A diverse group of leaders from business, government, and entertainment will serve as keynote speakers for Reaching Out 2008. This list continues to be updated, so check back regularly for additional information.
| Sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Doug Coblens is President of Broad Spectrum Media, a consulting firm based in Canada that provides business advice to US and Canadian companies in a wide variety of media including television, digital technologies, print and radio. Doug has been an executive in the media industry for over fifteen years, most recently at Discovery Communications’ corporate offices in Silver Spring, Maryland where he held a variety of senior level posts including Executive Vice President of Legal & Business Affairs, Chief Operating Officer of Discovery Channel Network and Executive Vice President of Business Integration. |
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During his ten year tenure at Discovery, Doug managed a number of key initiatives including integration of the HowStuffWorks.com website into Discovery’s overall business; exploitation of the world renowned “Planet Earth” television series across multiple media platforms; negotiation of coproduction and commission agreements with major producers including BBC, NBC and CBS; and managing relationships with key on-air talent.
Prior to working at Discovery Communications, Doug served in a variety of roles with other cable television companies including Chief Legal Counsel of International Channel and Director of Business & Legal Affairs of STARZ. Doug began his professional career as an associate in the New York office of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison. He received his Juris Doctorate from Boston University School of Law in 1989 where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and was an editor of the Law Review.
Doug has been an adjunct professor of media law at American University and has guest lectured at other major universities including University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University and Georgetown University. Doug has served on the boards of Open Broadcast Network and Whitman Walker Legal Clinic. In 2007 he accepted the Diversity in Hiring Award (Mid Atlantic Region) from Minority Corporate Counsel Association on behalf of Discovery Communications’ legal department. He is currently a board member of Lamphouse Theater for the Performing Arts. Doug and his partner, Michael, live in a small town in the Canadian Rockies on the border of Banff National Park.
| Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001 to be Ambassador to Romania, Michael Guest was the first publicly gay man to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as a U.S. Ambassador. Most recently, Guest served as the dean of the leadership and management school at the Foreign Service Institute, the U.S. government’s school for diplomats. |  |
Michael Guest retired from the Foreign Service in 2007 and noted in his farewell speech:
“Most departing ambassadors use these events to talk about their successes … But I want to talk about my signal failure, the failure that in fact is causing me to leave the career that I love.
For the past three years, I’ve urged the Secretary [Condoleezza Rice] and her senior management team to redress policies that discriminate against gay and lesbian employees. Absolutely nothing has resulted from this. And so I’ve felt compelled to choose between obligations to my partner — who is my family — and service to my country. That anyone should have to make that choice is a stain on the Secretary’s leadership and a shame for this institution and our country.”
Michael Guest is a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service. He holds a Masters Degree in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Political Science from Furman University. Before joining the Foreign Service, he also pursued postgraduate studies in international economics at the University of Toulouse in Toulouse, France.
| Sponsored by Boston Consulting Group
Vidur Kapur has been nominated by MTV Network’s LOGO Channel for a NewNowNext Award as Brink of Fame: Comic. Vidur was selected as a NY finalist for NBC’s “Stand Up for Diversity Initiative” and performed in NBC’s “Stand Up for Diversity Showcase” as part of the famous New York Comedy Festival. Fox News covered his participation in the event and mentioned him as “A comedian you want to remember.” |
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Vidur Kapur’s stand-up comedy is based on the social commentary of a one-man culture clash. He is a South Asian raised in a conservative upper-middle-class family in New Delhi, an overachiever with a degree from The London School of Economics and Ph.D. coursework in economics from the University of Chicago, a misfit in a family focused on arranged marriages and social status, a chic urban trend-crazy gay fashion victim in West Hollywood and Manhattan, a corporate survivor from blue chip international firms, an immigrant to the US, and a person horrified at being mistaken for a terrorist in a post-9/11 America.
For more information on Kapur’s work, including clips of his stand-up, visit www.vidurkapur.com. For booking info please contact OUTmedia at info@outmedia.org.
Donna Rose is a nationally recognized speaker, educator, and advocate on transgender and transsexual issues. She is active in the leadership of several national GLBT Advocacy organizations, is the author of an award-winning memoir, and is heavily involved in national corporate diversity efforts. |
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Donna Rose maintains a website and blog at: donnarose.com
| Sponsored by Boston Consulting Group
Jason Stuart has been making people laugh out loud with his performances across the country since coming out in 1993. Stuart released his stand-up comedy CD, “Jason Stuart: Gay Comedy Without A Dress” in 2007 with great success. Now he has just completed his very first stand-up comedy special, “Jason Stuart: Making It To The Middle” for Here! TV. |
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Stuart is also well-known for his work as an actor playing gay and straight roles on over forty popular television shows. Stuart has wowed audiences on the TV screen with guest roles in shows such as Will & Grace, George Lopez, Everybody Hates Chris, House, M.D. and Charmed. He is best known for playing “Dr. Thomas”, the gay family therapist on My Wife & Kids.
Stuart uses his talents as an openly gay actor and comedian to support the community by performing at numerous benefits for people with AIDS to the homeless. He is the chairman of the first ever Screen Actors Guild LGBT Committee and also chairs the comedy shows for Lifeworks Mentoring Program.
For booking info please contact OUTmedia at info@outmedia.org.
| Sponsored by Citi Andrew Tobias is a writer of best-selling books on investing and banking, including Fire and Ice, The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need, and Invisible Bankers. In 1995, Tobias revealed that he was also the author of the classic coming out autobiographical work, The Best Little Boy in the World, which he published in 1973 under the pseudonym John Reid. On the book’s 25th anniversary, Tobias published a sequel, The Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up, under his own name as writer. |
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Tobias was elected treasurer of the Democratic National Committee in 1999 and continues to hold the post. He is the first openly gay person to fill a leadership position in a major American political party, and Tobias continues to use his success to influence LGBT policies around the world. He has traveled to Russia with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and there helped in the effort to repeal Rule 121, a law against sexual relations between gay men. He also serves on the Human Rights Campaign’s Board of Directors and participated in their “endorsement project,” urging major corporations to adopt policies banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Tobias has received the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, Harvard Magazine’s 1998 Smith-Weld Prize, and the Consumer Federation of America Media Service Award. He is a graduate of Harvard and Harvard Business School.
He maintains a blog and website at www.andrewtobias.com.
Biographical information provided by www.glbtq.com.