This week Bill Clinton and chief advisor, Doug Band, hosted the 6th annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) conference. CGI was started in 2005 from an idea generated by Band to “turn ideas into action”. The mission was to bring world leaders in politics, business, and non-profits together to tackle world problems. Instead of just talking about what should be done, CGI actually requires participants to generate actual plans of action and to submit donations to fund projects. After day 1 of the 6th annual CGI meeting, former President Clinton tweeted that CGI members have made 1950 commitments totaling $63 million that will improve 300 million lives. Clinton has reiterated that most of his post Presidency success is largely in part due to Doug’s help and dedicated work ethic. Politico has done a great job of recapping just exactly what Doug Band has done to promote Clinton to his level of success. Additionally, the success of CGI would not have been possible without Band’s ingenuity and around-the-clock work and organizational masterminding.
Several months ago you might recall the special ops trip that Bill Clinton and Doug Band took to free two U.S. journalist from a prison in S. Korea. Recently, the U.S. is looking to the infamous duo again to see if they can help free U.S. hikers that have been taken prisoner in Iran.
One of the most recent endeavors taken on by Bill Clinton and Doug Band is the push to bring the World Cup Soccer Tournament to the United States in 2018 or 2022 by joining the Board of Directors of the U.S. World Cup Committee.
Former President Bill Clinton is recovering this week after being hospitalized for a heart procedure on Thursday. The former President was admitted to New York Presbyterian Hospital to have a procedure in which doctors inserted two stents in his heart that helps clear the coronary arteries while also allowing for greater blood flow to the heart. The operation came six years after the former President had a quadruple bypass, and after feeling some discomfort this week doctors felt that tests and the procedure was needed to clear a blocked artery. Adviser Doug Band stated that the former President is now recovering at home, is in excellent health, good spirits, and could possibly even get back to work by Monday.
The President was visited by his wife and current Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, and left the hospital a day after the procedure with a clean bill of health by doctors. This is good news for the Former President not just from a health perspective, but also because it will not slow down his tireless work ethic and humanitarianism. Getting back to good health is vital for the busy former President who is not only coordinating Haiti relief and support efforts but is also working within his foundation, The Clinton Global Initiative on many other humanitarian issues and philanthropy efforts across the globe. The former President even entered the hospital taking a conference call regarding Haiti relief efforts but was forced to give up his phone in order to have the procedure. This shows, if nothing else, that even something as important as heart surgery cannot slow the former President down from trying to make a difference.
Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are spearheading a fundraiser relief effort for Haiti at the request of President Obama. While Bush said he doesn’t miss the spotlight, he says he believes his role post presidency is to use his resources to help where he can. He believes the immediate goal for the relief effort is to save as many lives as possible and then develop a strategy from there. Bill Clinton said that his role Post Presidency is not to tell the current President [Obama] what to do but to show up and help when asked to do so. Together they should be able to raise a significant amount of money and resources for Haiti. It’s a very unique situation to see them working together. However, despite the fact that they do not always agree on everything, they’ve always considered each other good friends. In this particular case, they do not have to worry about choosing political sides since they both agree that the right thing to do is help Haiti in every way possible.
Read more about Bush, Clinton and gain a perspective from Clinton’s counselor, Doug Band, on the collaboration of the two by following the embedded link to the NY Times article.
