Issue 132 | January 2016

In This Issue:

Director's Notes
Message from Allison

NEWS

Featured Member Posting: Assistant (Untitled Entertainment) - LA
Want to join the Harvardwood Board of Directors? Apply by January 15th
Apply for the Spring 2016 Harvardwood Writers Program—TV Modules in NY & LA
Let us know if your film will be featured at Sundance or Slamdance this month
Harvardwood at the Harvard Alumni Association's Global Networking Night - Jan. 12th
NEW: Sign up for Harvardwood's first producers' meet-up

FEATURES

Q&A with Gregg Hurwitz '95 (Orphan X, The Book of Henry)
Industry Successes
New Members' Welcome
Alumni Profile: Johnny Lee '01 (Violinist, Los Angeles Philharmonic)

CALENDAR & NOTES

Calendar
Start off 2016 right: Renew your membership to access Harvardwood benefits, programs, & special events

Director's Notes

Happy New Year, Harvardwood!

I hope you all enjoyed a happy and relaxing holiday break last month. We certainly did, and we're ready to tackle the new year full steam ahead. 2016 will bring a lot of exciting new programs to Harvardwood, such as our first-ever producers' meet-up and a monthly masterclass series. This month's masterclass, HOW TO BE CREATIVE IN THE NEW HOLLYWOOD, will be led by Red Hour Films' Nicholas Weinstock AB '91. Whether it's at that event or at Global Networking Night, I look forward to catching up with you all in the new year!

— Dona

Message from Allison

As you get back into work mode at the start of the new year, keep in mind two important Harvardwood deadlines this month! We're accepting applications for several Associate Directorship openings on the Harvardwood Board. Join the leadership team and help us improve the organization and expand our program offerings.

And writers, we're accepting applications to the Harvardwood Writers Program — TV Modules. Send those apps in by the end of this month! The Spring 2016 TV Modules will begin in Los Angeles in mid-February.

Here's to a year filled with more joy, success, and good health!

— Allison

Featured Member Posting: Assistant (Untitled Entertainment) - LA

Two Senior Talent Managers at Untitled Entertainment looking for an Assistant to start immediately. Responsibilities include: rolling calls, heavy scheduling and calendar management, composing expense reports, and providing client support such as scheduling auditions, organizing travel, and the occasional personal request. This is a great opportunity to learn from two great managers and interact with clients working in film, television, music and theater. 1 year agency or management experience strongly preferred. Ideal candidate will be motivated, organized and an excellent multi-tasker.

APPLY HERE

Want to join the Harvardwood Board of Directors? Apply by January 15th

The Harvardwood Board of Directors is coming up on elections for its next term, and we are looking for some energetic individuals to fill a few great positions! The Harvardwood BOD is the managing body that oversees the volunteer efforts of Harvardwood members worldwide and has worked to create an impressive array of events, programs, and online resources over the past fifteen years. As a member of this dynamic team, you will play a large role in determining the priorities and setting the course for the entire organization.

This year's openings include Associate Directorships for the HWP—Features, Summer Internship Program, Membership Experience, and Harvardwood Music.

Learn more about the Board openings and how to apply.

Apply for the Spring 2016 Harvardwood Writers Program—TV Modules - LA

Harvardwood is pleased to announce the Spring 2016 Harvardwood TV Writing Modules! The modules will use peer review, guest speakers and workshops to foster a motivating and supportive environment for participating television writers. In Los Angeles, we anticipate having modules for Original Drama Pilot, Original Comedy Pilot, Spec TV Episodes, and Original Pilot Rewrites. Fees for original and rewrite modules are $100, and the spec module fee is $150.

The deadline to apply is the end of this month, January 31st. TV Module participants MUST be Full Members of Harvardwood (writing partners can be Friends of Harvardwood but must also be dues-current).

Get additional details and application instructions.

Let us know if your film will be featured at Sundance or Slamdance this month

Calling all Harvard-affiliated films and filmmakers heading to Sundance or Slamdance in January 2016!

Are you heading to Park City next month? Will one of your films be presented? If so, let us know so that the Harvardwood community can support you and your work. Just email [email protected] with information about your film, screening times, etc.

Harvardwood at the Harvard Alumni Association's Global Networking Night - Jan. 12th

Each January and June, Harvard Clubs & SIGs around the world host networking receptions under the Global Networking Night banner. On January 12, 2016, Harvardwood will co-host Global Networking Night events in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, and Savannah, GA / Hilton Head, SC. Check out the calendar below for GNN details specific to each city. We look forward to seeing you there!

NEW: Sign up for Harvardwood's first producers' meet-up

YOU, our members, told us about your interest in support and resources for Harvardwood producers—and we listened! So in 2016, we aim to facilitate meetings and connections between working producers, and we're starting off by organizing a Harvardwood producers' meet-up in February 2016. At this meet-up, producers will have the opportunity to network with one another, seek advice/feedback on current projects, share resources and contacts, and open other avenues for future collaboration.

The exact weekday and location are TBD, depending on the level of interest in this meeting, so let us know you want in by filling out the form below.

Eligibility

Must be a dues-current Harvardwood member (join or renew your membership)
Must have a specific and current project

In the sign-up form, you'll be asked to give a brief background of your producing experience, as well as some basic info about the project you'll be bringing to the meeting for discussion. Sign up by January 15th for the February meet-up!

Q&A with Gregg Hurwitz '95 (Orphan X, The Book of Henry)

Orphan X, the latest novel by Gregg Hurwitz AB '95, will be published on January 19, 2016. The book is the first in the Evan Smoak series that Hurwitz is adapting for Warner Brothers, with Bradley Cooper producing (and possibly starring). Recently, director Colin Trevorrow finished shooting Hurwitz's screenplay, The Book of Henry.

Read our special Q&A with Hurwitz about both of these upcoming projects below!

Q. There's been a tight lid on details about THE BOOK OF HENRY, but can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind the idea and the choice to explore this dark plot with child-aged protagonists?

A. I can't even remember the inspiration since I wrote the first draft—literally—18 years ago. It felt like this pure, rare thing where I just thought of this single mom and her two kids stuck in a near-impossible predicament. I will say that Henry's voice (Henry is the 12-year-old prodigy at the center of the story) came very naturally. Not because I'm a prodigy or anything close to it but because sometimes my characters are smarter than I am, even in real time. I can't remember ever hearing characters' voices that distinctly right off the bat.

Q. How did the script find its way to Colin Trevorrow?

A. THE BOOK OF HENRY was optioned by the great Jenette Kahn (maybe my favorite Harvard alumnus) and eventually got set up with Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. One of the executives there has seen SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED and thought Colin might be great for it. I watched the movie and really loved it. The exec sent the script over, Colin dug it, and he and I sat down. We got along right away and it was all systems go. But Colin said to me, "Listen, there's only one way I wouldn't do this movie. I had a meeting with Spielberg about doing the next Jurassic movie but there's no way that would ever happen with me coming off such a tiny budgeted film, so let's not worry about it." A few weeks later, he called me and said, "Dude, I got offered Jurassic." He was so above-board about it and honest—and such a decent human—that while I was really disappointed to lose him, I was also genuinely happy for him since it was a pretty exciting opportunity. I remember before we got off the phone, he said, "Who knows, maybe I'll do Jurassic and then be able to come back and do this one and then we could get it green lit." And we sort of laughed because we knew that would never happen. It's like when you sit next to someone you really like on a cross-country flight and you get off the plane and say, "We should totally hang out some time!" But it never really happens. But in this case, it did. I had another director come on and fall off, Colin went off and made his little art house movie, and then we reconnected and the thing took off like a rocket ship.

Q. Writing a novel is a largely solo affair, subject to your editor's notes in the later stages. But film/TV projects involve so many people; is it a big adjustment to go from working on a novel to being part of projects such as V, THE BOOK OF HENRY, and upcoming, ORPHAN X?

A. Yes. Huge. But I like the challenge of collaborations with really smart people (show-runners, directors) too. Always fighting to raise the bar, make adjustments for budget/production—it's a whole new set of challenges. At the end of the day, a novel is 400 pages of final content. A script is 110 pages with lots of white on the page, and part of its function is to be a recipe for the movie, an invitation to collaborate. The key is getting the right collaborators. If you do, it's gold. If it doesn't, you spend all your time trying to protect the story. On THE BOOK OF HENRY everyone involved was trying to make the best possible version of this story.

Q. What was your inspiration for ORPHAN X?

A. I've done a lot of crazy (stupid?) stuff in the course of writing my thrillers. I've gone up in stunt planes, swam with sharks, gone undercover into mind control cults, sneaked onto demolition ranges with Navy SEALs and blown up cars. And it was from some of my conversation with guys in the shadow service that I hit upon this idea of the Orphan Program. It is fiction but there are certain counterparts to it in the intel community. I stole some of the notions and made them my own. But the real breakthrough was when I thought of my character Evan Smoak. I'd spent two years writing BATMAN for DC comics and by biggest interest was in how Batman has to sacrifice intimacy for perfection. And I wondered what that might look like in the real world. What's the real version of that—a guy who was snatched out of the foster care system at the age of 12, trained up to be an elite assassin, but still has a heart, still craves human contact. What if he left the program in order to help the truly desperate? But what he does means he can't ever have a normal life. There was something tragic in that—and new. We never get to see James Bond go home. But in Evan Smoak, there's a longing and wistfulness. No matter how bad-ass he is, he always has his face up to the window, an outsider looking in.

READ THE COMPLETE Q&A WITH GREGG HURWITZ

Industry Successes

Congratulations to Justin Hurwitz AB '07-'08 on his GRAMMY Nomination for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media with Whiplash (written and directed by Damien Chazelle AB '07-'08). Justin is also scoring Chazelle's latest feature, musical comedy-drama La La Land, to be released in Summer 2016 and starring Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, J.K. Simmons, and John Legend.

Adam Perlman AB '04 made The Black List 2015 with his script, Septillion to One. While a former FBI agent is working in the fraud unit of the Texas State Lottery investigating a woman who has mysteriously hit the lottery jackpot three times, he falls in love.

Discovery Channel is currently developing drama series Manifesto, written by Andrew Sodroski AB '04 and executive produced by Trigger Street (Kevin Spacey, Dana Brunetti) with Troy Searer. Andrew topped the 2013 Black List with Holland, Michigan, a feature that he workshopped with the Harvardwood Writers Program in Boston. Holland, Michigan will be directed by Errol Morris.

Sue Chung AB '02 will co-executive produce a new drama series (UNTITLED SUE CHUNG/JENNIFER JOHNSON PROJECT) at the CW. Sue wrote the pilot, which surrounds three women who work outside the law to deliver justice against those who evade punishment in the legal system. At the same time, they seek personal revenge against the people responsible for destroying their own lives.

New Members' Welcome

Harvardwood warmly welcomes all members who joined the organization over the past month, including:

George Baxter, Boston/On-Campus, College
Ching-Ching Chen, NY, HBS
Julia Forgie, LA, College
Timofei Gerasimov, NY, College
Julie Glucksman, LA, College
Chelsea Grate, LA, College
Evan Moreno Haigh, LA, FOH
Sophia Khan, LA, HDS
Lester Kim, NY, College
Birthe Lauchengco, LA, College
Rawi Malick, LA, FOH
Jan Moran, LA, HBS
Bryce Mullins, Boston/On-Campus, E.X.T.
Leean O'Connell, Boston/On-Campus, College
Karin Okada, LA, FOH
Tapan Sharma, LA, College
Benjamin Strathmore, LA, College
Jeannie Sui Wonders, Boston/On-Campus, College
April Thames, NY, FOH
Keith Thomas, Boston/On-Campus, HLS
Zjar Uruluzu, LA, College
Caroline Walters, SF/Bay Area, College
Ben Zauzmer, LA, College

FOH = Friend of Harvardwood

And in case you missed the Board openings announcement, we are looking for an Associate Director of Membership Experience! Please see above for more details and apply for the position by January 15th. Thank you!

Alumni Profile: Johnny Lee '01 (Violinist, Los Angeles Philharmonic)

by D. Dona Le

At the age of 5, Cleveland native Johnny Lee AB ’01 jumped at the chance to begin playing the violin so he could emulate his older twin brothers (photo to the left by Craig Mathew/Mathew Imaging, courtesy of the LA Philharmonic).

“I wanted to play violin from the onset. My brothers didn’t. They do other things now,” Lee laughs, “and I stuck with it—but it was kind of a convoluted journey to it.”

That journey included the Cleveland Institute of Music (the pre-college and graduate-level programs), Harvard College in between, several orchestras and numerous music festivals, and then—since 2005—a coveted job with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Lee enrolled in the prestigious Cleveland Institute of Music’s Preparatory Program just two years after beginning to play the violin. But even though music was a significant part of his childhood, more than an afterschool activity or passing hobby, Lee’s parents never expected him to pursue a full-fledged career as a violinist. In fact, Lee’s father, a physician, hoped that all three of his sons would follow his footsteps to medicine.

“So that was the path. I was so set on doing ‘the right thing’ and being a doctor, I applied to Harvard and I got in early,” he says. “But it was when I was at Harvard that I decided, I have to play violin. I have to try.”

But Lee took a few detours before arriving at that decision. As a freshman, he was a pre-med student and spent the next summer doing an internship at Harvard Medical School. Quickly realizing that he had little interest in biology, Lee switched his concentration to Economics and completed a summer internship at Fidelity Investments before junior year.

“Then I realized I didn’t like economics or business,” Lee confesses. “I had told my parents, if I didn’t want to be a doctor, I could do finance or law. But in the back of my mind, I always knew that I would have to do music.”

In fact, Lee was already doing music pretty much full-time on campus. He was the concertmaster for the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra as a junior and senior, an experience he recalls fondly. “HRO is the best. It’s the big orchestra, and you go on tours and retreats. I’m so glad I did it, and it was such a big part of my experience.”

Lee also co-founded the Brattle Street Chamber Players, Harvard’s conductor-less chamber group, and he frequently took Music 93r and Music 180, the College’s chamber music performance courses.

“All I was doing in my free time was practicing, playing chamber music, and being in HRO. That was my entire social life, and I was enjoying it much more than what I was studying.”

But breaking the news to his parents would be a challenge. When they visited Harvard to attend his solo performance with a student orchestra, Lee took the opportunity to announce his career change. He promised to complete his economics degree, but was simultaneously preparing to apply for summer festivals and music graduate schools. Although Lee’s mother had attended music school in Korea, she and his father were deeply worried about the feasibility and stability of a working musician’s life.

But Lee remained dedicated to the violin, and his swift trajectory from Harvard to the L.A. Phil reflects that dedication, not to mention his tenacity and talent. After graduating cum laude in 2001, Lee returned to his hometown in Ohio to study with William Preucil at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

His first job right after earning his master’s degree was with the Charlotte Symphony, where he won the position of assistant concertmaster. The demand among classical musicians for orchestra jobs far outweighs their availability, and many talented musicians embark on a long, grueling audition process before winning their first job. But the Charlotte Symphony was only Lee’s sixth audition; a couple of years later, the L.A. Phil audition was only his tenth.

After winning the Charlotte audition, “[m]y parents were proud of me, but they were still worried,” Lee admits. “But I was so happy to have a job because the audition process is so cruel.”

Joining the Charlotte Symphony proved to be a valuable experience for Lee offstage as well. The orchestra went on strike shortly after he moved to North Carolina, which was “incredibly eye-opening” for Lee. After two months, the orchestra returned to work, where Lee learned a lot about performing in a leadership capacity as assistant and acting associate concertmaster. Lee recalls, “I had a great time just living on my own for the first time. I made it a point to think, ‘Just focus on your job, and don’t worry about taking auditions for a while.’”

But the Charlotte Symphony was not a 52-week orchestra (like the L.A. Phil), so Lee began to take auditions for summer gigs. He won a position with Chicago’s Grant Park Orchestra in 2005 before learning about an opening for a second violinist at the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

“I didn’t have any expectations at all,” says Lee. “I thought, ‘I’ll just go there, play one round, get cut, and then go surprise my parents,’ who were moving to Palm Springs at the time. I wasn’t even going to tell them about it because they worry too much.”

Approximately fifty violinists showed up for the preliminary round in a process designed to be as meritocratic as possible. The musicians draw numbers to select their audition time, and the first several rounds are blind auditions.

“You’re just playing for a screen. They even have a carpet for the stage so they can’t tell if you’re wearing high heels. [The audition process] isn’t perfect—it’s a miserable experience,” Lee concedes, “but it has to be as fair as possible.”

The required excerpts for this particular audition included the first movements of a Romantic and Mozart concerto, plus twenty orchestral excerpts. The preparation done for this preliminary round is time-consuming and extensive; musicians from around the world fly to Los Angeles with the hope of advancing to the next round, but most are cut off after just a few excerpts and eliminated.

When Lee advanced to the second round, he decided to tell his parents that he was in town for the auditions. After all, “my Palm Springs trip was out the window.” By the final round, which took place three days after the first round, the selection committee had narrowed the audition pool to just six violinists.

“The first round [that day] was still behind the screen, the judges deliberated, and then they whittled us down to three,” Lee recalls. “At this point, for this particular orchestra, they took down the screen because they want to see how you play and how you interact with the conductor and other musicians. By now, I had played every excerpt and I had also performed my concerto movements with a pianist.”

The last portion of the final round was to be a chamber music reading with principal members of the L.A. Phil string section. Lee was reviewing the violin parts for the chamber music scores he’d just been given, when he heard a knock on his dressing room door. It was the Philharmonic’s personnel manager, who asked that Lee re-join him and the selection committee in the auditorium.

“I could hear the other two violinists practicing their chamber music excerpts in their rooms, so I thought, ‘Oh no, it’s over,’” he recounts. “I went onstage, and they were clearing it—I thought they were clearing it for the chamber music round.”

But the stage was being cleared because the committee had already selected the L.A. Phil’s newest member to the second violin section: Johnny Lee.

“I was in total shock. This changes your life,” he says even now, ten years later. “I played at an L.A. Phil event yesterday with two of my colleagues, and one of them said the same thing. It really changes your life.”

And immediately, too. The L.A. Phil was prepared for Lee to join the orchestra on its summer tour to New York the next day, but Lee had to return to Charlotte to pack up his belongings and then spend the summer in Chicago with the Grant Park Orchestra.

At Lee’s level, the classical music world is small and insular; news, especially the news of an unusually young violinist winning a job with one of the most prestigious symphony orchestras, travels fast.

On Lee’s very first day with Grant Park, conductor Carlos Kalmar quipped, “So nice to meet you. I hear you’re leaving us.”

In August 2005, Lee moved to Los Angeles and has settled in very happily.

“I’m here for good,” he says confidently. “I love Los Angeles, and most of my family lives in Southern California. My parents are so happy, they’re delighted it all worked out and we all live in the same area. And I love the L.A. Phil. Musically and managerially, it’s such a great organization with a great hall and great audiences.

“Los Angeles is so big in every sense,” Lee continues. “I hate when people say, ‘It’s not like New York.’ Los Angeles is so big, you can pretty much find anything here that you would find in New York. You just have to know where to look.”

In addition to the Philharmonic, Lee keeps himself musically engaged here in Los Angeles and elsewhere. He’s been a regular performer with Ensemble Ditto, a chamber music group from South Korea, and he has performed as a featured soloist with the Ohio Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, in addition to the L.A. Phil and other local orchestras.

The L.A. Phil’s rehearsal schedule keeps him busy. A typical workweek during the Disney Hall season, happening now, consists of: Mondays off, Tuesday morning rehearsal, Wednesday all-day rehearsal, and then Thursday morning dress rehearsal, followed by four concerts Thursday through Sunday. Repeat the following week, with a new program.

The Hollywood Bowl summer schedule moves at an even more breakneck pace, with the orchestra sometimes rehearsing only once the morning of the performance, as there are up to three different programs a week. More often than not, the Bowl concerts feature pieces that the musicians know well from past seasons.

Despite the inevitable repetition of repertoire throughout the lifetime tenure of any symphony musician, Lee sounds just as excited about every concert as he was ten years ago.

“I don’t get sick of pieces, to be honest with you. There are different conductors who will bring different perspectives to the music. And if anything, I remember parts that were challenging the first time around and I psych myself up for those parts.”

Lee also speaks enthusiastically about the many initiatives the L.A. Phil has taken to engage its existing audience and to attract new supporters, such as the Casual Fridays concert series and CODA Concerts.

According to Lee, to counter the doomsayers who claim that classical music is dying, “it’s increasingly important to constantly be creative, and the L.A. Phil is doing so many great things. We perform a lot of new music, which is appealing to younger audiences. That’s what I like about Los Angeles. There’s no snob factor about attending the concerts."

Another example of the Philharmonic’s innovation is the summer concert series featuring full-length movies with soundtracks performed live by the orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl.

“My definite all-time favorite of that kind of concert was when we played West Side Story with the film playing above us. That score is amazing.”

In his journey from the historic Sanders Theatre to the renowned Walt Disney Concert Hall, Lee has never regretted not attending a music conservatory instead of Harvard. In fact, the L.A. Phil has an unusually high number of Harvard-affiliated musicians (four, including Lee).

Though Harvard doesn’t offer a music performance degree, Lee credits the College with providing the environment “where I actually learned to love music by playing so much chamber music and hanging out with people who had so many other interests, so many other possibilities that they could do for a living, but they decided to choose music. Harvard was definitely the pinnacle of my love for music—obviously I still love music—but at that moment in college, the world is so open and filled with possibilities.”

Hear Johnny Lee perform with Harvardwood this April, when he joins other L.A. Phil
musicians in a concert of new American chamber music.

In addition to serving as Harvardwood's Executive Director, D. Dona Le '05 is a writer and business owner.

Calendar

FEATURED EVENT | Harvardwood Masterclass with Nicky Weinstock AB '91 (Red Hour Films) - Wednesday, Jan. 13th

HOW TO BE CREATIVE IN THE NEW HOLLYWOOD

Given the breadth and depth of Nicholas Weinstock's experience in entertainment — as a novelist, journalist, book editor, media communication executive, TV studio executive, movie producer, movie writer, etc. — he offers a unique vantage point of Hollywood and will discuss with masterclass participants how to break down Hollywood's modern landscape and its challenges for creative types of all sorts.

LIMITED CAPACITY, SO RSVP AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. This event is only open to dues-current Harvardwood members. You must be logged in to the site to access the RSVP link. Join or renew your membership.

Los Angeles

Harvard Global Networking Night - Tuesday, Jan. 12th

The Harvard Alumni Association invites you to join fellow local alumni for Global Networking Night on Tuesday, January 12, 2016. Global Networking Night is a great opportunity to explore and expand your Harvard Network; the last event drew more than 5,000 alumni in 80 cities!

Harvardwood Heads To... Gregg Hurwitz's ORPHAN X Launch Event - Tuesday, Jan. 19th

DIESEL Bookstore (in Brentwood) welcomes Gregg Hurwitz AB '95 to discuss his new thriller, Orphan X. Grabbing the reader from the very first page, Orphan X is a masterful thriller, the first in Gregg Hurwitz's electrifying new series featuring Evan Smoak. Refreshments will be served. Books available for sale.

New York

Harvard Global Networking Night - Tuesday, Jan. 12th

Harvardwood Heads To... #DoDeathDifferently with filmmaker Broderick Fox HC '96 and the Morbid Anatomy Museum - Thursday, Jan. 14th

Zenith Virago is an activist and educator who for over 20 years has been leading Australia towards a more communal, celebratory, and creative engagement with death and dying. From her origins as a young mother in the UK, to her present day identity as a lesbian, feminist, and self-described deathwalker in the idyllic seaside town of Byron Bay Zenith’s personal and professional experiences quietly challenge our core assumptions about life and dissolve our taboos around death. More information on the film and the growing natural death care movement it models can be found at: http://zenandtheartofdying.com/

Harvardwood Sponsors: "Secrets of Publishing" Panel - Friday, Jan. 15th

Harvardwood is delighted to be a sponsor of this latest panel in the "Secrets of Publishing" series at The Strand Bookstore. The panel includes Harvardwood member Judy Batalion as well as Harvard alums Frank Flaherty and Lauren Mechling. There is no need to RSVP — just show up at The Strand. Admission is free, but attendees are required to purchase a $15 Strand gift card at the door.

Harvardwood Presents "Wealth Secrets of the 1%": The Rise of the Robber Barons - Thursday, Jan. 28th

Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan: They were the richest men who had ever lived, and they gave a name to their era of U.S. history—The Age of the Robber Barons. How did they do it? And what can we learn today from their story?

Sam Wilkin's new book Wealth Secrets of the 1%: How the Super-Rich Made It to the Top tells the delightful and quite dismaying story of how, through history, the richest of the rich got that way. Sam Wilkin is a senior advisor to Oxford Economics, one of the world's foremost global forecasting and research consultancies, where he previously served as head of business research. He is also a senior advisor to Oxford Analytica, a strategic analysis and advisory firm that counts among its clients many global companies and more than 25 world governments. Wilkin received his BA in economics from Eckerd College, where he was a 2004 alumni fellow, and his MA in international relations from the University of Chicago. He lives in New York and Oxford.

Wealth Secrets of the 1% will be available for purchase, and a booksigning will follow the event.

Boston

Harvard Global Networking Night - Tuesday, Jan. 12th

Harvardwood Heads To... Harvard January Arts & Media Seminars (JAMS) - Jan. 20th-22nd

Sponsored by the Office for the Arts at Harvard, these seminars with leading figures in the arts and entertainment industries are open to all Harvard affiliates and the public admission free, with registration required.

Wednesday, January 20, 4-5:30 pm, Boylston Hall, Harvard Yard: Amy Brenneman ‘86: “Plugging Into Good Stuff and Letting Go of Noise: Some Tips for Staying Sane in a Show Business Life” The actor, writer and producer (“NYPD Blue,” “Judging Amy,” HBO's “The Leftovers”) will discuss balancing career and personal life, and managing the ups and downs of working in the entertainment industry.

Thursday, January 21, 1-2:30 pm, Holden Chapel, Harvard Yard: “A Conversation with Composer Jeanine Tesori” The 2015 Tony Award-winning composer of “Fun Home” (which also won a Tony for Best Musical), as well as the musicals “Thoroughly Modern Millie," “Caroline, or Change,” and “Violet,” will discuss her career and creative process.

Thursday, January 21, 4-5:30 pm, Boylston Hall, Harvard Yard: Neal Baer EdM ’79, AM ’82, M ‘95: “Private and Public Storytelling: How to Use Digital and Traditional Technologies for Social Change” The pediatrician and television writer whose credits include the TV series “Under the Dome,” “ER” and “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” is the founder of Global Media Center for Social Impact, which uses new media to promote health initiatives around the world. He will discuss how compelling stories have the power to transform popular culture and catalyze social change.

Thursday, January 21, 7-8:30 pm, Boylston Hall, Harvard Yard: Paris Barclay ’79: “The Men and Women in the Mirror: Reflections on How the Commercial Artist Can and Will Change the World” The President of the Directors Guild of America and two-time Emmy Award-winning television and film producer, writer and director (“ER,” “The West Wing,” “Glee,” “Lost,” “NYPD Blue,” “The Good Wife”) will discuss how the power of popular media and storytelling can change perceptions about race, gender, sexual orientation and other aspects of identity in society.

Friday, January 22, 4-5:30 pm, Boylston Hall, Harvard Yard: Nell Scovell ‘82: “A Way with Words” A frequent contributor to Vanity Fair and The New York Times, with TV credits that include "The Simpsons," “Monk," “NCIS," "Late Night with David Letterman" and her own hit series "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” as well as co-authoring Cheryl Sandberg’s bestseller Lean In—Scovell will discuss how to jump between literary genres including journalism, book writing, screenplays, speech writing and television.

Savannah, GA / Hilton Head, SC

Harvard Global Networking Night - Tuesday, Jan. 12th

Harvardwood, the Harvard Alumni Association, and the Harvard Club of Savannah & Coastal Georgia invite you to join fellow local alumni for Global Networking Night on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016. Global Networking Night is a great opportunity to explore and expand your Harvard Network; the last event drew more than 5,000 alumni in 80 cities!

Start off 2016 right: Renew your membership to access Harvardwood benefits, programs, & special events

We're constantly seeking new ways to add value to your Harvardwood membership by improving on our programs and event series — and creating new ones! By joining Harvardwood or renewing your membership dues, you're helping us support these initiatives and gaining access to valuable resources and professional connections. The Harvardwood Writers Program and Masterclass series, for example, are only open to Harvardwood members. So if you aren't already dues-current, start 2016 off on the right foot and become a Harvardwood member!

DISCLAIMER

Harvardwood does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any of the information, content or advertisements (collectively "Materials") contained on, distributed through, or linked, downloaded or accessed from any of the services contained in this e-mail. You hereby acknowledge that any reliance upon any Materials shall be at your sole risk. The materials are provided by Harvardwood on an "AS IS" basis, and Harvardwood expressly disclaims any and all warranties, express or implied.

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