APB Speakers Anand Giridharadas and Eric Liu Inspire at Obama Foundation Summit

06 Nov 2017

As featured opening and closing speakers at the inaugural Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago this week, APB’s Anand Giridharadas and Eric Liu inspired audiences with their visions of the American Dream, democracy and creating change.

Author and New York Times columnist Giridharadas shared the beginning of his own family’s American journey. “My father crossed an ocean, carrying $7 and his parents’ prayers,” he said. “The seeds they planted turned out to be perennial—an American dream in bloom.” Liu, CEO of Citizen University stood out at the closing session of the event with a rousing call to citizenship and action. “We’re all better off when we’re all better off,” he said, outlining his own formula for citizenship that combines power and character.

  

The Obama Foundation Summit welcomed hundreds of leaders from around the world including Great Britain’s Prince Harry and Matteo Renzi, former Prime Minister of Italy. According to former President Barack Obama, the Obama Foundation “seeks to inspire people everywhere to give back, get involved, and recognize that they, too have the power to make a difference.” Speakers selected to take the stage at the very first Summit were among the world’s most thoughtful and passionate civic leaders, charged with laying out both challenges and opportunities for engagement and transformation.

+ Learn more about Anand Giridharadas

+ Learn more about Eric Liu