Jay Carney

Perhaps no one is better equipped to survey today’s current events both at home and abroad than Jay Carney. With his tenure at the White House and a long, well-respected career at TIME magazine spanning the globe from Russia to Washington, D.C., Carney’s collegial personality and working relationships with those on both sides of the aisle allow him to share with audiences a unique view of our world today from current events to leadership lessons from the front lines and their impact on the path forward for our country. He was at the center of every major issue or event facing the Obama Administration during his tenure, giving him insight into the issues, policies and players on a multitude of subjects including the situation in the Middle East, health care and immigration reform and the economy. Carney began his journalism career as a reporter for The Miami Herald in 1987. He joined TIME as its Miami bureau chief the following year and subsequently worked as a correspondent in TIME‘s Moscow bureau for three years, covering the collapse of the Soviet Union. He came to Washington in 1993 to report on the Bill Clinton White House. He has written and reported about the presidency of George W. Bush, and was one of a handful of reporters who were aboard Air Force One with President Bush on September 11, 2001. Carney later won the 2003 Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency. In 2003, he was appointed TIME’s Washington bureau deputy chief and promoted in September 2005 to the bureau chief while continuing to write about politics and national affairs. He also worked for CNN as a special correspondent and was a regular contributor to the “roundtable” segment of ABC News’ This Week. In January, 2009 Carney went from the private sector to public service as director of communications for Vice President Joe Biden. On January 27, 2011, Carney was selected by President Barack Obama to become White House press secretary, where he served until his departure in late June 2014. Today he serves as senior vice president for worldwide corporate affairs for Amazon.