2007 Roundtable
“Courting Disaster: The Fight for Oil, Water and a Healthy Planet”
On October 13, 2007, Stanford President John Hennessy, journalist Carlos Watson, and a panel of leading figures in international affairs, energy development, media, and government joined an audience of more than 5,500 people in Maples Pavilion for the second annual Roundtable at Stanford University. The wide-ranging discussion, entitled "Courting Disaster: The Fight for Oil, Water and a Healthy Planet," covered issues such as America's role in the world, the war in Iraq and unrest in the Middle East, terrorism and nuclear proliferation, the upcoming presidential election and climate change.
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2007 Panelists
John L. Hennessy is Stanford University's 10th president and inaugural holder
of the Bing Presidential Professorship, professor of computer science and electrical engineering,
former provost and dean of the School of Engineering. Recognizing the need for multidisciplinary
research to address today's challenges, he has launched university-wide initiatives in human
health, environmental sustainability, and international affairs.
Carlos Watson, JD '95, a former political analyst for CNN, currently heads a venture-backed
television production company in New York. Watson was editor of the Stanford Law Review and
student government president while at Stanford. His broadcast work includes two prime-time
interview shows on CNBC, a hosting role at BET and three years of political analysis at CNN,
where he covered the 2004 presidential elections. Watson has interviewed everyone from Oprah
Winfrey and Heidi Klum to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Hillary Clinton. His breakout show, "Conversations
with Carlos Watson," premiered this year and was hailed as "the next generation of
talk."
John P. Abizaid retired from the United States Army after 34 years, during
which he rose from an infantry platoon leader to become the youngest four-star general in
the Army and the longest-serving commander of United States Central Command. General Abizaid
is a highly decorated officer who has been awarded numerous service medals and holds military
honors from Germany, France, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Australia, Afghanistan and Egypt.
In June 2007, he returned to the Hoover Institution as the Annenberg Distinguished Visiting
Fellow.
Pamela Matson is the Chester Naramore Dean of the School of Earth Sciences,
the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies and the Burton and Deedee
McMurtry University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. As a leader among scientists working
to reconcile the needs of people and the environment in the 21st century, she works with
multi-disciplinary teams of researchers and decision makers to develop land management approaches
that are economically and environmentally sound. A MacArthur Fellow and Fellow of the National
Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Science, she is the founding co-chair
of the National Academies Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability.
The Honorable Stephen G. Breyer, '59, was born in San Francisco in 1938.
He is a graduate of Stanford, Oxford, and Harvard Law School. He taught law as a professor
at Harvard Law School and at the Kennedy School of Government. He has worked as a Supreme
Court law clerk, a Justice Department lawyer (antitrust division), an Assistant Watergate
Special Prosecutor, and Chief Counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1980 he was appointed
to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit by President Carter, becoming
Chief Judge in 1990. In 1994 he was appointed a Supreme Court Justice by President Clinton.
Thomas L. Friedman, a columnist for The New York Times, is a three-time Pulitzer Prize
winner and a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board. Mr. Friedman was bureau chief for The Times
in Beirut and Jerusalem before writing, "From Beirut to Jerusalem," which won the
National Book Award for non-fiction. His book, "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" won
the 2000 Overseas Press Club award for best nonfiction book on foreign policy. His latest work, "The
World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century," won the inaugural Goldman Sachs/Financial
Times Business Book of the Year award. He has a B.A. in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis
University and a Master of Philosophy degree in Modern Middle East studies from Oxford.
John E. Bryson, ’65, is chairman, president and CEO of Edison International,
the parent company of Southern California Edison, a regulated electric utility, and Edison
Mission Group, a competitive power generation business. Before joining Edison in 1984, Bryson
was a partner in the law firm Morrison and Foerster. Previously, he served as president of
the California Public Utilities Commission, chairman of the California State Water Resources
Control Board and was co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He earned his
JD from Yale Law School.
