RUDY FOR PRESIDENT!
The NTEA served up a past US president in 2004 when George Bush was the keynote speaker, and also made his wife, Barbara, the speaker in 1999. Now, in 2007, there's a new twist. The speaker could be a future president.
Back in November, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani announced he had established the nonprofit Rudy Giuliani Presidential Exploratory Committee, which meant that he could raise money to compensate for start-up expenses until he made a formal announcement.
On December 19, that committee held its first event in Manhattan, where his backers paid $2100 apiece to mingle with Giuliani and Home Depot founder Ken Langone.
Giuliani also hired Sandra Pack, who was chief financial officer for George W Bush's 2004 campaign and his treasury director in 2000.
As 2007 began, Giuliani remained at or near the top of most early presidential polls, leading Sen John McCain of Arizona in the GOP field. He also was being pushed hard by an official website of the Campaign to Draft Rudy Giuliani for President of the United States (http://www.draftrudygiuliani.com/), which was airing radio ads in two key states, Iowa and New Hampshire, encouraging Giuliani to run in 2008.
So you never know. The NTEA might have gotten even more than it imagined when it arranged for Giuliani to appear at the President's Breakfast & NTEA Annual Meeting on Thursday, March 8, from 7:30am-9:15am.
Since leaving the office of mayor, he has been raking in $100,000 per speaking engagement — he has made over 140 appearance in the past two years — and dabbling in security consulting, investment banking, and regulatory law.
The value of work
Giuliani was born to a working class family in Brooklyn, New York. As the grandson of Italian immigrants, he learned a strong work ethic and gained a deep respect for America's foundation of equal opportunity.
He attended Manhattan College and New York University Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude. Upon graduation, Giuliani clerked for Judge Lloyd MacMahon, US District Judge for the Southern District of New York. He then joined the office of the US Attorney and, a few years later, was named chief of the Narcotics Unit and rose to serve as executive US Attorney. Giuliani was later recruited to Washington, DC, where he was named Associate Deputy Attorney General and chief of staff to the Deputy Attorney General. He then returned to New York to practice law at Patterson, Belknap, Webb, and Tyler.
Several years later, Giuliani was named Associate Attorney General and then US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he spearheaded efforts against organized crime, government corruption, and white-collar criminals. In 1993, he was elected the 107th mayor of the City of New York, and was re-elected in 1997 by a wide margin, carrying four out of New York City's five boroughs.
As mayor, Giuliani reduced overall crime by 65% and implemented a successful welfare-to-work initiative, cutting 640,000 individuals from dependency to self-sufficiency. Under his leadership, New York was recognized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the safest large city in America for five straight years.
But it was in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 — when terrorists crashed planes into the Twin Towers of New York City's World Trade Center — that he gained his popularity. His strength and cool leadership led the city out of its darkest hour, and he later was named Person of the Year by Time magazine, knighted by the Queen of England, dubbed “Rudy the Rock” by French President Jaques Chirac, and presented the Ronald Reagan Presidential Freedom Award by former first lady Nancy Reagan.
Churchill's words
Time magazine, in its cover story announcing Giuliani as its Person of the Year, described how Giuliani worked for 16 hours until 2:30 am, then walked into the Upper East Side apartment of Howard Koeppel and his longtime partner, Mark Hsiao. Giuliani had been living in a bedroom suite in the apartment after separating from his second wife. For the first time, he watched TV reports of the towers collapsing, then decided to read Roy Jenkins' biography, Churchill. He was struck by Churchill's words on World War II: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
“I was so proud of the people I saw on the street,” he said in the Time article. “No chaos, but they were frightened and confused, and it seemed to me that they needed to hear from my heart where I thought we were going. I was trying to think, ‘Where can I go for some comparison to this, some lessons about how to handle it?' So I started thinking about Churchill, started thinking that we're going to have to rebuild the spirit of the city, and what better example than Churchill and the people of London during the Blitz in 1940, who had to keep up their spirit during this sustained bombing? It was a comforting thought.”
And so he went out and inspired the city and the entire nation, telling them:
“Tomorrow New York is going to be here. And we're going to rebuild, and we're going to be stronger than we were before … I want the people of New York to be an example to the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, that terrorism can't stop us.”
Limited by New York City law to two terms as mayor, he founded Giuliani Partners in January 2002, quickly establishing the professional services firm as a leader in fields, including emergency preparedness, public safety, leadership during crises, and financial management.
Giuliani was recognized in spring 2002 as Consultant of the Year by Consulting magazine. In May 2005, he joined the law firm of Bracewell & Patterson and was a named partner. Now known as Bracewell & Giuliani, the 60-year-old firm has approximately 400 lawyers practicing in nine offices worldwide.