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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release January 18, 2001

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

      President Clinton announced today his intention to appoint William

M. Daley, Vinod Gupta and Jean Kennedy Smith to the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The Honorable William M. Daley, of Chicago, Illinois, served as Secretary of Commerce from January 1997 to July 2000. From July until December of this past year he was Chairman, Gore-Lieberman 2000 Campaign, and is now in private business in Washington, D.C. In 1993 Secretary Daley served as Special Counsel to the President, coordinating the successful campaign to pass the historic North American Free Trade Agreement. A long-time Chicago resident, he was a partner in the law firm of Mayer, Brown & Platt, President and Chief Operating Officer of Amalgamated Bank of Chicago and active in many Chicago, community projects. Secretary Daley received a B.A. from Loyola University and an LLB from John Marshall Law School.

Mr. Vinod Gupta, of Omaha, Nebraska, is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of American Business Information, Inc. He also has been a strong supporter of education, having helped establish and fund a minority scholarship fund for science and engineering students and an institute for small business management at the University of Nebraska. In 1994, he provided funding to establish a School of Business Management at the Indian Institute of Technology in his native country of India. Additionally, Mr. Gupta serves on the Boards of Directors of the Nebraska Methodist Hospital Foundation, the Brownell-Talbot College Preparatory School and Sitel Corporation.

The Honorable Jean Kennedy Smith, of New York City, New York, served as United States Ambassador to Ireland from June 1993 to September 1998. Since 1964, she has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation, which provides grants to promote awareness and advocacy in the field of mental retardation. In 1974, Ambassador Smith founded Very Special Arts (VSA), an international program that provides opportunities in the creative arts for people with disabilities. Her book, Chronicles of Courage: Very Special Arts, written in collaboration with George Plimpton, was published in 1993. Ambassador Smith also served on the Board of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She has received a number of honorary degrees and awards, including the Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service, the Margaret Mead Humanitarian Award, the 1997 Terence Cardinal Cooke Humanitarian Award and the 1999 Heffernan Fellow Distinction at Harvard University's Institute of Politics.

The Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is responsible for the maintenance and administration of the Kennedy Center. The Board is charged with four programmatic mandates: the presentation of classical and contemporary music, opera, dance and poetry; the presentation of lectures and other programs; the development of programs for children, youth and the elderly; and the provision of facilities for civic activities.

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