Washington Policy Center held its 2011 Annual Dinner featuring Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and John R. Bolton, Fox News commentator and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, on October 12 in Bellevue, with a simulcast dinner event in Spokane. We also recognized Matt McIlwain of Madrona Venture Group with our 2011 Champion of Freedom Award.
Gov. Mitch Daniels was elected the 49th Governor of Indiana in 2004 (his first bid for any elected office). He has held numerous top management positions in both the private and public sectors, including as senior advisor to President Ronald Reagan and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush. Daniels’ list of accomplishments as governor includes attracting more than $18 billion in new investment to Indiana via an innovative public-private partnership, reducing the state’s debt by 40%, leading the state to its first balanced budget in eight years and, without a tax increase, transforming the $600 million deficit he inherited into an annual surplus of $370 million within a year. Today Indiana has the fewest state employees per capita in the U.S. Daniels’ first book, Keeping the Republic: Saving America by Trusting Americans, will be published in September.
Amb. John R. Bolton currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. His area of research is U.S. foreign and national security policy. Ambassador Bolton served as the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations and as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security in the Bush Administration. Ambassador Bolton has spent many years of his career in public service, including Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs at the Department of State (1989–93); Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice (1985–89); Assistant Administrator for Program and Policy Coordination, U.S. Agency for International Development (1982–83); and General Counsel, U.S. Agency for International Development (1981–82). Bolton graduated Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude from Yale College and received his J.D. from Yale Law School where he was editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Matt McIlwain is a Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group, a venture capital firm based in Seattle. In 2010 he served as co-chair for the Defeat 1098 income tax initiative. He invests in early-stage technology companies with a primary focus on a broad range of software-driven companies. He currently serves on the boards of Animoto, Apptio, Extrahop, Mixpo, Off & Away, Optify, PayScale, Skytap, Smartsheet, and Tier 3. He was on the boards of Isilon Systems (acquired by EMC), Farecast (acquired by Microsoft), World Wide Packets (acquired by Ciena), iConclude (acquired by Opsware), Performant (acquired by Mercury Interactive) and was actively involved with TeamOn Systems (acquired by Research in Motion). He was selected for the Forbes Midas List in 2008, 2009 and 2011.
Matt is a board member of the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) and Villa Academy, and serves on Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna’s Technology Advisory Board. He also teaches a class on venture finance in the University of Washington's Technology MBA Program. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Our Annual Dinner has become the largest event of its kind in the Northwest. In 2010, the October event sold out in September and was attended by over 1,200 people, including elected officials, and business, community and policy leaders from throughout our state. The 2012 Annual Dinner was another great success, with over 1,500 in attendance in both Bellevue and Spokane.