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The Thunderbirds announced today the 66^th United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, will be the headline guest for the WM Phoenix Open Tee-Off Luncheon on Tuesday, Dec. 3, in downtown Phoenix. The venue location will be announced in early November.

“The Tee Off Luncheon is an extremely popular event in which we get to tell the community all of the new and exciting things we have planned for the upcoming tournament,” said WM Phoenix Open Tournament Chairman Tim Woods. “We are excited to have Condoleezza Rice join us on stage and give an inside look into her eclectic and extremely successful career from political leadership to university stewardship and everything in between – we are looking forward to hearing more about her incredible life.”

Rice is currently the Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business; the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution; and a professor of Political Science at Stanford University.

From January 2005 to 2009, Rice served as the 66th Secretary of State of the United States, the second woman and first African American woman to hold the post. Rice also served as President George W. Bush’s Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (National Security Advisor) from January 2001 to 2005, the first woman to hold the position.

Rice has been on the Stanford faculty since 1981 and has won two of the highest teaching honors – the 1984 Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 1993 School of Humanities and Sciences Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.

She is vice chair of the board of governors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America;

In 2013, Rice was appointed to the College Football Playoff Committee, formerly the Bowl Championship Series.

Rice is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded fifteen honorary doctorates. She currently resides in Stanford, California.

Registration begins at 11:30 a.m. and the program will run from approximately 12 – 1:30 p.m. Arizona Diamondbacks President and CEO Derrick Hall will once again act as emcee for the event.

The 2020 WM Phoenix Open will be held at TPC Scottsdale January 27 – February 2, 2020. “The People’s Open” has been named the Tournament of the Year by the PGA TOUR three times in the last five years (2014, 2015 and 2018) and has gained legendary status for being one the most unique events in golf. The 2020 edition will mark the 85^th playing of the event (one of the five oldest events on the PGA TOUR) and the 11^th as the WM Phoenix Open.

The Thunderbirds were founded in 1937 with the mission of promoting the Valley of the Sun through sports. The Thunderbirds consist of 55 “active” members and more than 280 “life” members.  The Thunderbirds raised a record $13.2 million for charity from proceeds from the 2019 WM Phoenix Open and have eclipsed $147 million in charitable giving since its inception in 1932.  For more information on The Thunderbirds, visit www.thunderbirdscharities.org.