Former US ambassador to Australia Jeff Bleich spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at the home of Ellen and Pete Wilson on April 16. The talk, organized by the Piedmont Education Foundation’s Community Engagement Committee — Molly Lloyd, Sarah Pearson, Rich Thompson — was a reflection on Machiavelli’s “The Prince”, and lessons for modern times.
The event was open to the school community, and attendees included PUSD parents past and present, past school board members, current and past PEF members, and also Vice Mayor Conna McCarthy, Assistant Superintendent of Piedmont schools, Ariel Dolowich, as well as two PHS social studies teachers, Dave Keller and Hilary Freeman.
Molly Lloyd, Ellen Wilson, Becky and Jeff Bleich, Rich Thompson and Sarah Pearson 
Vice Mayor Conna McCarthy and Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers
Bleich’s legal career includes clerking for the Chief Justice of the United States, serving as president of the State Bar of California, and in the White House as special counsel to President Obama. He also served as the 24th U.S. ambassador to Australia, senior advisor to the director of National Intelligence, and chair of the California State University Board of Trustees.
He is currently a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, where he is working on two books. One is an update of progressive prescriptions from the second industrial revolution in the United States to reform and restore functioning democracy in America; the other is about Machiavelli.
Ellen and Pete Wilson hosted the event 
Attendees gather on the patio