THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                           (Omaha, Nebraska)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                   December 8, 2000

       PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES THREE TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF
           THE JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

     President Clinton announced today his intent to appoint Smith

Bagley, William McSweeny, and Thomas Wheeler to the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Mr. Smith Bagley, of Washington, D.C., is the Founder and CEO of SBI, a cellular phone company in Show Low, Arizona. He also serves as President of The Arca Foundation and the Brenn Foundation, both in Washington, D.C., as well as the Sapelo Foundation in St. Simmons Island, Georgia, and as a Trustee of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in North Carolina. Mr. Bagley served as Chairman of the Board of Regents of the Catholic University of America, and is a past Trustee of the North Carolina Museum of Arts and the North Carolina School of the Arts.

Mr. William F. McSweeny, of Washington, D.C., has been active in Washington civic and cultural affairs for the past 30 years and is Chairman Emeritus of a number of institutions, including Ford's Theater and Meridian House International. He is also a Trustee of the Shakespeare Theater, Vice Chair of the State Department Fine Arts Committee, Chair of Chevy Chase Bank Community Committee, Treasurer of the Botanic Garden and the Recreation Wish List Committee of Washington, D.C.. In the educational arena, he is a Founding Trustee of the Duke Ellington School, Co-Chair of the Washington Episcopal School Advisory Board, and a Trustee of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Earlier, Mr. McSweeny received a number of major national prizes as a war correspondent in Southeast Asia and the Middle East and authored three books, including Go Up for Glory.

Mr. Thomas E. Wheeler, of Washington, D.C., is President and CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. For two decades he has worked at the forefront of telecommunications policy and technology. As a telecommunications entrepreneur, he founded or helped start multiple companies offering new cable, wireless, and video communications services, both domestically and internationally. He is also a Director of Tech Corps, Community IMPACT USA, Aether Systems, OmniSky Corporation, SmartBrief.com and Cibernet Corporation. Mr. Wheeler is the author of Leadership Lessons from the Civil War -- Winning Strategies for Management Today.

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