Happy New Year!  Let's hope we can find more peace, security, prosperity and justice as we go forward into the unchartered waters of a very changed world both domestically and globally.

Here at CBG, the pace, appropriately, continues to quicken.  Let me offer only some "topline" developments that may be of special interest:

We welcome to CBG and to the Kennedy School faculty Bob Pozen, previously President of Fidelity Management & Research Company, who brings to us a very healthy and strong dose of the "B" in CBG, as well as a distinguished career in social innovation and public service.  At Fidelity, the world's largest mutual fund, Bob oversaw some $1 trillion in investment assets.  When he began, Fidelity's track record was, at best, average; by the time he departed, 75% of Fidelity's funds were performing better than the S&P 500.  Bob was also responsible for the creation and successful launch of the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, which now has industry-leading assets of nearly $3 billion.  A former professor at NYU Law School, Bob most recently has served as a member of President Bush's Commission to Strengthen Social Security, where he has advocated for a "third way" to resolve transitional and equity issues.  This spring, Bob will be teaching a new course, “The Mutual Fund Business,” on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons in Littauer 230.  As of the end of the month, he can be located here in Weil Hall in Belfer 402, (617) 384-9752.  Please reach out to Bob, introduce yourselves, and offer him encouragement and support as he makes the big transition from business to the Center for Business and Government!

Also adding ballast to that "B" in CBG, Bill Overholt joins us as a Senior Fellow in residence in our Asia programs.  Bill comes to us from Nomura International, where he was Managing Director.  Bill is the author of The Rise of China, Strategic Planning and Forecasting, and Political Risk.  His most recent work, "Japan: An Economy At War With Itself," can be found in the January 2002 issue of Foreign Affairs.  Bill’s office is at our Asia programs, 5th floor, 124 Mt. Auburn Street. Bill has already found his groove at CBG, participating actively and teaching in last month's successful week-long briefing for leading economists from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences that Tony Saich convened as the first of an annual event where leading scholars and practitioners share insights about global trends and challenges and opportunities facing policy-makers as China enters the WTO.

On the business, government and education front, CBG's Kearns program is gearing up for a fast-paced spring and fall agenda.  Faculty chair Jack Donahue is working to launch the first of a series of conferences and executive sessions on public/private partnerships for educational reform and progress that will share the experiences of business involvement in reshaping public education in major cities and states from across the nation.  Professor Richard Light is spearheading a promising new initiative that will attract to CBG in September thirty-two of the nation's most promising future faculty leaders for an intensive orientation to the role of different sectors, especially business and government, in bringing about systemic change and reform for the future of U.S. education.  Modeled along the lines of the Rhodes Scholarship, these "National Young Faculty Leaders" will be engaged with leaders from business and government who are similarly eager to initiate dramatic change and improvement.  Both projects are benefiting from the active involvement of former Secretary of Education and now-Kennedy School Professor Lamar Alexander, and Rob Mosbacher, Jr. of Houston, who has signed on to Chair our Kearns Advisory Board.

CBG faculty continue to grind out important publications on a variety of cutting-edge topics.  Tony Saich's Governance and Politics of China is now in bookstores.  This spring, look for Jeff Frankel's edited volume from MIT Press on economic performance and policy-making during the 1990's, based on the CBG conference held under Jeff's leadership last June that involved some 14 major papers commissioned on subjects ranging from fiscal policy to international trade and the environment.  (For a preview, link to Jeff’s abstract, “American Economic Policy in the 1990’s,” on the KSG working paper series website at: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/research/working_papers/index.htm)  Associate Professor David Hart is readying his book, The Emergence of Entrepreneurship Policy: Governance, Start-ups and Growth in the Knowledge Economy, based, in part, on CBG's major conference on "Entrepreneurship and Public Policy." Elaine Kamarck reports that she, too, is getting close to finishing her next product, with the provocative title of The End of Government as We Know It.  And Assistant Professor David Lazer is also close to finalizing his book, The Technology of Justice: DNA Policy and the Future of the Criminal Justice System, which flows from CBG's conference on "DNA and the Criminal Justice System" last year. At http://www.dnapolicy.net, you can see full transcripts, a video archive, and learn more about related contemporary issues.

Well, I'm nearly exhausted from reporting on just the "topline" -- and the year is only two days old!

Clearly, our plate is pretty full at CBG, our faculty, fellows and staff are hard at work, and a sense of excitement is palpable.  In all this, and more, I encourage you to participate and partake.  We're only as successful as our efforts to involve and attract you and others in our activities.  Please drop me a note or swing by to explore how you might become a more active member of our valued CBG community in this New Year.

Best wishes,