Susan Eisenhower on "How Ike Led"

David Leonard, President of the Boston Public Library, leads the 170-year old institution, one of Boston’s great educational, cultural and civic treasures. David began working at the BPL in 2009, bringing a wealth of experience from the technology, management and consulting fields. Appointed president by the Library’s Board of Trustees and Mayor Martin J. Walsh in June 2016, David’s focus is on developing the BPL as a twenty first century institution providing dynamic library experiences to the residents of Boston, of Massachusetts and beyond.

Prior to his appointment as President, David served as Interim President for one year. During that time he focused on the completion of the $78 million renovation of the Central Library in Copley Square, which opened in July 2016, as well as a significant number of branch and collections management improvement projects, enhancing access and the customer experience; collaborating with city departments and with local cultural institutions; and supporting Mayor Walsh’s arts and culture vision. During his time at the Boston Public Library David has also served as Director of Administration & Technology, acting Director of Administration & Finance, acting Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Technology Officer. He led the Library’s capital improvement project for the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, worked to modernize the library’s technology infrastructure - including the migration to the new Integrated Library System, and deployment of new Pay-for-Print Systems system wide - and oversaw master planning and design for the renovation of the Central Library in Copley Square.

David initially pursued an academic career, transitioned to the non-profit sector, and then spent ten years in the private IT consulting world in roles that spanned business development, management, and technology consulting, working on both strategic and tactical projects and services. David is currently enrolled in a PhD program in Library Information Science at Simmons College. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Mathematics and a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from the University College Dublin. Photo Credit: Boston Public Library

Margaret Talcott joined American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society in 2019, taking up the mission to educate, inspire, and connect people through inspiring events and author talks. She was previously the Producer of Literary Programs at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she presented nearly 200 writers including such cultural leaders as David McCullough, Sonia Sotomayor, John Updike, Margaret Atwood, Ken Burns, Tom Brokaw, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and David Brooks in the celebrated series Writers on a New England Stage presented with New Hampshire Public Radio. Over her years of producing she has interviewed authors Lee Child, Gail Collins, Amor Towles, Anna Quindlen, Daniel Pink, and Celeste Ng, among others. Margaret worked previously as a Director and Vice President of corporate marketing at Merrill Lynch in New York, in network news, and in book publishing, most notably as an editor at William Morrow and at Atheneum Publishers, under the leadership of Alfred Knopf, Jr. She graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. in Religion, and did post-graduate work in English literature at The Bread Loaf of School of English (Middlebury College). She was a scholar at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, awarded for her poetry.

Susan Eisenhower is the granddughter of former president Dwight D. Eisenhower and the CEO and Chairman of The Eisenhower Group, Inc., a Washington D.C. based consulting company founded in 1986. For more than 25 years the company has provided strategic counsel on business development, public affairs and communications projects.

In addition to her work through EGI, Susan has also had a distinguished career as a policy analyst. She is Chairman Emeritus at the Eisenhower Institute of Gettysburg College, where she served as president twice. She has also been a Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics and a Distinguished Fellow at the Nixon Center, now called the Center for National Interest.

Susan has authored hundreds of op-eds for newspapers such as The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, appeared frequently on national television and radio, and her articles have appeared in such journals as the National Academy of Sciences’ Issues in Science and Technology and the Naval Institutes’ Proceedings.

She has written four trade press books, two of which were on regional best seller lists, and she co-authored or co-edited four other books on international security issues.