Former Vice President Al Gore will deliver the keynote address at the Council on Foundation’s 2010 Annual Conference.

Gore served as Vice President in the Bill Clinton administration 1993-2001. As a former member of Congress, author of four best-selling books, writer and star of the Academy-award winning film “An Inconvenient Truth”, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and now co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management, a firm that focuses on sustainable investing, Gore is an expert at uniting seemingly disparate causes and the people who support them … on behalf of the common good. His unparalleled perspective promises to be provocative and illuminating to the conference theme – Intersections: Social Change, Social Justice, Social Innovation.

Gore also is cofounder and chairman of Current TV, an independently owned cable and satellite television network for young people based on viewer-created content and citizen journalism. A member of the Board of Directors of Apple Computer, Inc. and a senior advisor to Google, Inc., Gore also is visiting professor at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Valerie Jarrett is senior advisor and assistant to the president for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs in the Obama administration. Prior to that, she served as a co-chairperson of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. Jarrett is also a Chicago lawyer, businesswoman, and civic leader. Before joining the Obama administration, she was CEO of The Habitat Company, a real estate development and management company, and former chief of staff to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. Jarrett was also a member of the board of the Chicago Stock Exchange for seven years, serving as its chairman from 2004 to 2007; chairman of the board of trustees of the University of Chicago Medical Center; vice chairman of the board of trustees of the University of Chicago; and a trustee of Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. She is one of President Obama’s longest-serving advisors and confidantes. In the Obama administration, Jarrett manages the White House Office of Public Engagement, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Office of Urban Affairs.

Geoffrey Canada is president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), a nonprofit organization whose goal is to increase high school and college graduation rates among students in Harlem. In 1997, Canada and the agency launched the Harlem Children's Zone Project, which targets a specific geographic area in Central Harlem with a comprehensive range of services. The Zone Project today covers 100 blocks and aims to serve over 10,000 children by 2011. The New York Times Magazine said the Zone Project "combines educational, social and medical services. It starts at birth and follows children to college. It meshes those services into an interlocking web...to create a safety net woven so tightly that children in the neighborhood just can't slip through." The pioneering work of Canada and HCZ has become a national model and has been the subject of many profiles in the media, including on 60 Minutes, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Nightline, as well as in a number of print publications.

Admiral Mullen was sworn in as the 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on October 1, 2007. He serves as the principal military advisor to the president, the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council.

A native of Los Angeles, he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968. He commanded three ships: the gasoline tanker USS Noxubee (AOG 56), the guided missile destroyer USS Goldsborough (DDG 20) and the guided missile cruiser USS Yorktown (CG 48). As a flag officer, Mullen commanded Cruiser-Destroyer Group 2, the George Washington Battle Group, and the U.S. 2nd Fleet/NATO Striking Fleet Atlantic.

Ashore he has served in leadership positions at the Naval Academy, in the Navy's Bureau of Personnel, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and on the Navy Staff. He was the 32nd Vice Chief of Naval Operations from August 2003 to October 2004. His last operational assignment was as commander, NATO Joint Force Command Naples/Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe. Mullen is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School and he earned a Master of Science degree in Operations Research from the Naval Postgraduate School. Prior to becoming chairman, Mullen served as the 28th Chief of Naval Operations.

Patrick Corvington was sworn in as the CEO of the Corporation for National & Community Service on February 18, 2010. He is a recognized expert on nonprofit sector leadership and capacity issues, new and emerging philanthropy, and volunteerism. Prior to joining the Corporation, he served at The Annie E. Casey Foundation as a senior associate responsible for guiding the foundation’s grantees on issues related to leadership development, next generation leadership, and capacity building. As part of this work, Corvington was engaged directly with some of the top social innovation intermediaries in the nonprofit sector and has co-authored publications such as “Ready to Lead: Next Generation Leaders Speak Out” and “Next Shift: Beyond the Nonprofit Leadership Crisis.” Previously, Corvington was executive director of Innovation Network, a nonprofit agency whose mission is to build the evaluation capacity of the nonprofit sector. Earlier in his career, he conducted policy research in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center at The Urban Institute, and also worked to build the capacity of nonprofit organizations abroad.

Corvington began his career traveling the East Coast migrant stream as a case manager working with migrant workers. He has also served as an advocate for adjudicated youth as a director of a group shelter home and has worked as a patient advocate in a community-based HIV/AIDS clinic. Corvington has volunteered his time working in the infirmary of a shelter for homeless persons. He previously served on the board of directors of Echoing Green, the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, and the advisory board of the American Humanics and Nonprofit Workforce Coalition.

Chip Heath is the co-author of “Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard,” written with his brother Dan, and released in February and has taken a quick trip up the best seller lists of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. The book reveals that the same forces that make changing a diet so tough can also trip up social changes in school districts and communities. The book follows the widely acclaimed “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die,” also a New York Times bestseller. “Made to Stick” has been translated into 29 languages and it was retired from the BusinessWeek bestseller list after a 24-month run.

Heath also is a columnist for Fast Company magazine, and he has spoken and consulted on the topic of "making ideas stick" with organizations such as Nike, the Nature Conservancy, Microsoft, Ideo, and the American Heart Association. He’s the Thrive Foundation of Youth Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

Douglas Shulman became the 47th Commissioner of Internal Revenue and began his five-year term on March 24, 2008. He presides over the nation's tax administration system, which collects approximately $2.4 trillion in tax revenue that funds most government operations and public services. He manages an agency of over 100,000 employees and a budget of approximately $11 billion.

As Commissioner, Shulman has emphasized a balanced program between taxpayer service and tax enforcement. The IRS goals are improving service to make voluntary compliance easier for taxpayers while at the same time enforcing the law to make sure everyone meets their obligation to pay taxes.

In the face of increasing globalization of tax administration, Shulman has stepped up IRS activity on a variety of international and corporate tax issues. During the financial downturn, the IRS balanced demands of the economic stimulus program with regular tax administration work to ensure that 106 million refund checks and 116 million stimulus payments reached the hands of taxpayers.

Commissioner Shulman came to the IRS from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the private-sector regulator of all securities firms doing business in the United States. As vice chairman, he was responsible for strategy, services and operations. He served in the same role at the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) before its 2007 consolidation with New York Stock Exchange Member Regulation, which resulted in the formation of FINRA. Earlier in his career, Shulman was involved with several start-up organizations, was a vice president of a private investment firm, and served as senior policy advisor and then chief of staff of the National Commission on Restructuring the IRS.