most specific list of people of this sort which I could possibly have created in the time I have had available and there are no names on it by accident. After this list portion I will have reached 96 names. These names will have a final cohort of four more names and then the list will be complete at 100 names. 

My first post on this list appeared in its original version September 11, 2010 and had twenty-five names:

Series Link 1.  https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/the-last-year-of-the-9-11-decade-has-begun/

President Barack  Hussein Obama , Josef Ratzinger, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Her Britannic Majesty, Elizabeth, HRH Charles Prince of Wales, David Cameron, Sarah Palin, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Glen Beck,  Hillary Clinton, President Nicolas Sarkozy, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Carl Svanberg, UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon, Hu Jin Tao, Timothy Geithner, Al Franken, Barney Frank, Vladimir Putin,  Bobby Jindal, Bill Richardson, Bill Clinton and Osama Bin Laden

The second portion had fifteen people to watch:

SL 2.  https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/fifteen-more-people-to-watch-in-9112011-9112021/

Barons Rothschild, Britney Spears, Carl A. Brasseaux, Philip Lord Norton Baron of Louth, Carlos Slim Helu, Charles Bolden, Taylor Swift, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands,  Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, Kate Middleton,  Catherine Princess of Wales, Princess William of Wales, Princess Catherine, Prince Luís of Orléans-Braganza (born Luís Gastão Maria José Pio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga de Orléans e Bragança e Wittelsbach, Ms. Gail J. McGovern, Me,  His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani and Prince William of Wales

The third portion of my list had ten people watch:

SL 3.  https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/ten-more-people-to-watch-from-9112011-9112021/

Gaudencio Borbon Cardinal Rosales, Queen Sofia of Spain, Su Graciosa Majestad Sofia la Reina Catolica, Oprah Winfrey, Bill O’Reilly, Julie Ann Yannatta, Vitaly Alexandrovich Lopota, Amy Grant, Ratan N. Tata, Mark Zuckerberg and Jean-Cristophe Niel 

The fourth portion of my list had five people to watch:

SL 4.  https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/five-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/

Liu Zhijun: 刘志军, King George Tupou V, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Heinz-Otto Peitgen,  Julie Taymor

The fifth post had thirteen  people to watch:

 Charles Alan Murray, Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr, Professor Ei-ichi Negishi, Drew Brees, Angela Dorothea Merkel(- Kasner),  General Stanley Allen McChrystal, Danica Sue Patrick, Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French, Marilyn Vos Savantt, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi, Madame Nicolas Sarkozy,  Air Defense Commander Shigeru Iwasaki and Amy Hungerford

 SL 5.

  https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/thirteen-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/

My sixth post in this series had eight  people to watch:

Howard Lutnick, His Serene Highness Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi), Elbert Leander “Burt” Rutan, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i ( سید علی حسینی خامنه ای), Dr.Tracy E. Caldwell – Dyson(Ph.D.),  Lang Lang,  Natalie Portman  ( נטלי פורטמן‎, Natalie Hershlag), John ChristopherJohnnyDepp II

SL 6.

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/eight-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-9-11-decade/

My most recent post added thirteen more people to watch. In it I also published a final decision to make the list one hundred names long.

Joanne JoRowling, OBE, J. K. Rowling , Nicholas Sparks, Nicholas Charles Sparks, Maria Ioannidou, Μαρία Ιωαννίδου, Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, Дми́трий Анато́льевич Медве́дев, Buzz Aldrin, Dr. (Col. {retired})Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr., Dalai Lama,  Zachary Richard, Chett Chiasson, Dr. E. Joseph Savoie, ” ‘Tit Jo’” Savoie 

SL 7. 

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/nine-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/

This second to last installment of names on the list has eleven names on it.  A brief biographical sketch of each person appears below.

1.Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, its chief living revelator and prophet. He has held this office since 2008. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is often referred to as the LDS Church or Mormon Church. Monson’s presidency is headquartered in the largest city built largely by Mormons — Salt Lake City, Utah. The LDS or Mormon Church reports a worldwide membership of 13,000,000 as of June 25,2007, with over 6.8 million residing outside the United States. It is the fourth largest religion in the United States. According to statistics released by the Church, 47% of its members live in the United States and Canada, 36% in Latin America, and 17% in other parts of the world. This central Mormon Church is not the only Church in Mormonism and has denounced polygamy for historical reasons and there are other communions not in union with Monson which have not done so and also have other differences with Monson’s much larger church.  Church is growing by about 300,000 members per year, worldwide. The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints seeks to publicize its central belief that Jesus is the Christ. Monson and the LDS assert that Church doctrine revolves around Christ’s atonement as the defining event in world history. Their doctrine is in fact by technical analysis a kind of syncretism of modern (19th century) popular science, varied pagan traditions, Islamic influences in Freemasonry and real study of the Christian and Jewish Scriptures and traditions. This is all recast in terms of American history and archaelogy.  Mormons such as Monson see this  as a restoration of something lost restored through the prophet Joseph Smith; and continued through the voice of succeeding prophets and leaders of the Church and say that doctrine rests upon the principles taught by the Savior during His ministry; relayed through ancient prophets as recorded in scripture; . The doctrines of Christ are believed to be eternal.  Currently Mormonism is finding many ways to influence the world including the Marriot Hotel chain, Glenn Beck and non LDS Mormons such as the fictional Hendricksons of Big Love on HBO and the actual people in the show Sister Wives on TLC. Mormon missionaries are a powerfully active force in the world. Monson was born August 21, 1927 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Mormon American parents  G. Spencer and Gladys Condie Monson. He grew up in a fairly typical Utah Mormon background and lifestyle during that upbringing he received ordination to what Mormons call the priesthood as almost all Mormon young men do. In 1945 Thomas Monson joined the US Naval Reserves.  In the year 1948 he reached three significant milestones, he graduated cum laude from University of Utah, became professionally associated with the Mormon publication the  Deseret News and late in the year on October 7, 1948 he married Frances Beverly Johnson. The Mormons lack the formal distinction between clergy and laity which most Christian communions and many other religions employ and yet resemble the most clerical and organized religions in much of their level of structure and organization. Monson continued an established rising and climbing in this structure as in 1950 he became bishop of Sixth-Seventh Ward of Temple View Stake in Utah. and relatively shortly  thereafter in 1955 June became counselor in stake presidency, Temple View Stake, Utah. 1959–1962.  Among other duties undertaken he served as president of Canadian Mission headquartered in Toronto, Canada and then really reached the upper ranks when he was  ordained an Apostle on October 10, 1963 at age 36.  He became clearly in line to succession to his office in 1985 November 10 Called as Second Counselor to President Ezra Taft Benson. 1994 June 5 Called as Second Counselor to President Howard W. Hunter. 1995 March 12 Called as First Counselor to President Gordon B. Hinckley. 1997. His other personal distinctions include the University of Utah’s Distinguished Alumnus Award., long service as a member of the National Executive Board of Boy Scouts of America and receiving  several distinguished Boy Scouts of America Awards.  Monson served on  President Ronald Reagan’s President’s Task Force for Private Sector Initiatives.  Other awards include: the Minuteman Award from the Utah National Guard, Continuum of Caring Humanitarian Award by Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph Villa.  Distinguished Utahn Award from Salt Lake City and Utah Valley Management Society Chapters.  Distinguished Public Service Award from Washington, D.C. chapter of BYU Management Society and others.

2. Bill Ford, William Clay Ford, Jr. is the Executive Chairman of the  company that bears his name and largely  “put the world on wheels”. He is fulfilling an ancestral legacy as he proceeds  into the 21st century.  It has been notbale in that in recent periods of economic and financial turbulence Chrysler had long ago been recued by the government of the United States , then became part of German carmaker  Daimler Corporation and then got more help recently. General Motors has emerged from its beleaguered past by destroying much of its infrastructure, going into bankruptcy and receiving a huge government bailout. Ford has paddled and navigated its own canoe in all this and has had many succeses unique among the Big Three of American Automakers. “The ongoing success of Ford Motor Company is my life’s work,” Bill Ford has said . “We want to have an even bigger impact in our next 100 years than we did in our first 100.” Mr. Ford joined the Ford Board of Directors in 1988 and has been its chairman since January 1999. He serves as chairman of the board’s Finance Committee and as a member of the Environmental and Public Policy Committee. He also served as chief executive officer of the company from October 2001 to September 2006, when he was named executive chairman. As CEO, Mr. Ford  took the company from a $5.5 billion loss in 2001 to three straight years of profitability. He has described his vision for the company as “I want us to be a company that makes a difference in people’s lives; one that delights its customers, rewards its shareholders and makes the world a better place.To do that we are focused on delivering desirable products, a competitive cost structure and a sustainable business model.” Mr. Ford joined Ford Motor Company in 1979 as a product planning analyst and later held a variety of positions in manufacturing, product development, sales, marketing  and finance.He served on the company’s National Bargaining Team during the 1982 Ford-United Auto Workers labor talks, credited with starting an employee involvement movement that revolutionized the industry .  Investing in himself in 1983 Ford undertook a 12-month course of study as an Alfred P. Sloan fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He came out of these studies and was elected chairman and managing director of Ford Switzerland in 1987.  He has led influentialcommittes and operations for Business Strategy for the Ford Automotive Group in 1990 and his team  set guidelines and made recommendations for  low-volume manufacturing plants in developing countries which have contributed to F0rd’s independent survival. Ford became general manager of Climate Control Division in 1992, and was very successful. He established the company’s first wildlife habitat at a plant location and the first automotive plant in the world to use 25 percent post-consumer materials in all of its plastic parts which contributed to his reputation as someone whocared about the environment. This was increased by his winning in his division the President’s Commission on Environmental Quality Award for effectively making a green change by replacing a hazardous chemical in a production process with water.  Between that assignment and his current post he hled varied important executive posts at Ford.

3. Michael Fred Phelps was born on June 30, 1985 and is an  American swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008.  Michael Phelps is the son of Fred and Debbie Phelps. He is a third child whose parents had two older daughters, Hilary and Whitney. Michale has been well-known for his love of the Baltimore Ravens football team and he and his family have lived his life in Maryland, just outside of Baltimore. His father, Fred was a state trooper, and his mother Debbie was a middle-school teacher named twice as Maryland’s “Teacher of the Year.” Michael Phelp’s father was a good athlete and so are his two sisters. Michael followed his sisters into swimming at an early age. Hilary was a promising swimmer of the butterfly without reaching national prominence or sticking with it a long=lasting obssessiont. Whitney swam competitively for a much longer time . Sister Whitney tried out for the U.S. Olympic team in 1996 at the age of 15 and Michael was among those in attendance cheering  her on. Whitney didn’t qualifyand  her career was shortened by problems with herniated disks.  In his medal counts achievement Michael Phelps has twice equaled the record eight medals of any type at a single Olympics.  That record was set before his own birth by Soviet gymnast  Alexander Ditayin at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games. His five golds in individual events tied the single Games record set by Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics also before Michael was born and it wasequaled by Vitaly Scherbo at the 1992 Summer Games.  Phelps has all to himself the record for the most gold medals won in a single Olympics, his eight at the  2008 Beijing Games surpassed American swimmer Mark Spitz’s seven-gold performance at Munich in 1972. Phelps Olympic medal totalis second only to the 18  Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina won over three Olympics, including nine gold.  Phelps’s other honors include: World Swimmer of the Year Award six times, American Swimmer of the Year Award eight times and  the 2008  Sports Illustrated  Sportsman of the Year award. His medal count is at least fifty-nine medals in major international competition, fifty gold, seven silver, and two bronze including the Olympics, the  World, and the Pan Pacific Championships. . Phelps has founded and largely endowed  the Michael Phelps Foundation, seeking to grow the sport of swimming and promoting healthier lifestyles. Setting in the US Anti-Doping Agency’s “Project Believe” program, Phelps is regularly tested to ensure that his system is clean of performance-enhancing drugs. There have been those who were scandalized by his alleged use of recreational marijauana. Phelps has been a physical specimen of unique capacities, a culturaly sensitive ambassador of his generation of Americans and a workaholic in his sport. What he may turn out to be in the future remains to be seen,

4.Patriarch Kirill I, or Cyril I Кирилл, Патриарх Московский и всея Руси, born Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev,  Владимир Михайлович Гундяев was born in November of 1946 is a Russian Orthodox bishop who has been  Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church since 1 February 2009.  Prior to becoming Patriarch, Kirill was Archbishop (later Metropolitan) of Smolensk and Kaliningrad beginning on 26 December 1984; and also Chairman of the Orthodox Church’s Department for External Church Relations and a permanent member of the Holy Synod beginning in November 1989. The Russian Federation is trying to find its way forward in the post-Soviet era and so is this Church. I will stay away from statistics in this sketch because the great questions are too unresolved. How strong a church, how relevant, how official and how dynamic is entirely unclear. However, the possibility of a mjor role for this patriarch in the emerging order is very real.

5.His Suinine Majesty, Carl XVI Gustaf, Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus was born  April 30, 1946.  King of Sweden  has been King of Sweden since 15 September 1973, when his grandfather Gustaf VI Adolf died. He is the only son of the late  Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Vasterbotten, and  Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His father Gustaf Adolf was killed in an aeroplane crash on the afternoon of 26 January 1947, at Copenhagen Airport, Denmark. Unlike many other European monarchs who have extensive styles, King Carl Gustaf’s formal and complete style is simply His Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden. The King’s heir apparent, upon passage on 1 January 1980 of a new law establishing equal primogeniture (the first such law passed in European history), is  Crown Princess Victoria, the eldest child of the King and his wife,  Queen Silvia. There is always an element of mystery as to the real significance of any king. However for all apperances he is past the prime in the cycle of Monarchy althou this can change. The struggle tosurvive and be relevant relates to the stripping away of powers in the constitution the change which allows females to inherit the throne equally, the simplification of Titles and the decision not to enter the European  system. In all this it is still clear that the king is an important figure who also holds significance for Norway’s future and influences things in Denmark as well as in the larger world. Officially as of about 2007-2008 figures the Swedish economy looked like this:  GDP (purchasing power parity): $338.5 billion . GDP (official exchange rate): $455.3 billion. GDP – real growth rate: 2.7%. GDP – per capita (PPP): $37,500 . GDP – composition by sector: agriculture: 1.5%: industry: 28.8% ; services: 69.7% . The Swedes have a domestic national labor forceof about 4.839 million. Unofficially, this is a great country with tendrils of influence throughout the world that are hard to trace and track.  This King of Sweden will be a factor on the world stage as long as he lives. 

6. General David Howell Petraeus, Commander International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) was born November 7, 1952  and is a United  States Army general who served in other four-star assignments including 10th Commander,  U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) from September 16, 2008, to June 30, 2010, This was the technical peak of his carreer so far as his current post is lower on the charts. He was returining to a new theater in what some might see as a single war since  he had served as Commanding General, Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF-I) from January 26, 2007, to September 16, 2008.  He was confirmed by the Senate on June 30, 2010, as commander of MNF-I where Petraeus oversaw all coalition forces in Iraq. He took over command from temporary commander Lieutenant-General Sir Nick Parker on July 4, 2010. A product of very fine and expensive educational programs that typify the ideal of his generation of generals. Petraeus is a West Pointer with  Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy from which he graduated in 1974 in the top 5% of his class. He improved this impressive start in academic rank to become the  General George C. Marshall Award winner as the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College class of 1983.  He subsequently earned an M.P.A.  in 1985 and a Ph. D.  in International Relations in 1987 from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at  Princeton University. Petraeus was Assistant Professor of International Relations at the United States Military Academy and also completed a fellowship at Georgetown University. Some news reports have speculated that Petraeus may have interest in running for the presidency partly because he visited a school known for hosting the presidential debates, New Hampshire’s  Saint Anselm College. However, the culture does not seem generaly friendly to generals becoming Presidents of the United States these days and Petraeus has denied such ambitions. he may play a significant role in the transformation of America should constitutional and social transformation occur.  

7.Father Adolfo Nicolás Pachón S.J., S.T.D.  , The Superior General of the Society of Jesus was born April 29, 1936 was born  and is the leader of the Society of Jesus—the Roman Catholic religious order, also known as the Jesuits.  For almost 500 (about 470) years, the Jesuits have made their mark on the world. Across the globe they are known as educators dedicated to “finding God in all things,” exploring wide-ranging cultures and academic fields.  As the largest male religious order of the Catholic Church, the Society of Jesus is present in virtually every country in the world, currently organized in roughly 100 Provinces and Regions. In addition to being present to most local churches and cultures, the Society is an international body, and has always sought ways to strengthen our ministries via international collaboration. One form of that collaboration is the close relationship between two Provinces that we call twinning. In addition, in our day the Society has created structures called Conferences which bring together Provinces in major geographical areas so that they might work together more effectively, both within Conferences and among Conferences. Finally, the General Curia in Rome, guided by our Superior General, Most Reverend Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., coordinates the worldwide work of the Society.   Most Reverend Adolfo Nicolás, S.J. is generally addressed as Father General. The position carries the nickname of Black Pope, after his simple black priest’s vestments, as contrasted to the white garb of the Pope. The current Superior General is the Reverend Father Adolfo Nicolas. Father Adolfo Nicolás Pachón, S.J., S.T.D. is a Spanish priest of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the thirtieth and current Superior General of the Society of Jesus.  Adolfo Nicolás was born in Villamuriel de Cerrato, Palencia, and entered the Society of Jesus  or the Jesuits, in 1953 in the novitiate of  Aranjuez.  He studied at the University of Alcalá, there earning his licentiate in  philosophy, until 1960, whence he first traveled to Japan and became familiar with  Japanese language and culture. Nicolás entered Sophia University in Tokyo, where he studied theology, in 1964, and was later ordained to the priesthood on March 17, 1967. From 1968 to 1971, he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, earning their doctorate in theology. Returning to Japan, Fr. Nicolás became professor of systematic theology at his alma mater of Sophia University, teaching there for the next thirty years. He was Director of the East Asian Pastoral Institute at the Ateneo de Manila University, in Quezon City, Philippines, from 1978 to 1984. It was during those years that my father and I studied in a special intensive scripture residential seminar called “Scripture Ventures”  which is not in the official registrar’s definition of an EAPI or Ateneo de Manila course but which had a number of significant scholars and faculty from both of those institutions. I also knew many Jesuits in that relatively small world of the Province of Manila. I certainly heard  of Fr. Nicolás Pachón who is fluent in English and conversant at least  to some degree in at least one Filipino dialect. However, I do not believe that I ever met this man in those years when we were moving in close proximity. If that is incorrect I apologize. He  moved on to Japan not so far off from the time my family temporarily dug up all its roots in the Philippines, Fr.  Nicolás  and later served as rector of the theologate in Tokyo from 1991 to 1993, when he was appointed Provincial of the Jesuit Province of Japan. Nicolás remained in this post until 1999, and then spent four years doing pastoral work among poor immigrants in Tokyo.

8. Serena Jameka Williams  was born September 26, 1981 is an American professional tennis player who has been one of the most remarkable successes in professional athletics in recent decades. She is made more remarkable by being a black professional tennis player, part of a duo of sisters who have achieved a great deal and being an American where tennis has great media appeal. Serena Williams is former World No.1 and at this posting is ranked World No. 4 in singles and No. 5 in doubles with sister Venus Williams. She has been ranked first in the world in singles tennis by the Women’s Tennis Association on five separate occasions. Despite numerous injuries she is considered to be one of the greatest women’s tennis players of all-time.  Serena has won 27 Grand Slam titles places her ninth on the all-time list: 13 in singles, 12 in women’s doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. She is the most recent player of either sex to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously.Only four other women have ever done so.  Williams has won two Olympic gold medals in women’s doubles.  She has won more career prize money than any other female athlete in history.  Serena has played older sister Venus in 23 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 13 of these matches and eight of these were Grand Slam finals, with Serena winning six times. Beginning with the  2002 French Open, they played each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, which was the first time in the open era that the same two players had contested four consecutive Grand Slam finals. The pair have won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles together. Serena has also been a successful businesswoman. However, part of the story of Serena Williams is her resentment of the differing kinds of attention available to players like the Russian-American Maria Sharapova whose delicate white beauty joins with her athletic skill to create a different appeal on the court to many tennis fans. Still young enough to be a voice in a possibly changing America, Serena Williams also can bring a sense of family, business and black politics in an America which may find it necessary to reassert some more tradtional city club and country club points of view in much of the world including parts of tennis.  

9. Shakira,  Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born February 2, 1977) and  is a very well established Colombian singer, songwriter, musician and dancer  who is continuously emerging as a greater factor as a  record producer and philanthropist. Shawkira emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America early in the 1990s. Shakira has won many important industry awards incluing: two Grammy Awards, seven Latin Grammy Awards and   twelve Billboard Latin Music Awards. Her crical appeals has been demonstrated in that she has been nomited for at least one  Golden Globe award. Commericaly, her success is huge: Shakira is  the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, and the second most successful female Latin singer after Gloria Estefan, with over 60 million albums sold  worldwide.. Shakira’s U.S. album sales are just below 10 million.   These things alone would show alone with a lot of anectdotal evidence that she has managed to bridge the chasm that separates most of the  Americas from access to the success of the media industries of “American” pop culture, But there is more evidence: Shakira is the only South American recording artist to reach the number-one spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, the Australian ARIA chart, and the UK Singles Chart.  Shakira was ranked the 76th artist of the 2000–10 artist of the decade by Billboard.  Shakira is to be given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as well.   Born  in Baranquilla, Colombia, and raised in self-described poverty but with certain humane advantages Shakira began to perfrom in school sponsored shows.  Her school offered venues for her as a live performer, singing rock and roll,  as well as pieces with Latin and Middle Eastern influences with her own original twist on belly dancing. Shakira is a native Spanish speaker and also speaks fluent English and Portuguese.  She had a period of commercial failure in the locla recording industry until she was able to gain some control over production and the her success began. Her third album was the first success she had in sales as in  1995 she released Pies Descalzos,  making her a huge success in Latin America and Spain then with her 1998 album ¿Dónde Están los Ladrones?  she earned the respect of music critics throughout the Spanish Speaking world and beyond. Since then her works have included the successful US releas of music video “Whenever, Whenever” 2001 and the accompnying album in English Laundry Service, later in the middle of the decade two more albums  called Fijacion Oral Vol. 1 and  Oral Fixation Vol. 2. were very successful including  the best selling song of the 2000s, “Hips Don’t Lie”.  In the fall of 2009, Shakira released her sixth album She Wolf worldwide. Shakira is positioned to help forge a new cultural consensus as America digs into its full self and find a new way forward.

10.  Letizia Moratti  néeLetizia Brichetto-Arnabold  and is Mayor of Milan  and therefore also Chairman of the Board of Directors of La Scala  Moratti was born  in Milan. She is married to the oil magnate Gianmarco Moratti  (brother of Massimo Moratti and has two children, Gabriele and Giada. Her carreer as a businesswoman who has worked ininsurance and telecommunications.  Moratti was president of the Italian state television company RAI from 1994 to 1996.  In 1999-2000 she undertook positions which made her responsible for the growth of Rupert Murdoch’s group in Europe, these of course are the companies that are related to the Fox networks in the United States.  Serving as Education minister in the second and third Berlusconi cabinets from 2001 to 2006 she emerged as a powerful political influence and figure in Italy.  She ran as a candidate for Mayor of Milan in the 2006 municipal election as the candidate for a party like structure called  “House of Freedoms”. She won the election, with over 52% of votes. The Mayor of Milan is the ex-officio Chairman of the Board of the La Scala Opera and helps to direct its powerful cultural and academic institutions. her experience in media and culture as education make her a formidable player in that worldwide culture game in which she is entitled to be a major player. She is close to her father who is a fromer disabled prisoner of war in world War II. She has been accused of ties to facist elements despite seeking to build bridges across politics and also renounceing Nazism and Fascism formally on several occasions. In a possible world wide reaction to constitutional changes in the United States of America she could be a mjor player indeed.  

11.Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall,Camilla Rosemary née Shand, previously Parker Bowles was born on  July 17, 1947) is the second wife of Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and is the current holder of the titles Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay and Countess of Chester. Although Camilla automatically became the Princess of Wales upon her marriage to Prince Charles, she prefers to be known by the lesser title of Duchess of Cornwall, avoiding confusion with the Prince of Wales’ first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales.”  She uses this title everywhere except  Scotland, where she is styled Duchess of Rothesay.  She carries a great deal of baggage with her and  in some ways is a symbol in which themes of milennia, centuries, decades, years and minutes always form very convoluted knots. She is known as one who however culpable or inculpable made life very difficult fro the mother of the likely future King of the United Kingdom of England and Scotland. There is for example in my mind no doubt as to the privilege of Christian Kings to practice polygamy but her own story would make a very tortured mess of that doctrine. There is little doubt that in the modern world in the West people would cheeer to see old lovers end up together after suffering reversals and think it noble. But do they like that somehow it ties to a tortured soul’s life and a princess dead in traffic abroad? No matter what she does or chooses hers will be a troubles image and tales for many. What makes her more platable than otherwise is that she seems to know how diificult it all can be to take and to know what she did for duty, what for love, what for convention. It is a path she seems to walk with some care and dignity in times that are darkening and troubled everywhere as regards marriage and family.