[ applause ] i thank senator hagel for saluting our brilliant, dedicated atlantic council program directors and staff for a remarkable year's performance. but i would ask them all to please stand because you're the ones who do the work. you're the best team in washington at what you do. thank you so much for your work. [ applause ]

last year the council launched the center for the middle east which already has a leading voice on the historic upheaval sweeping the middle east and north africa. surely one of the greatest strategic challenges facing the transatlantic community today. i want to salute the founder of that center in our audience tonight. [ applause ] please stand, thank you. last december the council honored our international advisory board chairman for his unparalleled life of leadership and achievement at a dinner to raise support for the council's new center on international kurt. it's a significant enlargement in size and ambition of our existing international security program. our campaign is still underway. and we're more than halfway to our $25 million goal.

we'll officially launch the center this autumn. i would like to ask the following to stand as i name them general jim jones and his vice chair. you should be standing because these people are here to take your checks. in less than two weeks time a young leelder's summit will be hosted on the sidelines of the nato sum it in chicago and announce the launch of an emerging leadership net wovrk. so we're going to do it as well. this is all part of the counsel's goal of building networks among the next generation from around the world to ensure the enduring nation of the transatlantic alliance.

and prince harry you have inspired us by your prince william and harry foundation. we will also expand our work on veteran affairs as well because that is a national security issue. finally the nato is looking to the presidential elections. in your gift bag you'll find the counsel's flagship reports just released the task ahead. which features memos from some of the most ill lust reeous names in foreign policy. many here tonight. hats off to project co-chairs. this is just a taste of the extraordinary accomplishments from the last year. none of it would be possible without your support and the involvement of our board members, international advisory members and individual members. thank you very much.

>> let's turn now to the 2012 leadership awards. the first presentation this evening is for distinguished artistic leadership. and to introduce the 2012 award yooe we'd like to invite to the stage a man who has dedicated his life to artistic leadership and vision. during a career that spans six decades sir andre previn has achieved a reputation as one of the most versatile musicians in the world. so previn has received many awards and honors for his lifetime of outstanding musical accomplishments as a can you be thor, composer and pianoist. >> he's a winner of four academy awards for his film work and ten grammy awards for his recordingings. including a grammy lifetime achievement ward from the recording academy.

sir andre's been honored with both the us a streeian and german cross of merit and the glen gould prize. the he's the recipient of the lifetime achievement award from the kennedy center, but also from the london symphony. he's enriched the lives of thousands of listeners and fellow musicians including the recipient of this year's distinguished artistic leadership award. >> also he was formerly married to our honoree and is with us here tonight which gives us hope to the rest of us. ladies and gentlemen, sir andre previn. [ applause ] >> thank you. it's nice for me to be here in

order to say a few words about your artistic honoree. in the first place i'm wildly prejudiced and that should be as it is. and also i'm not alone in that. i think most musicians are wildly prejudice in her favor because there's nobody like her. absolutely nobody. she's one of the great, great mu sises of our time and it's one of the favorite pass times of musicians to play the game amongst themselves about who's the best pianoist, host the best soprano and cellist. there's always a bitter argument about that. it doesn't work with violinists. you would have to change the question? who's the best jie licensist after her? she is better than a virtue owe sew.

she's a real musician. and she has done so much for music for young people, for contemporary composers for all kinds of people. and i know that in the book in the program book there are some some very stories about her how she went to play when she was i think 16 or something. and how he adored it and gave her a debut with the berlin philharmonic. but also what you didn't know and which i didn't know until about a month ago is she played me a recording of a violin solo of the famous virtue owe so piece which really is one of the most famous and daunting pieces that exist. when i questioned her about what

was this? he not only admitted that-she, but she had made it when she was 9 years old. the noise you hear are parents throwing themselves. but she really is -- she's quite extraordinary. she has an enormous curiosity about music. she went straight into the music hook line and zinger and is now one of the businessest chamber music players in the world and she has played chamber music with almost all the people who love it. also, she's curious about all kinds of music. i remember very well that there is a book of bach of 360 odd corrals. it's very short. he wrote them when he was an

organist in a german church and one for every sunday. they are of an irresistible beauty. and we used to get up on a sunday and sight read them a few at a time on violin and on piano and it made usz all feel better for the whole day. it was like a cold shower of genius. it was wonderful. now as far as repertory is concerned, she has played and recorded all of bach, all of mozart, all of beethoven and a great deal of other things. what's even more important to her is she has done wonders for contemporary music and she has -- she has a foundation for young people. and she furthers their career by getting them great master

teachers, by getting them good instruments and also by seeing to it that current contemporary composers compose for them. and she has made it of her life's calling to have people -- and we all write for her and for her students. for her disciples really. it's a marvelous thing to see in every major city in the world now these young people who all come under the -- and who wouldn't be there if it weren't for her. this is something that worried me a little bit because her

ambition and her will are so amazing when she started to record she decided she would also conduct them. well that was a blow to me. but it's true. and i tole her that with her ambition another couple of years and she'd make records of other simm fonys which are really daunting. but if she wanted to, i bet she could. anyway, she is unique. there's nobody like her. she is a complete musician and we are very lucky that she's around playing for us. so here's your -- here's your honorary artist of the year. [ applause ]

[ applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, very dear andre, thank you very much

for your way too kind words. what would be more wonderful for a musician than being a muse for one of the greatest composers of our time, certainly my favorite composer. i'm honored and delighted and thrilled to be here tonight and to accept this tremendous award. when i came to the united states of america in 1980 and did my debut here in washington, i wouldn't have dreamt of ever being part of such an i lustrous group of recipients from the past and the present. but washington has also played another important role in my life, a part of presenting me with this most memorable evening. it is the place where i met my long-term music collaborator some 23 years ago. and i'm very happy and grateful that he's here tonight joining me on stage.

and i didn't want to spoil your evening any longer with a prolonged speech of mine. and i will just pass on with the words of a great german author, hoffman, music takes on where words are at the end, so let's just move on to summertime and i wish you all a wonderful evening. [ applause ] ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ [ applause ] snet ♪ 6 ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ [ applause ] >> thank you.

>> okay. do you think he's here? is ian here? can anyone point out my republican brother? >> that could not have been easy. >> where is he? all right. to introduce the distinguished business leadership award and the 2012 awardee we'd like to invite a young man to the stage whose accomplishments are impressive. in his capacity as usiad administrator and in previous prominent positions. dr. shaw has championed innovative approaches to international aid and agriculture policy. as the administrator. dr. shaw spearheaded international relief efforts to earthquake victims in haiti and flood victims in pakistan. he's worked close by with dr. jill biden to bring assistance to the millions of people affected by fay min in the horn of africa.

>> as under secretary of research, education and economics at the department of agriculture, he led the usda's participation, the obama administration's global hunger and food security initiative. and while at the bill and melinda gates foundation, dr. shaw developed a number of innovative programs and partnerships that addressed the real issues involving food and hunger. >> we're all excited to see what the future holds for this brilliant young man. ladies and gentlemen, dr. shaw. [ applause ] >> thank you and good evening. a special thank you to mika and joy and thank you senator hagel who are hosting us this evening. it really is an honor for me to be with a distinguished audience. a yud oens of leaders who have imagined different possibilities for our world in so many

different fields and in particular in different ways to make our country safe and secure. it is in that setting that it's my distinct honor to introduce a friend of mine paul holman. it's unfortunately that just this evening more than 900 million people around our planet will go to bed hungry. and it's unfortunate that more than 500 million of them are young children and many of them because of their chronic hunger will not have the strength to fight the next illness and will succumb when they should persevere. many will not have the strength for their brains to fully develop so they can learn, grow and contribute to making their world more productive and economically rewarding for their communities. and it's in that world where we are able to honor tonight a business leader, paul holman who

runs a massive consumers goods company unilever and has had a very impressive background at nestle and other firms. and he brings an absolute and unique commitment to ensuring that business leaders around your world commit themselves to literally ending hunger, ending preventable child death and making sure that the reach of modern capitalism touches even those families that sometimes are forgotten. and it's with his perspective that corporate ceos and corporate entities have both the responsibility and a tremendous business opportunity in addressing the needs of very poor and often unstable environments that he has created a number of efforts that are literally changing the way companies large and small see their role in addressing these global challenges. he's brought together other ceos of similarly large firms to say

enough is enough and we have to work together to prevent the next famine in the horn of africa because that famine is both a deep moral blight on our conscious and also a very serious security threat to all of us. he's brought together companies with more than $3 trillion in revenue. trillion with a t, even a big number in this town. so that they could actually think about how they can improve the products they offer and how they could partner with the united nations and so many other agencies around the world to reach those children who otherwise simply don't get enough calories and certainly don't get enough quality calories to learn, grow and thrive. and with this new effort called new visions for agriculture, he's helped to make sure that these companies work together with local leaders and local businesses and local governments to make sure that we generate

the kind of hard nosed corporate results that we all value. as a result, he's lunching a public private partnership in tanzania that could triple their agriculture output, generate together with other efforts more than half a million jobs and lift two million people out of poverty. paul's worked aggressively with the word food program, the front line partner against hunger and famine to launch an effort called together for child vitality that has already helped to feed 80,000 children and encourage them to come to school because they get food in school throughout kenya, indonesia, and colombia. the list goes on and on deforestuation, school nutrition, improved food products for families. and efforts to literally transform the final frontier in food and agriculture subsaharan africa.

there was a time a few decades ago when we celebrated the insights of a young scientist named dr. vorlack. who has invented new wheat seed varieties and in doing so coupled that invention with his absolute persistence to end hunger and we awarded him the nobel peace prize for that effort. tonight's award is not the nobel peace prize, but in many ways paul holman reminds me of what i learned when i had the chance to meet dr. vorlack someone who has tremendous vision and intellect. someone who is respected for his leadership in a hard nosed, results oriented corporate environment and someone who miraculously gets up every day and commits his personal time and energy and somehow manages to bring 20, 30, 40 other ceos along with him every time he launches a new effort to make the world a better place and to

imagine an environment where those kids don't go to bed hungry every night. for that, i am deeply honored to be able to introduce my friend and to present him with the atlantic council's distinguished business leadership award. thank you, paul. [ applause ] [ applause ]

♪ >> thanks. i think that's more than certain -- one of the thing that's very clear is rajij's leadership of u.s. aid and a deeper sense of purpose, focus and energy he brings to the number of global challenges is obviously admirable and more importantly to the benefit of us all, i think no one better to explain that than himself. i saw the energy and determination when i had the privilege to welcome him at the latest world economic forum which i co-chaired and we worked on the commission for agriculture as a partnership to

indeed promote the sudden growth corridor in and nia. it's an immense honor for me to accept this award in the name of our company, unilever, and do this at a time that you celebrate 50 years of transatlantic relations and to foster peace and understanding across the world. in fact, i myself am probably in some ways a child of the atlantic council. i was born about at the same time in the netherlands that the council started. i grew up in europe. actually studied many the united states. and had the privilege to lead a wonderful company that touches about two billion lives a day. where seven out of ten households actually use our products around the globe. these formative years in the u.s. when i studied here taught me a few things. they taught me the value of hard work. how you appreciate the enterprise itself. the importance of strength through diversity as well as the agility and the continuous