Welcome to the New Renaissance with Ambassador Philip Lader and Linda LeSourd Lader

Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could hangout with your family on a long weekend with scores of Nobel laureates, Pulitzer, MacArthur, National Humanities Medal- and Templeton Prize-winners, dozens of Oscar-, Emmy- and Grammy-winners, Supreme Court Justices, Senators, Members of Congress and Governors, many astronauts, 16 former candidates for U.S. President (Republicans and Democrats) and a number of winners as well, and Wimbledon and US Open and Olympic champions, as well as professional athletes, university presidents and deans, journalists, CEOs, Secretaries of State, Secretaries of Defense, the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, the US Poet Laureate, clergy of various faiths and religion scholars, professors from various fields, Human Rights Activists, even Miss America?

Well thanks to an amazing couple and dynamic duo — Ambassador Philip Lader and Linda LeSourd Lader have done just that — welcome to the Renaissance Weekend.

Phil and Linda have created a space that fosters “Transforming ideas and relationships. Incredible mix of preeminent leaders, passionate change-makers and rising stars of all ages. More than a conference: it’s invitation-only, off-the-record. Non-partisan: All participants heard, all opinions welcome. More light than heat.”

No political or commercial agenda. Yet the Weekends’ friendships have fostered hundreds of commercial ventures, historic projects, and commitments to public service. Urgent questions of our times are examined with candor: All participants, heard; broadly divergent views, expressed. Eminent adversaries disagree without being disagreeable. The alchemy of ideas and substantive relationships has an incredibly transforming power.

Part of the magic of these weekends is that the discussion themes must be general and unattributed, and “…what happens at Renaissance, stays at Renaissance…” but we do learn in this conversation about some poignant, instructive, some surprising experiences they have had in more than 130 weekends thus far.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, as the hosts are amazingly accomplished have must have the world’s best Rolodex. Ambassador Philip Lader graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Duke University, received his master’s in History from the University of Michigan, and completed graduate law studies at Pembroke College, Oxford University, and received his J.D. as a Leopold Schepp Scholar from Harvard Law.

Linda LeSourd Lader received her Bachelor’s Degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and then went to Yale Divinity School where she received her Masters of Divinity.

Philip is the former U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s and Chairman of WPP plc and is a Senior Adviser to Morgan Stanley.

Ambassador Lader served in President Clinton’s Cabinet while Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration and was White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Assistant to the President, and Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Previously, he was Executive Vice President of Sir James Goldsmith’s U.S. holdings and President of Sea Pines Company as well as universities in South Carolina and Australia.

A trustee of the RAND Corporation and an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford University, and London Business School, an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple (Inns of Court), and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Philip has served on the boards of Lloyds of London, the American Red Cross, the British Museum, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the Atlantic Council, Marathon Oil, AES, Minerva and Rusal Corporations, as well as several banks and universities.

He has also been a partner in the Nelson Mullins law firm and President of Business Executives for National Security. He holds 14 honorary doctorates, and has won the Benjamin Franklin Medal, the Rotary International Foundation’s Global Service to Humanity Award, and the British-American Business’ Founders Award.

Linda, ordained Presbyterian minister, is President of the Renaissance Institute. She is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and Ohio Wesleyan University. Formerly she was Associate Pastor of Washington, D.C.’s historic New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Reflecting a career-long commitment to non-profit initiatives, she has served on the boards of Habitat for Humanity, Yale Divinity School, Communities in Schools, Spoleto USA, Alpha USA, International Justice Mission, Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of Values in Public Life, Sojourners, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and the American International University in London.

From 1993 to 1996, she assisted with White House liaison to American communities of faith and advised the President on public policy issues pertaining to religion. Associated with the National Prayer Breakfast Ministries throughout the 1970s, she coordinated the 1979 National Prayer Breakfast. In recognition of such public service, she received the International Women’s Foundation Leadership Award in 2000 and the 2012 Humanitarian Award from Emma Willard School, her alma mater.

Her editing work continues the tradition of her parents — Leonard LeSourd, longtime editor of “Guideposts” and Catherine Marshall, author of A Man Called Peter, Christy and other best-sellers.

In this episode, you’ll enjoy not only learning about the world-wide adventures this powerhouse couple and their daughters, Mary-Catherine and Whitaker, have experienced — from rock stars to the Queen Mother.

They have developed a way to build bridges among innovative leaders from diverse fields, one weekend at a time, with their families. I think that trumps TED, Aspen, and comes close to Davos, but you don’t bring the kids to Davos to speak!

Linda and Phil are truly living their lives in full, and helping to me the world a much better place.

Listen on iTunes or download here. You can also listen on Overcast, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Spotify, and iHeartRADIO as well. Please subscribe on your favorite platform and never miss an episode. Here are the show notes.

The “Living a Life in Full” podcast is the conversation you always wanted to have with that person who gave an amazing TED talk, or the author of one your favorite books, or that inspirational Olympian you always wanted to know more about.

This show is for the intellectually curious. You want to not just know more about the interesting and the innovative, but also what makes them tick, and maybe even what makes them laugh. It’s graduate-level conversations with those making a difference in the world and the lives of others.

This show brings you new ideas and approaches so you can live a life in full.

The show is equal parts information and inspiration, but without the aphorisms and Pablum. We cover a wide range of topics in an engaging way — from Burning Man to The Renaissance Weekend, from the United Nations to top universities, Nobel Laureates to astronauts — we have an amazing Rolodex.

Interviewees are a who’s who of high performance athletes, bestselling authors, high-caliber leaders, world changing humanitarians, innovative researchers, amazing start-up founders, clever life-hackers, paradigm busting thought-leaders and global innovators.

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This story originally appeared as a LinkedIn Influencer post. If you’d like to learn more or connect, please do at http://DrChrisStout.com. You can follow me on LinkedIn, or find my Tweets as well. And goodies and tools are available via http://ALifeInFull.org. If you liked this article, you may also like: https://www.linkedin.com/today/posts/drchrisstout