Bay Area Council summit to feature former Donald Trump mouthpiece Kellyanne Conway
"I hope we do create a little controversy," Bay Area Council CEO says of inviting former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway to speak at signature event.
Story Highlights Kellyanne Conway to speak at Bay Area Council summit.
Event features Democratic leaders alongside Trump-affiliated figure.
Summit aims to create controversy and debate different viewpoints.
While inviting some of the biggest Democrats in California and the Bay Area to speak at a signature event, a prominent local business group is also bringing in a recognizable figure from Donald Trump's orbit.
Trump's 2016 campaign manager and former senior adviser Kellyanne Conway is scheduled to speak at the Bay Area Council's 2025 Bay Area-Silicon Valley Summit on May 27. According to the agenda, she will share 'what motivates the president, what more we can expect and what makes MAGA tick.'
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Conway's name stands out among the other guests invited to speak to hundreds of business leaders who are expected to attend the event. After all, Conway is more often expected at events like next month's meeting of the National Grocers Association meeting in Washington, D.C., where she'll serve up plenty of red meat as the keynote speaker.
Her appearance in conversation with TMG Partners CEO Michael Covarrubias may make waves, but the Bay Area Council's leadership isn't afraid of that.
'We've created controversy before with these programs. I hope we do create a little controversy," Jim Wunderman, CEO of the Bay Area Council, told the Business Times in an interview Wednesday. "It's healthy to have debate, to share different points of view, to get people who don't think the same. There's nothing more dull than getting a bunch of people who all say the same thing.'
Bay Area Council members, like business leaders elsewhere, are trying to navigate turbulent tariff policies and other changes underway in the early days of Trump's second term.
'President Donald Trump has exploded out of the gate of his second term with a staggering and dizzying array of directives, executive orders and other moves aimed at shrinking and dramatically remaking government, reordering global economic power dynamics, punishing opponents and isolating traditional allies. And he's just getting started,' according to the summit agenda.
Conway's fans and critics alike will want to keep their expectations in check: She's only scheduled to speak for 40 minutes.
Her talking points will likely be much different than the other invited guests. The mayors of the Bay Area's three largest cities — San Francisco's Daniel Lurie, San Jose's Matt Mahon and Oakland's Barbara Lee — have been invited to participate in a panel on whether their cities have finally turned the corner. Signs of the turnaround include a slowdown in San Francisco's population loss and indications that return-to-work policies may be succeeding in San Francisco.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has also been invited to speak, and the summit will also feature a conversation with Derek Thompson, co-author of 'Abundance,' a recently published book that looks at how anti-growth Democratic policies have hindered the ability to address major societal problems.
'There's a general view that's emerging that the policies that have come out of the Democratic-led institutions have led to an inability to proceed on the very things we say that we want to do,' Wunderman said. 'We say we want to produce jobs, we want to produce housing, we want to make a better society with more opportunity for people, and we're not achieving that.
'It's because of our own policies, laws and regulations, which have become collectively impossible to negotiate for so many,' Wunderman said. 'We're losing investment, jobs and economic possibilities that really should go to California.'
Wunderman lamented the loss of tax dollars California sends to Washington, only to find the money being put to work in other states.
'Our tax funds are paying for Arizona to succeed. It's just crazy,' Wunderman said.
The summit also features a timely panel on issues surrounding higher education, which have grabbed headlines as President Trump takes on diversity initiatives and other policies at leading universities. Stanford University President Jonathan Levin and UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons will speak on a panel moderated by Janet Reilly, chair of the UC Board of Regents.
'Two of the greatest universities on the planet … may be facing some of the most challenging times in their illustrious history, with an anti-intellectual fervor sweeping the nation and criticism of some universities as elite, liberally biased, privileged and out-of-touch with the problems of the world,' according to the summit program.
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