George B. Kaiser is President, CEO and owner of GBK Corporation, parent of Kaiser-Francis Oil Company, which he has managed for almost 40 years.  He is Chairman of the Board and majority shareholder of BOK Financial Corporation and a major shareholder of several oil and gas, mining and technology companies. Wholly owned Excelerate Energy operates the only offshore LNG regasification terminals in the world. Through Argonaut Private Equity, he has controlling or minority interests in approximately 40 companies in various industries in the U. S., India, Australia and elsewhere. With an estimated current net worth of around $11 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 26th richest person in America. (www.forbes.com.)

The Kaiser Family Foundation, he started, is committed to early intervention in the cycle of poverty, various public health initiatives and civic enhancement.Mr. Kaiser helped launch “Educare” in Oklahoma and has given or raised more than $50MM in private and public funding for the program during the past three years. Educare is a "best practices" educational and family support program for at risk children from birth to five.

Kaiser has been engaged in numerous other civic activities.  He founded Tulsa Community Foundation, has chaired the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, and was a Trustee at The University of Tulsa and a National Elected Director of the Harvard Alumni Association.  He also chaired the Board of Trustees of Hillcrest Medical Center and was a member of the boards of the Tulsa Psychiatric Center and the Tulsa Medical Education Foundation.

Kaiser attended Tulsa public schools and earned a B. A. degree from Harvard College in 1964 and an MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1966.

At the 2007 Maine Governor’s Economic Summit on Early Childhood, Mr. Kaiser will discuss early childhood education as both a moral imperative and a sound business investment. 

Dr. Yoshikawa is a lead author of "A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy," published by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and co-authored by the National Forum on Early Childhood Program Evaluation and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child.

A developmental and community psychologist, Dr. Yoshikawa is Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  He conducts research on the impact of early childhood education, employment and welfare policy, and immigration on young children's development.  Dr. Yoshikawa has received career awards from two divisions of the American Psychological Association, and was awarded a fellowship from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.  He has served on numerous federal and national advisory committees, including the DHHS Committee on Head Start Research and Evaluation and the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Family and Work Policies. He is on the board of directors of Zero to Three: The National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families.

He has also conducted extensive research on the effects on children of public policies related to welfare, employment, and early childhood intervention. In late 2006, Russell Sage published Yoshikawa's book on the effects of low-wage employment on children (Making it Work: Low-Wage Employment, Family Life, and Child Development, with Thomas S. Weisner and Edward Lowe).

Dr. Yoshikawa has a B.A. in English literature from Yale University, a M.M. in Music from The Juilliard School, and his Masters and Ph.D. in Psychology, from New York University.

A Science-Based Framework for Early childhood Policy:  Using Evidence to Improve Outcomes in Learning, Behavior, and Health for Vulnerable Children. This paper builds on a process of systematic analysis that began with the publication in 2000 of a landmark report by the National Academy of Sciences entitled From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development, followed by the ongoing work of the National Scientific Council on the Developing child and the National Forum on Early Childhood Program Evaluation, both of which are based at the Center on the Developing child at Harvard University.

Robbin Johnson retired from Cargill, Incorporated of Minneapolis, Minnesota, effective January 1, 2007.  He was elected Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, in June 2000.  In that role he worked with Cargill’s senior leadership team on public policy and communications strategies.

Johnson is Chairman of the Board for the Cargill Foundation and has chaired the former Cargill Citizenship Committee.  He also served on the Corporate Affairs Committee. 

Johnson joined Cargill in 1971.  He was named an assistant vice president in 1976, vice president, Administrative Division, in 1982 and was elected Corporate Vice President, Public Affairs, in 1993.

Johnson graduated from Yale University in 1968 with a bachelor's degree, did graduate study as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England from 1968 to 1970 and attended Yale Law School from 1970 to 1971.

Johnson currently serves on the board and executive committee of BlueCross/BlueShield of Minnesota (chairing the Governance Committee) and on the board of the International Policy Council on Food, Agriculture and Trade.  He is a past chair of the U.S. Feed Grains Council and the Canada-Minnesota Business Council.  Johnson also is a member of the USDA/USTR Agricultural Policy Advisory Council and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Robbin Johnson was instrumental in the development of the early learning initiative in Minnesota.

At the 2007 Maine Governor’s Economic Summit on Early Childhood, Mr. Johnson will review the economic, environmental, and ethical reasons why Minnesota businesses care about and invest in early childhood development. He will describe the process Minnesota went through in establishing the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation, its five-year work plan, $30 million fundraising goal, and its emphasis on developing cost effective strategies for delivering quality early learning experiences to at risk children.