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 and CEO of Libra Group
As Chairman and CEO of Libra Group, George Logothetis leads a diverse multinational and multicultural international business group which today comprises 30 subsidiaries active in 35 countries across six continents. The group is focused on aviation, energy, finance and diversified investments, hospitality, real estate, and shipping.
George joined his family’s shipping company in 1993, becoming CEO in 1994 at the age of 19. In the ensuing years he presided over the company’s transformation from three vessels into a fleet of 55 before creating the Libra Group in 2003.
The Libra Group expresses its responsibility to global communities through ten programs and initiatives which seek to deliver educational opportunity, business opportunity, and acts of humanity towards people who are neglected, marginalized or under-served. These programs span internships, educational fellowships, backing for entrepreneurs, aid for refugees and support for charitable institutions and other non-profit organisations.
George is Chairman of the Leadership Council of Concordia, non-profit organization which seeks to promote public-private partnership and co-operation around pressing global issues. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the MBK Alliance, a non-profit organization launched by the Former-President Barack Obama aimed at eliminating opportunity and achievement gaps for boys and young men of color.
George and his wife, Nitzia, founded the Seleni Institute, a New York-based non-profit organization that addresses maternal mental health.
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.