Financial History Issue 120 (Winter 2017) | Page 6

THE TICKER

MUSEUM NEWS

The Museum always shines its brightest on Gala night , and this year was no exception . On February 1 , 450 guests came to the Museum for a cocktail reception before moving across the street for dinner at Cipriani Wall Street .

The focus of the evening was our two honorees : Joe Ricketts , who received the Charles Schwab Financial Innovation

David J . Cowen | President and CEO

Award ; and Larry Summers , who received the Whitehead Award for Distinguished Public Service and Financial Leadership . Fred Tomczyk , former president / CEO of TD Ameritrade , introduced Joe ; and Ray Dalio , founder and co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates , introduced Larry . Charles Schwab made remarks about the Financial Innovation Award , which is named in his honor . All five speakers stressed the importance of the Museum and its core mission of preserving , exhibiting and teaching about the nation ’ s finances and financial history . [ See their remarks on page 12 .]

The trustees had a strong showing , and in attendance were Chairman Richard Sylla , Vice Chair Andrea de Cholnoky , Alvi Abuaf , Greg Bauer , Sandy Crystal , Martha Clark Goss , Marcy Cohen , Charles Elson , Al Hurley , Adam Goldstein , Bob Hotz , Myron Kandel , Glenn Kaufman , Consuelo Mack , Marge Magner , Verne Sedlacek , Karen Seitz , Mark Shenkman , Kevin Shine , David Shuler , Maria Smith , Ewout Steenbergen and Charles Wait , as well as Founder and Chairman Emeritus John Herzog .

To the credit of our board and staff , with particular thanks to our Director of Development Jeanne Driscoll , we raised over $ 1.25 million . This number represents an all-time high and something to be very proud of . However , our dedicated fundraising efforts continue — and your support is most welcome — as we turn our attention to the Museum ’ s vision for the future .

In my prepared remarks for the evening , I shared the following anecdote :

What is it like to be a Museum president ? Sure , I receive my share of compliments , but I also get the occasional complaint . I want to share a complaint I received last summer from Louise Kaye , age seven . She writes , “ Why did you display a check of Aaron Burr in the Hamilton Room ? Don ’ t display anything of Aaron Burr . Burr killed Hamilton and most people like me who love Hamilton don ’ t like thinking about Aaron Burr .” I responded , “ Dear Louise , Hamilton is also one of my heroes , but we cannot re-write history , and Burr is a part of the larger story . However , enclosed please find a Hamilton bobble head from the Museum Shop to comfort you .”

I then turned to our vision for the future , which is a new state-of-the-art museum based on three distinct exhibit subject areas : public finance , private finance and personal finance . “ Public ” is our government ’ s fiscal situation ; “ private ” is businesses , exchanges and the entrepreneurial spirit that built our

county ; and “ personal ” is how money and finance affect each one of us in our lives . Integrated into each of these three exhibit spaces are the four overriding themes of budgeting , risk , investment and credit , for whether you are the United States government or an average citizen , you deal with those identical issues .

Finance is a technology that moves money forward and backward through time — think of a 401k moving money forward for your retirement , or a mortgage for your first house moving it backward . And , of course , as we explain why finance matters , one of the key components of this area will be explaining the original architect of the financial system , Alexander Hamilton , for it is his economic vision of finance-led growth that we have lived and prospered under .

Therefore , by the time visitors leave the Museum , they will understand how finance can empower them and how they can make better financial decisions that positively impact the rest of their lives .

I look forward to working with the staff , board and funders to realize this dream .

David Cowen ( center ) with Charles Schwab and Joe Ricketts at the Museum ’ s 2017 Gala .

Elsa Ruiz

4 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2017 | www . MoAF . org