Yearly Archives: 2025

Upcoming Speaker

Alan Kahan

Upcoming Speaker

Alan S. Kahan, Professor of British Civilization, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines

Topic: “Freedom from Fear:  An Incomplete History of Liberalism”

Date:  Wednesday March 19, 2025

Alan S. Kahan is an historian, political theorist, translator, travel writer, and resident of Paris. He is Professor of British Civilization at the University of Versailles/St. Quentin.  Kahan received his PhD in history from The University of Chicago in 1987.  Having previously taught at Florida International University in Miami, he has been living in France since 2007 and is a connoisseur of croissants.

Kahan is the author of Aristocratic Liberalism: The Social and Political Thought of Jacob Burckhardt, John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville (Oxford, 1992); Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Europe: the Political Culture of Limited Suffrage; Alexis de Tocqueville Palgrave, 2003); Mind vs. Money: The War Between Intellectuals and Capitalism (Transaction, 2010, Routledge 2017); and Tocqueville, Democracy, and Religion (Oxford, 2015). He is also the translator of Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the Revolution (Chicago, 2 vols. 1998, 2001) and Benjamin Constant’s Commentary on Filangieri’s Works (Liberty Fund, 2015).

His most recent work, Freedom from Fear: An Incomplete History of Liberalism, was published by Princeton University Press in 2024.

From 2021 to 2023, Kahan served as a visiting scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy at the Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  View Kahan’s 2020 CU Boulder lecture at the following link: Tocqueville, Democracy, and Religion.

Upcoming Speaker

Romina Boccia

Upcoming Speaker

Romina Boccia, Director of Budget and Entitlement Policy, Cato Institute

Topic: TBD

Date:  Wednesday May 14, 2025

Romina Boccia is director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute, where she specializes in federal spending, budget process, economic implications of rising debt, and Social Security and Medicare reform.

Boccia was previously director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation, where she was the principal author of the organization’s flagship budget plan, Blueprint for Balance. She also contributed chapters to the book A Fiscal Cliff: New Perspectives on the US Federal Debt Crisis and the peer-reviewed publication Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics.

 

Uncategorized

Paul Schwennesen

Upcoming Speaker

Paul Schwennesen, Director, Global Strategy Decisions Group

Topic: TBD

Date:  Wednesday September 17, 2025

Dr. Paul Schwennesen is a military affairs analyst and environmental historian. His major research interests are in the geopolitics of liberty movements and the environmental and transatlantic history of the 16th century. He holds a PhD from the University of Kansas and a Master’s degree in Government from Harvard University.

Paul obtained his undergraduate degree in history and science at the United States Air Force Academy where he graduated with distinction as the John R. Rupp scholar in interdisciplinary studies and gained his first formal introduction to classical liberal thought. He served six years as an Air Force Officer including a combat-zone deployment to Afghanistan and was named Company Grade Officer of the Year shortly before separating as a Captain in order to pursue private business. Paul has a Master’s degree in Government from Harvard University where he did his thesis under the direction of Harvey Mansfield.

Paul served ten years in the US military in weapons-systems acquisition, foreign area intelligence, and flightline operations which included deployments to Central America and Afghanistan. In 2022 he volunteered in Ukraine to provide civilian aid and combat training on the frontlines against the Russian invasion. He was presented with the Verhkhovna Rada medal by the Ukrainian Parliament for “Merit to the Ukrainian People.” His writing has appeared at Law & Liberty, the New York Times, American Spectator, Claremont Review, and in textbooks on environmental ethics (Oxford University Press and McGraw-Hill).

He is a regular contributor to AIER and his writing has appeared at the New York Times, American Spectator, Claremont Review, and in textbooks on environmental ethics (Oxford University Press and McGraw-Hill). He is the father, most importantly, of three delightful children.

 

Upcoming Speaker

Shane David Hall

Upcoming Speaker

Shane David Hall, Director, High Profile Division, The Fine Art Group

Topic: Art as an Asset

Date:  Wednesday November 12, 2025

Shane David Hall represents The Fine Art Group as Director of their High-Profile Client Division where he serves as the firm’s primary point of contact for celebrity entertainers, musicians, and professional athletes as well as their support teams including business managers, wealth managers, accountants, attorneys, and family offices. Shane and his team adhere to strict security protocols, which adds levels of privacy and discretion to The Fine Art Group’s industry-leading fine art and collectibles management approach including appraisal, advisory, sales/agency, and bespoke financial services.

Shane holds over 15 years of extensive art market experience and 7 years of appraisal and advisory experience dedicated to managing investment-quality collectible assets for sports and entertainment industry personalities. Shane earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Historic Preservation and Art History from the College of Charleston (Charleston, SC) and later received a Master of Arts in American Fine and Decorative Arts from Sotheby’s Institute of Art (New York, NY). Shane began his career as a Curatorial Assistant at the Historic Charleston Foundation and interned with the prestigious Winter Show prior to working with three international auction houses. Shane holds deep knowledge of the global art market and is a nationally sought-after speaker, having lectured at the annual Trusted Advisor Summit, the premier leadership organization for celebrity client advisors, the North Carolina conference for Certified Financial Advisors as well as various collector groups nationally. Shane has also valued art and collectibles for Fortune 500 corporations, museums, and private collectors around the world.

Shane serves on the National Advisory Committee for Trusted Advisor, Atlanta Art Week’s Advisory Board, and is a Board Member for The Gibbes Museum of Art’s Society 1858 where he serves as Co-Chair of the Fundraising Committee. Shane resides in Charleston, South Carolina with his husband Nic and their dog, Goose.

Speaker

Burnie Maybank

Speaker:

Burnet “Burnie” R. Maybank III, Counsel, Adams and Reese, LLP

Topic: “Economic Development in South Carolina”

Date:  February 25, 2025

Burnie Maybank is a member of the Intersection of Business and Government Practice in Adams and Reese, LLP’s Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina offices.

Burnie represents public/private businesses, commercial real estate developers, government, and nonprofits in state and local tax (SALT), state and local tax controversy issues, and economic development incentives, including opportunity zone matters, as well as abandoned building and historic preservation tax credits.

He has additional experience in exempt organizations and charitable giving, conservation easements, alcohol beverage control, and regulatory work before the Public Service Commission.

State and local tax controversy work is a large area of Burnie’s practice. He represents taxpayers in numerous Administrative Law Court, Court of Appeals, and South Carolina Supreme Court cases, as well as writing amicus briefs for various local and state tax councils, business chambers, and manufacturing alliances.

Burnie has co-authored many of the state economic development incentives and released South Carolina Department of Revenue policy documents on the incentives when he served two terms as Department of Revenue Director under former governors Mark Sanford (2003-2005) and David Beasley (1995-1999). He also served two terms as Chair of the Job Development Credit Act Subcommittee of the South Carolina Coordinating Council for Economic Development.

Burnie has received many awards and recognitions throughout his career, including the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance’s “Defender of Manufacturing” Award.

At the request of Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, Burnie served on the South Carolina Transportation Infrastructure Study Committee to examine the benefits of public/private partnerships to improve the state’s roads, highways and bridges.

He also formerly served as Chair of the S.C. Tax Realignment Commission, at the request of Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman, to submit a comprehensive state tax restructuring plan.