Concordia Summit: A Greek’s Vision to Change the World Through Public-Private Partnerships

Concordia is a Singular Convening of Former and Current Heads of State, Business Executives and Non-Profit Leaders Devoted to Promoting Public-Private Partnerships. Bill Clinton to be joined by Laura Bush, John McCain, Donna Karan, Alvaro Uribe, Thomas Kean, Mikheil Saakashvili, and more on September 27 in New York City. 

In an economic environment of uncertainty, links that match the strengths of the public sector and the private can be the answer to a better world. That is why Nicholas Logothetis, together with one of his best friends from high school, Matthew Swift, decided to start The Concordia Summit, a non-profit organization that helps foster relationships between government officials from around the world with NGOs and private entities.

“The idea came to us when me and my best friend Matthew Swift attended the Wall Street Journal CEO Council. We wanted to create something that would promote the ability of the private sector to work with the public sector rather than working against each other, or just working on separate tracks,” said Logothetis who attended the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.

“In today’s interconnected world, I really believe in governments working together with the private sector, and this is the mission of Concordia Summit — to promote partnerships between the government sector, NGOs, and business.”

Although the organization was founded only a year ago, it has managed to attract many world leaders such as the former President of Colombia Alvaro Uribe and former U.S. President George W. Bush, who was last year’s keynote speaker.

“We are in our second year and we are still building the organization step-by-step, but we had a few interesting success stories that we will showcase at this year’s Summit,” said Logothetis, who also sits on the Libra Group’s board of Directors.

Just as it was last year, the 2nd Annual Concordia Summit’s keynote speaker is a former U.S. President. The event, which will be held on Sept. 27, 2012 in New York at the Plaza Hotel, will feature a keynote address by President Bill Clinton.

This year’s Summit will examine how public-private partnerships can help address challenges relating to Global Security, the Economy, Education, Environmental Sustainability and Health around the world. The diverse and experienced group of former and current corporate and government leaders will address and look for the most compelling elements of public-private cooperation in order to effectively address today’s most pressing issues.

Concordia also announced a new partnership with the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council (USAWC) that will include the development of a 10-year strategic plan to further ensure public and private investment in children’s and women’s initiatives in Afghanistan.

“The organization (USAWC) was started by President George Bush and his wife, Laura, and it is now co-chaired by Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton. The organization’s mission is to empower women in Afghanistan,” noted Logothetis.

“What they need help with is creating a private sector committee of business leaders who would be able to promote opportunities for women in Afghanistan, so this is what we are announcing this year, the ability to create this committee for the US -Afghan Women’s Council. As the U.S. forces are moving out of the country, the private sector will become much more important in promoting opportunities for women.”

Concordia is not seeking to run the projects. As its founder said, the organization’s involvement aims to link private and public entities. “Our involvement stops when we bring the two parties together. We do not actually run anything, we are the in-between link of the chain trying to help address some of the world’s issues,” said Logothetis.

What are some of the pressing issues?  ”From our perspective we view education as an important issue; health, and all the aspects that come with that, such as vaccinations, economic security; and the eradication of extremism.” said Logothetis, a proud Greek of the Diaspora.

“Being Greek is very important to me. This year we won’t have any Greek officials as we are targeting specific world issues but we have a lot of people from Greece and people of Greek descent who will be attending,” he noted.

As the Summit moves toward its third year, the organizers are considering moving it to a different country, including Greece.  “We were discussing this. For the last two years, the Summit has been in New York during the U.N. General Assembly week but we are very open to looking at hosting the Summit in another country, and obviously Greece will be on the top of that list. Also we are looking to be hosting more events throughout the year and that is also something we can hopefully do in Greece. At some point we will do the Summit in another country and Greece is on the top of our list,” said Nicholas Logothetis.

 2012 Concordia Summit Speakers:

In addition to President Clinton, participants of this year’s Concordia Summit will include United States Senator from Arizona, John McCain; founder of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer organization, Nancy Brinker; former First Lady Laura Bush (appearing via video); The Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Chairman-in-Office, Eamon Gilmore; fashion designer Donna Karan; The former Governor of New Jersey, Thomas Kean; the former President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski; former United States Representative from California, Jane Harman; U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, Margaret Hamburg; Chairman and CEO of the Libra Group, George Logothetis; Ambassador John Negroponte; President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili (appearing via video); former Homeland Security Advisor Frances Townsend and the former President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe.

For more information on the Summit and updates on speakers and the agenda visit http://www.theconcordiasummit.org/