Secretary Leon Panetta is Chairman of The Panetta Institute for Public Policy. Reflecting his ideals and personal example, the nonpartisan, not-for-profit study center seeks to attract thoughtful people to lives of public service and prepare them for the policy challenges of the future. Panetta co-founded the Institute with his wife Sylvia in 1997 upon completion of his service as White House Chief of Staff in the Bill Clinton administration. He co-directed the Institute with her until 2009, when he left to serve as CIA director and then Secretary of Defense under President Obama, but returned in 2013.

Secretary Panetta has served on several boards and commissions, and currently serves on the board of directors for Oracle and Blue Shield of California. He also serves as co-chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Defense Personnel Task Force and the Center for Strategic and International Studies Commission on Countering Violent Extremism. He is the recipient of hundreds of awards and honors, including California Forward’s Forward Thinker Award, the California Teachers Association’s Friends of Education Award and the Judicial Council of California’s Stanley Mosk Defender of Justice Award.