Ivy Council

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The Ivy Leadership Summit (ILS) is an annual two-day conference hosted by the Ivy Council to bring together students from the eight Ivy League universities along with leaders from the business, government, academic, and humanitarian sectors. The conference is usually held in February and its location is rotated each year through the campuses of the Ivy League.

The Ivy Leadership Summit was originally created to promote the exchange of ideas between students of the Ivy League and today’s leaders on subjects of public policy such as globalization, health care, and ethics. The first Summit was held at Yale University in 2000 on the topic of “Integrity and Ethics.” 80 participants were selected from a pool of applicants throughout the Ivy League. The main activities of the conference were keynote speakers, panels, and roundtable discussions. Since then, the Ivy Council has held six conferences each focusing on a differing policy topic. Past speakers have included Steve Forbes, Chairman and CEO of Forbes magazine; Nasreen Berwari, Iraqi Minister of Municipalities and General Works; Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the UN’s Millennium Development; Theodore Roosevelt IV, Managing Director at Lehman Brothers and prominent environmentalist; Judy Vredenburg, President and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters; and Dov Zakheim, US Undersecretary of Defense.

The list of past Summits is below according to year, topic, and school:

2008 - "Creating the Leader: Leadership in Theory, Leadership in Practice, Leadership in Action" at the University of Pennsylvania

2007 - “The Future of Energy: Analyzing the Problem and Debating Solutions” at Columbia University
2006 - “Free Trade, Free Press, Free Society: Leadership in the Age of Globalization” at Columbia University
2005 - “Health, Economy, and the International Community” at Princeton University
2004 - “Responsibilities in a Globalized World” at Columbia University
2003 - “American Ethics in Science & Medicine, Politics & Law, Media, and Business” at the University of Pennsylvania
2001 - “Sharing the Torch: Leadership in the New Millennium” at Harvard University
2000 - “Integrity and Ethics” at Yale University

Ivy Leadership Summit IX

The Ivy Leadership Summit IX will take place next February at Brown University. The overarching theme of the summit is Leading in a Global Community. As International Relations continues to rank as one of the most popular concentrations at Brown, Brown will serve as an ideal venue for examining the changing leadership roles in the globalizing society. This theme will be apparent in the selection of speakers, sponsors, group discussions, food, entertainment, and other aspects of the conference. At the Summit students will explore the application of leadership in various areas including politics, economics, media/tehcnology, and professionalism. In addition, there will be continent-specific sessions led by Ivy League professors with their expertise on the specific regions. Overall, students will approach the different areas of leadership through interactive workshops, panel discussions, keynote speeches and break out sessions. The goal of the conference is to cultivate the delegates as the active leaders in our globalizating community.