Chief Executive Officer, Freeman Spogli & Co. Incorporated Los Angeles, CA A California native, Ambassador Spogli received his A.B. in history from Stanford University in 1970 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year. He earned an MBA degree at Harvard Business School in 1975. Having lived and worked abroad in Florence and Milan for two years during his time at Stanford, be became fluent in Italian and developed a keen interest in international affairs. He is the former United States Ambassador to the Italian Republic and to the Republic of San Marino. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 30, 2005 and served until February 6, 2009. In 2008, he received the Sue M. Cobb Award for Exemplary Diplomatic Service, the only honor given by the State Department to a political appointee ambassador. In 1983, together with Bradford M. Freeman, Spogli founded Freeman Spogli & Co., one of the leading middle market private equity investors in the United States. Ambassador Spogli has served on the board of directors of over twenty different companies and currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Public Storage, a Fortune 500 real estate investment trust (NYSE:PSA). In addition, Ambassador Spogli is a member of the Board of Trustees of Stanford University and the Board of Trustees of the J. Paul Getty Trust. He also serves as the Chairman of the Advisory Board of Innogest, a venture capital fund based in Turin, Italy. Ambassador Spogli is a champion of international studies and dedicated supporter of Stanford University, where he has endowed two university positions: the Gesue and Helen Spogli Professorship in Italian Studies and The Spogli Family Overseas Studies Director position at the Florence, Italy campus. Ambassador Spogli served on the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board from 2002 until 2005.