Colin Powell to Deliver Keynote Address Sept. 12 at University of Oklahoma

Sept. 4, 2007, NORMAN – Colin L. Powell, U.S. Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005, will have a conversation with University of Oklahoma students on “The Challenges Facing America” at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12, in the Paul F. Sharp Concert Hall in Catlett Music Center, 500 W. Boyd St. Additionally, a President’s Associates reception, dialogue and dinner featuring OU President David L. Boren and General Powell is scheduled that evening.

“We’re honored to welcome General Colin Powell to our campus. He is admired not only as a public servant but also because of his work as a civic volunteer in reaching out to help others. His wide personal experience at the highest levels of our government give him a unique perspective about the greatest challenges which our country faces in the years ahead,” said OU President David L. Boren.

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Upon becoming confirmed as the 65th Secretary of State on Jan. 20, 2001, Colin Powell stated that his guiding principle of U.S. foreign policy during his tenure was that “America stands ready to help any country that wishes to join the democratic world.”

Before becoming Secretary of State, Colin Powell served as a key aide to the Secretary of Defense and as a National Security Adviser and also served 35 years in the U.S. Army, where he rose to the rank of four-star general and served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993, he oversaw 27 crises, including the Panama intervention and Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf War.

Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Colin Powell joined the president and other members of the president’s cabinet in the war on terror, stressing that it was a diplomatic as well as a military task. Using diplomacy and the universal ideal of democracy, he led the State Department in major efforts to solve regional and civil conflicts, build trust and forge alliances in unstable areas, such as the Middle East, the Sudan, Congo and Liberia, and, especially, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Also concerned with the global and regional security challenges of the 21st century, Powell was at the forefront of the administration’s efforts to advance economic and social development worldwide – in the fight against HIV/AIDS; in the promise of the Millennium Challenge Account, perhaps the most significant change in helping needy nations since the post-World War II Marshall Plan; and in pursuing a freer trading and investment climate worldwide. In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, then Secretary Powell affirmed that the nation’s main purpose is to extend democracy, prosperity and freedom to every corner of the world – a process that is establishing a balance of power that favors freedom across the globe.

Colin Powell was founding chairman of America’s Promise – The Alliance for Youth, a national crusade to improve the lives of the nation’s youth that was established at the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future in Philadelphia in 1997 and has been endorsed by every living U.S. president. In March 2000, while chairman of America’s Promise, Colin Powell visited the OU Norman campus to deliver a keynote address launching a student initiative on volunteerism: The Big Event. That event now involves thousands of OU students, faculty and staff, who spend one day in the spring performing service activities across central Oklahoma. Powell is the author of his best-selling autobiography, My American Journey.

He is the recipient of numerous U.S. military and civilian awards and decorations, including twice being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civil award.

Since returning to private life, Powell has become a strategic limited partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the renowned Silicon Valley venture capital firm. He is the founder of the Colin Powell Policy Center and he is helping to raise funds for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., and for the construction of an education center for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

The address with Colin Powell is open to OU faculty, staff and students, with overflow seating available to the public. For more information on the keynote address and accommodations on the basis of disability, call the Office of Special Events at (405) 325-3784.

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