The Return of the Clinton Initiative in NYC Includes Andres, Queen Rania

NEW YORK — Jose Andres, the founder of World Central Kitchen, Jordanian Queen Rania, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda will help relaunch the Clinton Global Initiative in September, when the meeting of international dignitaries returns after six years.

The two-day meeting on September 19-20 in New York is built around a theme of ‘The Business of How’, with the aim of creating partnerships between political, business and philanthropic leaders.

“We have brought the CGI community back together this year as we face an urgent and historic moment,” former President Bill Clinton said in a statement Thursday. “The global community faces several existential challenges, including climate change, new threats to our health, increasing economic inequality and a global refugee crisis.”

The Clinton Foundation’s annual meeting was canceled in 2016 during former Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, when questions were raised about the appearance of potential conflicts of interest if CGI donors had done business before her administration.

Organizers say this year’s meeting will combine a mix of proven solutions to problems that can be shared around the world and foster new connections that can create new solutions.

That means celebrities — including Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, actor and water access activist Matt Damon, as well as several philanthropic leaders, including Emerson Collective founder Laurene Powell Jobs, Mellon Foundation CEO Elizabeth Alexander, and Case Foundation co-founder Steve Case — be able to discuss both past successes and current needs.

Tom Watson, founder of social sector consultancy CauseWired, said the Clinton Global Initiative’s model of tackling issues from different perspectives has been missed.

“It’s a rare structure that brings together many different types of organizations and people,” said Watson, who has been on multiple occasions with CGI, which launched in 2005, and has done some consulting work for the initiative in the past, although he’s not. involved in this year’s event. “I know when it was an annual gathering, there were nonprofits and foundations and types of corporate social responsibility that absolutely missed it. Nobody really filled the vacuum. From that point of view, it’s really a good thing that it’s coming back.”

Watson, who also teaches nonprofit management at Columbia University, said the current immense needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine require new approaches and collaboration.

“We need all hands on deck,” said Watson, who plans to attend this year’s event. “This allows many different types of players to come together.”

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