Lead21

Lead21 (formerly known as New Century Leadership Circle) is a conservative public policy and advocacy organization focused on entrepreneurship and technology innovation. It was founded in the United States by several Silicon Valley entrepreneurs in 2001. The organization principally caters to entrepreneurial business leaders, aiming to promote policies that support and encourage prosperity through entrepreneurship and innovation.

Most of the Lead21 senior staff, board of directors and membership reportedly have very close connections to the Republican Party and many Republican administrations (especially Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration in California, and the Bush Administration). Lead21 reports having a multi-partisan donor and membership base, including Democratic members, with no "political litmus test" for membership. Like many right-of-center think tanks, it has no partisanship requirement, but is rooted in traditional conservative- and libertarian-leaning values such as limited government, lower taxes, and pro-market policies.

Lead21 was conceived on August 18, 2001, by Auren Hoffman and Price Roe, and shortly after founded with the additions of entrepreneurs Christopher Alden, F. John Duncan, and Rob Reid. According to the organization's official website, some of these early founders are now senior appointees in the Bush Administration. Lead21 executive director Daniel Trimble was the organization's first full-time employee, hired at the start of 2006, followed by a Program Manager and Press Secretary, Candace d'Holbach, in 2007.

Lead21 was founded by a group of entrepreneurs, investors and senior executives from San Francisco and the surrounding Silicon Valley region. New Century Leadership Council (NCLC), as it was called at the time, launched the new organization at the home of Silicon Valley veteran Ellen Hancock, with former California Governor Pete Wilson as guest-of-honor. Additional early members and supporting leaders included E. Floyd Kvamme (chairman of the U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), Thomas Stephenson of Sequoia Capital fame, Gregory Slayton (a notable Bush-Cheney 2004 fundraiser and currently the Ambassador to Bermuda under George W. Bush's administration), and Duf Sundheim (currently chairman of the California Republican Party). According to news and press reports from the time, more than 150 people showed up for the opening event.

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