Media executive Steve Forbes to deliver 2016 Vickers Memorial Lecture

LAWRENCE — Steve Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, will present “An Evening of Insights” at 7 p.m. Nov. 10 at Capitol Federal Hall.

The lecture is part of the J.A. Vickers Sr. and Robert F. Vickers Sr. Memorial Lecture Series presented by the University of Kansas School of Business. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required to attend.

The company’s flagship publication, Forbes, is a leading business magazine with a circulation of more than 900,000. Combined with Forbes Asia, Forbes Europe and the company’s licensee editions, the magazine reaches a worldwide audience of more than 5 million readers.

Forbes is the author of several books and writes for the magazine in his editorial column, “Fact and Comment.” He is the only writer to have won the prestigious Crystal Owl Award four times, a prize formerly given by U.S. Steel Corp. to the financial journalist whose economic forecasts for the coming year proved most accurate.

In both 1996 and 2000, Forbes campaigned for the nomination of the Republican Party for president with a platform including a flat tax, medical savings accounts, a new Social Security system, parental choice of schools for their children, term limits and a strong national defense.

In 1985, President Ronald Reagan named Forbes chairman of the bipartisan Board for International Broadcasting (BIB). He was reappointed to this post by President George H. W. Bush and served until 1993.

Forbes, who received his bachelor’s degree in history from Princeton University in 1970, serves on the boards of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, the Heritage Foundation and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He also is on the Board of Overseers of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and on the Board of Visitors for the School of Public Policy of Pepperdine University. He previously served on Princeton’s Board of Trustees for 10 years.

The Vickers Lecture Series was created in 1969 in honor of J.A. Vickers, KU alumnus and founder of Vickers Petroleum Co. in Wichita. His son, Robert, presided over the lecture until his death in 1995, when the series was renamed to honor both father and son.

Previous Vickers speakers include Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and former U.S. Sen. Robert J. Dole.

The lecture will be held in the Dicus Family Auditorium at Capitol Federal Hall.