Gaston Caperton, CEO of the College Board and former governor of West Virginia, will speak on”The Future and You”at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, in Room 458 of the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics building. This Acordia/Royal&SunAlliance Distinguished Lecture Series, offered during the college’s week-long celebration of its 50th anniversary, is free and open to the public. Caperton has applied his strong gifts of leadership and vision with great success in business, government and education. Born in Charleston, he led his small insurance agency to becoming the nation’s 10th largest privately owned insurance brokerage firm.
He used this same business acumen as West Virginia’s governor from 1988-96, when he rescued the state from crippling debt. His vision and leadership also won national acclaim for his technologically progressive education policy.
As a leader in education, he taught as a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and went on to found the Institution on Education and Government at Columbia University.
In 1998, he became president and CEO of the College Board, where he works to increase education opportunities for all students. For example, he has led a campaign to get the board’s Advanced Placement courses into more schools, especially schools outside the margins of suburban and affluent school districts where most of these courses are currently offered. Caperton also sees a role for the College Board in getting schools up to speed technologically and increasing the board’s online resources to help students prepare for the SAT .
The College of Business and Economics has offered the Distinguished Lecture Series since 1984. Known for 15 years as the McDonough Caperton Distinguished Lecture Series, it was renamed the Acordia/Royal&SunAlliance Distinguished Lecture Series in response to changes in sponsorship.
Acordia, one of the largest insurance brokers in the world, is a nationwide network of companies that provides insurance brokerage, managed health care administration and consulting services. Acordia of West Virginia is based in Charleston. It is one of the 25 largest property/casualty insurers in the United States and is part of the London-based international Royal&SunAlliance Insurance Group, which transacts business in some 130 countries.