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By Sookhan Ho

James S. Gilmore

BLACKSBURG, Va., October 5, 2009 -- James S. Gilmore, who served as governor of Virginia from 1998 to 2002, will give a talk on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 3:30 - 4:30 p.m., as the featured speaker in the BB&T Distinguished Lecture Series on Capitalism, hosted by Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business.

The talk, “America’s Financial Crisis: What Needs to be Done,” will be held at the Inn at Virginia Tech’s Latham Ballroom. It is free and open to the public, no tickets required. Free parking is available at the Inn at Virginia Tech.

A native of Richmond, Va., Gilmore was an attorney, army intelligence specialist, prosecutor, and state attorney general before becoming governor. As governor, he sought to improve education through new academic standards and testing and to provide tax relief to families. His official bio notes: “Governor Gilmore had a solid record of cutting taxes. In the first two years of his administration, he enacted more than a dozen tax cuts, led by the virtual elimination of Virginia’s personal property tax on cars and trucks — the largest tax cut in the state’s history. He also cut income taxes for military personnel living in Virginia, lowered college tuition by 20 percent, and eliminated Virginia’s tax on prescription drugs.”

As governor, Gilmore signed into law the nation’s first comprehensive state Internet policy. He chaired a Congressional commission to study Internet commerce and guided that group to a recommendation that the Internet remain free of taxation.

Another Congressional commission that he chaired, in 1999-2003, assessed America’s terrorism response capabilities. In 2003, he became chairman of the National Council on Readiness and Preparedness, formed in response to that commission’s final report. Gilmore is currently president of USA Secure, a not-for-profit homeland security think tank based in Washington, D.C. He is a former chairman of the board of trustees of the U.S. Air Force Academy and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Gilmore is an alumnus of the University of Virginia, receiving an undergraduate degree in foreign affairs in 1971 and a law degree in 1977.

Featuring two speakers each year, the BB&T Distinguished Lecture Series on Capitalism discusses current issues in business management and government policy, in addition to topics related to capitalism. The lecture series is part of a Pamplin College teaching program to explore the foundations of capitalism and freedom. The program was established in 2007 in the college’s finance department with a $1 million gift from BB&T Charitable Foundation.

The undergraduate and graduate courses in the program examine alternative economic systems, including socialism and communism, and compare them with the economic solutions offered by free markets. For more information about the program, please contact finance professor and program director Douglas Patterson at (540) 231-5737.

Recent BB&T lectures on campus were given by Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan and Vahan Janjigian, a Pamplin alumnus and Forbes newsletter editor who authored a book on Warren Buffet.

Contact Sookhan Ho at sookhan@vt.edu or (540) 231-5071.

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