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Aspen Ideas Festival 2025 Charts Bold New Vision for Economic Prosperity

“Prosperity Reimagined” conversation track welcomes business thinkers and titans: David Rubenstein, Walter Isaacson, Laurence Fink, Charles W. Scharf, and more. 

Aspen, CO, July 3, 2025 – Last week, the Aspen Ideas Festival brought in luminaries, experts, and innovators from around the world for fresh takes on our political, artistic, scientific, and economic future. Celebrating the Aspen Institute’s 75th anniversary, the Aspen Ideas Festival encouraged people to think big, start hard conversations, and get inspired about what could be.

Held from June 25 to July 1, 2025 on the Institute’s Bauhaus campus, the economic track—dubbed ‘Prosperity Reimagined’—brought together top minds from finance, business, policy, and academia for a dynamic and forward-looking series of essential conversations. The track invited participants to explore how families, communities, and markets can thrive.

In the face of global uncertainty—from technological disruption, shifts in global trade and geopolitical tensions—centering the well-being of families, workers, and communities is more important than ever. “Prosperity Reimagined” programming asked speakers and attendees to consider: what does true prosperity look like? What are the new ideas for fostering human flourishing? Is the system working at its best, or at all, for everyone?

Programming Highlights included:

  • “Opening Session: Insight, Imagination and What’s Ahead” – Walter Isaacson, History Professor, Tulane University, Fareed Zakaria, Journalist and Author, Derek Wang, Creative Enterprise Fellow, The Juilliard School, Dan Porterfield, President and CEO, Aspen Institute, Emtithal Mahmoud, Poet. Watch here.
  • “Signals, Shocks, Shifts and the State of the Economy’ – Charles W. Scharf, CEO, Wells Fargo and Company, Brian Kemp, Governor of Georgia, Laurence Fink, CEO, BlackRock, Lynn Martin, President, NYSE Group, Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor in Chief, The Economist. Watch here.
  • “Capitalism in Crisis” – Josh Bolten, CEO, Business Roundtable, Jim Sorenson, CEO, Sorenson Impact Center, Ida Rademacher, Executive Director, Aspen Financial Security Program, and Gillian Tett, Editorial Board, Financial Times.  Watch here.
  • “Economics, Leadership, and Legacy: A conversation with David Rubenstein” – David Rubenstein, Co-Chair, The Carlyle Group, Dan Porterfield, President and CEO, Aspen Institute. Watch here.
  • “Designing the Ownership Economy: A New Vision for Work, Wealth and Democracy” – Ida Rademacher, Vice President; Co-Executive Director, Financial Security Program; Co-Chair, Aspen Partnership for an Inclusive Economy; The Aspen Institute, Joanna Smith-Ramani, Co-Executive Director, Financial Security Program, The Aspen Institute, Matt Helmer, Managing Director, Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, Phil Reeves, Managing Partner, Apis and Heritage Capital Partners, Jack Moriarty, Executive Director, Lafayette Square Institute, and Nicholas Salerno, Program Officer, ROC USA LLC. Watch here.
  • “When Global Tech Meets Local Regulation” – Vivian Schiller, Executive Director, Aspen Digital, The Aspen Institute, Vilas Dhar, President, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Klon Kitchen, Managing Director and Technology Practice Lead, Beacon Global Strategies, and Alexandra Reeve Givens, CEO, Center for Democracy and Technology. Watch here.

To keep the momentum going, Aspen Ideas: Economy will reimagine what prosperity means—and who it serves—in an era that demands bold solutions and compassionate leadership. Join the Aspen Institute and Prudential Financial this October 20-21 in Newark, New Jersey as economic historians sit down with futurists, philosophers riff with pragmatists, and heads of companies, heads of state, and heads of households confront the moral questions that inform their choices.

“We are entering an era that demands not just new economic models, but new measures of what prosperity really means,” said Ida Rademacher, Aspen Institute Vice President and Co-Chair of the Aspen Partnership for an Inclusive Economy. “Aspen Ideas: Economy will take this conversation forward—spotlighting voices and ideas that put people at the center of economic transformation.”

Members of the media with questions, and those seeking to bring cameras or other AV equipment, should contact [email protected] and [email protected]. For more information visit the press announcement. For those requesting media credentials, the application form is available here.

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The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization whose purpose is to ignite human potential to build understanding and create new possibilities for a better world. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve society’s greatest challenges. It is headquartered in Washington, DC and has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, as well as an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.

Contact: Jon Purves
Media Relations Director
The Aspen Institute
[email protected]

Contact: Lizette Olmos Godfrey
Media Relations Consultant, Economic Opportunity
The Aspen Institute
[email protected]