Our Mission
American Democracy faces an imminent threat. Research shows that fewer and fewer Americans maintain faith in our democratic system and its founding principles. The American Democracy Month Council reacquaints Americans with profound truths about democracy. Humankind is divided into two segments – virtual universal oppression prior to America’s experiment with democracy and democracy becoming the only governmental system providing freedom, prosperity and peace with any regularity.
The American Democracy Month Council will help educate and inspire Americans. The Council seeks to strengthen American democracy by placing the imprimatur of our federal government on the creation and implementation of an official American Democracy Month. This Month will provide the mechanism necessary to broadly re-educate Americans about the life and death impact of maintaining our democratic pillars.
Democracy Month and its myriad of educational and inspirational activities and public outreach efforts will create a yearly “crash course” that bolsters democracy’s principles. The Council will resuscitate and nurture the broader understanding of democracy and restore a wider appreciation for it.
Boards
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
George Logothetis, Chairman and CEO of Libra Group
Andy Manatos, Manatos & Manatos
George Mitchell, Former Senate Majority Leader
John Negroponte, U.S. Ambassador
ADVISORY BOARD
Art Agnos, former Mayor of San Francisco
Bill Antholis, Director & CEO, Miller Center at UVA; former Managing Director, Brookings Institution
Jean P. Bordewich, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; former staff director, US Senate Rules Committee
Suzan Johnson Cook, former Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom
Tom Daschle, former US Senate Majority Leader
Carl Gershman, former President of the National Endowment for Democracy
Lee Hamilton, former Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Vice Chairman of the 9/11 Commission
Anthea Hartig, Elizabeth MacMillan Director of the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian
Randa Fahmy Hudome, former Associate Deputy Secretary of Energy, George W. Bush Administration
Father Alex Karloutsos, Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church
Virginia Kase, Chief Executive Officer of the League of Women Voters
Skip Keesal, prominent attorney and philanthropist
Neil Kerwin, former President of American University
Tom Korologos, former US Ambassador to Belgium; Senior White House Assistant to two Presidents
Eleni Kounalakis, Lt. Governor of California
Trent Lott, former US Senate Majority Leader
George Marcus, successful businessman and philanthropist
Dennis Mehiel, successful businessman and philanthropist
D. Paul Monteiro, former Director of AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America)
Yascha Mounk, Lecturer on Political Theory at Harvard; Executive Director, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
Norman Ornstein, Resident Scholar at American Enterprise Institute
John Pappajohn, successful venture capitalist and philanthropist
Harris Pastides, former President, University of South Carolina
Megan Poole, International Affairs Coordinator, Chevron
Will Powers, Princeton University (class of 2023)
Adam Scher, Professor, U.S. Military Academy
Olympia Snowe, former US Senator
Athan Stephanopoulos, Executive VP and Chief Digital Officer, CNN Worldwide
George Stephanopoulos, Chief Anchor of ABC News; co-anchor of ABC’s Good Morning America
Fran Townsend, former Homeland Security Advisor to President George W. Bush
ADDITIONAL FOUNDING ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS
Tony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State
R. Nicholas Burns, US Ambassador to China
Bob Dole, the late US Senate Majority Leader; Republican nominee for President
Carl Levin, the late Chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee
Rob Stein, the late Founder, Democracy Alliance
George Logothetis
Chairman of the Board, Libra Group; Founder and Chairman Libra Philanthropies
George Logothetis is the Executive Chairman of Libra Group, a privately owned, global business group with assets and operations in nearly 60 countries. He is based in New York City. At 19, George became CEO of his family’s company, Lomar Shipping, which had three vessels at that time. The shipping business was grown into a more modern and diversified 55-vessel fleet over the next 10 years. In 2003, George founded Libra Group at the age of 28.
Today, Libra Group encompasses 20 businesses predominately focused on aerospace, renewable energy, maritime, real estate, hospitality, and diversified investments. George is also the Chairman of the Group’s sister organization Libra Philanthropies, an independent 501(c)(3) that includes 10 philanthropic initiatives. Previously known as Libra Social Responsibility, Libra Philanthropies’ initiatives include social impact programs, strategic giving, and independent non-profits supporting over 25 million people around the world.
George is Co-Chairman of the Leadership Council of Concordia, a member of the Board of Directors of President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Alliance, a Global Advisory Council Member of the Wilson Center, a member of the American Democracy Month Council’s Board of Directors, and an Advisory Board Member of the Genius 100 Foundation. In 2013, George and Nitzia Logothetis founded the Seleni Institute, an independently run clinic and nonprofit supporting individuals and their families’ mental and emotional health during the family-building years.
John Negroponte
U.S. Ambassador
Ambassador John Negroponte serves as Vice Chairman of McLarty Associates. following a distinguished career in diplomacy and national security.
Negroponte held government positions abroad and in Washington between 1960 and 1997 and again from 2001 to 2008. He served as Ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines, the United Nations and Iraq. In Washington he served twice on the National Security Council staff, first as the Director for Vietnam in the Nixon Administration and then as Deputy National Security Advisor under President Reagan. He also held a cabinet level position as the first Director of National Intelligence under President George W. Bush. His most recent position in government was as Deputy Secretary of State, where he served as the State Department’s Chief Operating Officer.
Negroponte serves as Chairman Emeritus of the Council of the Americas/Americas Society. He is also Co-chairman of the US-Philippines Society and a member of the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board. He has also served as Chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.
George Mitchell
Former Senate Majority Leader
Senator George Mitchell represented the State of Maine in the U.S. Senate for 15 years and served as the Majority Leader of the Senate from 1989-1995.
Following his years in the Senate, Senator Mitchell served as a Special Advisor to President William J. Clinton on Ireland, and from 1996 to 2000 he served as the Independent Chairman of the Northern Ireland Peace Talks. He then served as Chairman of an International Fact-Finding Committee on violence in the Middle East and as President Barack Obama’s Special Envoy to the Middle East. As well the Senator served as Chairman of the global board of the law firm DLA Piper and on the board of numerous major corporations.
Senator Mitchell has received numerous awards and honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor given by the US government; the Philadelphia Liberty Medal; the Truman Institute Peace Prize; and the United Nations (UNESCO) Peace Prize.
Andrew Manatos
Manatos & Manatos
As CEO of Manatos & Manatos, Andy Manatos has orchestrated numerous efforts that have led The Washington Post to designate the firm “one of Washington’s most powerful.” As the youngest staff director of a U.S. Senate Committee, Andy headed the effort that:
- Invoked cloture on a filibuster for only the 13th time in history; and
- Moved the Congress to override the White House, for the only time in modern history, on a major foreign policy issue.
After serving as the youngest Assistant Secretary in the Carter Administration, he and his father, a top White House aide to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, opened Manatos & Manatos. Today, he works alongside his son Mike and they have maintained, among other things:
- For 31 years, an annual meeting at the White House with each President of the United States;
- Op-eds in The Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune among other publications; and
- For 16 years, co-hosted, with President Bill Clinton, a dinner for a charity they both helped create and support.