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Secretary John Bryson Joins Wilson Center

Secretary John Bryson Joins Wilson Center as a Distinguished Senior Public Policy Scholar.

Secretary John Bryson

WASHINGTON– Former Commerce Secretary John Bryson has joined the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars as a Distinguished Senior Public Policy Scholar.

Secretary Bryson will work on the strategic and economic nexus among China, India and the United States, as well as Japan, Brazil, Energy, and the Environment.

Making the announcement, Jane Harman, director, president and CEO of the Wilson Center said:

“John Bryson’s experiences and interests are a perfect fit with the Wilson Center’s cross-cutting work on Asia, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and energy and the environment.  Scholars are the Wilson Center’s core.  The combination of skills that John Bryson brings to the Center - his work in the private and public sectors, in the U.S. and globally, and his understanding of how research institutions work - will be a great asset as we restructure Wilson to address critical public policy issues in the coming years. On a personal level, it is a delight to welcome a dear friend from Los Angeles.”

Secretary Bryson said:

“The Wilson Center, under Jane Harman’s commendable leadership, has an extraordinary output, truly global reach, and is intensely focused on getting the United States, and the largest of the advanced developing countries, to work together for mutual benefit.  My initial focus will be on the U.S. and its critical need to work effectively with both China, and its 1.4 billion people, and India, with its 1.2 billion.  But I look forward also to supporting the Center’s leading work on important related countries, such as Brazil and Mexico, and on critical issues, such as energy and the environment, as well as its huge number of forums and dialogue with people from these countries.

Press Contact:
Drew Sample
drew.sample@wilsoncenter.org
202-691-4379

Notes to Editors:

Biographical Background

John Bryson was nominated by President Obama in May 2011 and served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce to June 2012.  Bryson served as Chairman and CEO of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison and Edison Mission Group, from 1990 to 2008.

Prior to serving as the Secretary of Commerce, he was, for nearly 17 years, a Board member of The Boeing Company, and for nearly a decade of the Walt Disney Company.  Following his 18 years as the CEO of Edison International and its principal subsidiary, Southern California Edison and the Edison Mission Group, he served as a Senior Adviser to KKR, chaired the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), the Pacific Council on International Policy (PCIP), and the Overseas Board of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC).

For ten years, Bryson served as a trustee of Stanford University.  Following that, he served as a trustee of the California Institute of Technology.  In 2009-10, he served as a member of the U.N. Secretary General’s Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change (AGECC).

Earlier Bryson served as president of the California Public Utilities Commission, chairman of the California State Water Resources Control Board, and on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations.  Following graduation from law school, he was a co-founder and attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a national and international environmental group.  He is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars provides a strictly nonpartisan space for the worlds of policymaking and scholarship to interact. By conducting relevant and timely research and promoting dialogue from all perspectives, it works to address the critical current and emerging challenges confronting the United States and the world.

About the Author

Drew Sample

Media Relations Manager
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