March 20, 2007: Steve Forbes

Steve Forbes' accomplishments suit the mission of the Lyceum Series — to promote intellectual exchange — well, said Rob Carroll, SGA president and a member of the Lyceum Series Committee.

“Steve Forbes continues the tradition of bringing excellent speakers to ULM through the Lyceum Series. His accomplishments are obvious: editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, CEO of Forbes, Inc., two-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and frequent television panelist and political commentator,” Carroll said. “Few speakers blend success, passion, and notability in diverse arenas like Mr. Forbes."

Forbes, the nation’s leading business magazine, combined with Forbes Asia and the company’s eight local-language editions, together reach a worldwide audience of over five million readers.

Forbes writes editorials for each issue of Forbes entitled “Fact and Comment.” A respected economic forecaster, he is the only writer to have won four times the prestigious Crystal Owl Award, an award given to the financial journalist whose economic forecasts are most accurate.

In 1985, President Reagan named Forbes chair of the Board for International Broadcasting. In this position, he oversaw the operation of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Broadcasting behind the Iron Curtain, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were praised by Poland's Lech Walesa as being critical to the struggle against communism. Forbes was reappointed to his post by President George Bush, Sr. and served until 1993.

In both 1996 and 2000, Forbes campaigned for the Republican nomination for the Presidency. Key to his platform were a flat tax, medical savings accounts, a new Social Security system for working Americans, parental choice of schools for their children, political term limits and a strong national defense. Forbes continues to promote this agenda.

Steve Forbes was born on July 18, 1947, in Morristown, N.J. He graduated cum laude in 1966 from Brooks School in North Andover, Mass. He received a B.A. in history from Princeton in 1970. At Princeton, he was the founding editor of “Business Today,” which became the country's largest magazine published by students for students, with a circulation of 200,000. The magazine continues to be published today by Princeton undergraduates.

Forbes serves on the boards of The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, the Heritage Foundation and The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He is on the Board of Overseers of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and on the Board of Visitors for the School of Public Policy of Pepperdine University. He served on the Board of Trustees of Princeton University for 10 years.

His books include: “Flat Tax Revolution: Using a Postcard to Abolish the IRS” (Regnery, 2005). He also wrote “A New Birth of Freedom” (Regnery, 1999), a book of bold ideas for the new millennium.