President Bill Clinton
- Founder of The William J. Clinton Foundation
- 42nd President of the United States of America
William Jefferson Clinton was elected President of the United
States in 1992, and again in 1996, the first Democratic president to
be awarded a second term in six decades. Under his leadership,
the United States enjoyed the strongest economy in a generation
and the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. His
administration resulted in moving the nation from record deficits
to record surpluses; the creation of over 22 million jobs; low
levels of unemployment, poverty and crime; and the highest
homeownership and college enrollment rates in history.
After leaving the White House, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation with the mission to strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence.
Upon moving his offices to Harlem in 2002, he launched the Foundation’s first program to help local small business owners succeed. Since then, this initiative has evolved into the Clinton Economic Opportunity Initiative, which is helping individuals and families succeed and small businesses grow. Also in 2002, at the World AIDS Conference in Barcelona, President Clinton started the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) to assist developing countries in implementing large-scale, integrated, care, treatment and prevention programs that will turn the tide on the epidemic. Today, 2 million people living with HIV/AIDS are accessing lifesaving treatment because of CHAI.
After undergoing heart surgery in 2004, President Clinton joined forces with the American Heart Association to combat the rise in childhood obesity in 2005. Together they formed the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, which tackles the epidemic from all sides, engaging industry leaders, schools, health care professionals, and, most importantly, kids in this important fight. Later that year, he hosted the inaugural meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), which brings together world leaders from government, business, and nonprofit sectors to devise solutions to pressing problems. In 2006, he launched the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) with the mission of applying the Foundation's business-oriented approach to the fight against climate change in practical, measurable and significant ways. In addition, the Foundation partnered with the Hunter Foundation to launch the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative to catalyze sustainable social and economic growth and development in Africa. Today, CHDI works specifically in Rwanda and Malawi.
Building on this successful approach, President Clinton and Frank Giustra established the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative in 2007 as an innovative partnership between the Clinton Foundation, the private sector, governments, local communities, and other NGOs to increase the scope, scale, impact, and sustainability of social and economic development efforts in countries where natural resource industries are an important part of the economy. Ultimately CGSGI is an effort to transform the way businesses do business in the developing world.
In addition to his Foundation work, President Clinton has joined with former President George H.W. Bush three times – after the 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Hurricane Ike in 2008 – to help raise money for recovery efforts. He also served as the U.N. Envoy for Tsunami Recovery to help people “build back better,” and was recently appointed U.N. Envoy to Haiti.
President Clinton was born on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas. He and his wife Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton have one daughter, Chelsea, and live in Chappaqua, New York.
