Educational Events

The Ivy Club sponsors multiple educational programs each year. Sponsored by the Ivy 1879 Foundation, these events occur during the academic year and are led by undergraduate members. Graduate members and Ivy parents are welcome to attend as space permits and should contact julia.wilson@theivyclub.net to inquire about availability.

Leadership Program

Each year the Club invites 3-4 speakers to share their leadership experiences with the membership. Presenters have included His Royal Highness Prince Turki al Faisal of Saudi Arabia, former CIA Director David Petraeus, former New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman, Dr. Dennis Ausiello, chief of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Wendy Kopp, Founder of Teach For America. The goal of this program is to provoke discussion about the personal qualities that create great leaders, and the moral challenges they face.

Past Events

Cooking Demonstration and Dinner with World-Renowned Chef Jonathan Waxman

Jonathan Waxman is a successful chef, restaurateur, and author who has graced such prestigious kitchens as Chez Panisse in Berkeley and Michael’s in Los Angeles. Today, he is chef and owner of Barbuto in Manhattan’s West Village and Jams in 1 Hotel Central Park as well as owning other renowned restaurants across the country. Winner of the James Beard Award for “Best Chef, New York City” in 2016, Waxman was a judge on Bravo’s Recipe for Deception and has appeared on two seasons of Top Chef Masters where he earned the nickname ‘Obi Wan Kenobi.’ He lives in Manhattan and has three children, one of whom is a current undergraduate member of The Ivy Club.

Roundtable Discussion with Award-Winning Author and Historian Steven Ujifusa

Steven Ujifusa specializes in telling stories of American business leadership, both as an acclaimed popular historian for Simon & Schuster and as a writer of “works for hire” for public and private companies. In 2012, The Wall Street Journal named his first book A Man and His Ship: America’s Greatest Naval Architect and His Quest to Build the SS United States as one of the 10 best nonfiction books of the year. He has appeared on NPR, CBS Sunday Morning, and numerous other media outlets. He is a frequent contributor to the urban history website PhillyHistory.org.

Leadership in International Journalism: A Conversation with Award-Winning Reporter Ben Taub ’14

A staff writer for The New Yorker since 2017, Taub has written about jihadi recruitment in Europe, war crimes in Syria, battlefield medicine, and human trafficking. In 2017, Taub’s work on Syria, which was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, was short-listed for a National Magazine Award and won The Livingston Award for International Reporting, the Robert F. Kennedy Award for International Print reporting, and the ASME Next Award for Journalists Under 30. in 2018, he was named one of Forbes’s 30 Under 30 in Media.

Leadership in the Entertainment Industry: A Conversation with Robert Kraft, Grammy and Oscar-nominated Film Composer and Record Producer

Robert Kraft is an award-winning songwriter, film composer, recording artist and record producer. As President of Fox Music from 1994 to 2012, Kraft was the Executive in Charge of Music for more than 300 Fox feature films, as well as dozens of TV shows. Highlights during his tenure at Fox include the record-breaking scores and soundtracks from Titanic, Moulin Rouge, Garden State, Walk the Line, Slumdog Millionaire, Juno, and Once. As a songwriter, Kraft has earned Academy Award, Grammy Award, and Golden Globe nominations.

“Off the Record” Career Night

By popular demand, we have organized Ivy’s second annual Career Night, an opportunity for undergraduate members to glean career advice from Ivy graduates working in a variety of fields. Among the careers represented by our visiting Ivygraduates are start-ups, law, non-profits, politics, consulting, academia and real estate. Please RSVP by sending an e-mail to julia.wilson@theivyclub.net to reserve your spot at the event, which includes a cocktail hour, keynote interview with Ro Gupta ’00, Founder/CEO of Carmera, and dinner.

Leadership that Empowers the Vulnerable: A Conversation with Margaret Crotty ’94, Executive Director of Partnership with Children

Ivy graduate member Margaret Crotty ’94 has a long history of leadership in education and public health in the nonprofit and private sectors. Prior to joining Partnership with Children, a nonprofit organization that provides critical counseling and intervention to 17,000 students in New York, Crotty launched and managed Save the Children International’s $2 billion initiative to reduce child mortality in the developing world. Previously, she was the President CEO of AFS-USA, which has provided intercultural exchanges for other 300,000 high school students since 1947. She graduated with honors from Princeton University and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MPH from Columbia University.

Behind the Spotlight: A Conversation with Pete Austin ’93, Senior Broadcast Producer at Good Morning America

Pete Austin ’93 began his career the summer before his senior year with a one-week internship at the 1992 National Convention. Since then, he has worked at ABC News—with a brief hiatus in 2000 to explore the dot com world—where he served as a senior producer for Nightline. In 2015, he was named Senior Broadcast Producer at Good Morning America, where he currently line produces the show Monday through Friday. Austin has helped earn two Emmys for ABC in recognition of outstanding breaking news coverage.

Upcoming Events

Roundtable Program

The Roundtable program seeks to bring people of interest to the Club for lively dinner discussions, which are limited to 35 members. Many distinguished scholars have been guests, along with accomplished Ivy parents, graduate members of the Club, and members of the Princeton community. The Roundtable program hosts an average of two guests each month during the academic year.