User:Scubeesnax

Eric Kasum (born February 23, 1967) is a journalist, speechwriter, author, non-profit executive and grassroots organizer. He is creator of the Imagine Peace Conference at UC Berkeley (2011) and founder of the Imagine Institute, a think tank. His life’s work is to help build a "critical mass" of leaders to reach the Tipping Point for peace. Eric currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Imagine Institute and the Rasur Foundation International (sponsor of BePeace, a program that received the Ashoka Changemakers Innovation Award: Building a More Ethical Society). He also has served as a consultant to The Shinnyo-en Foundation, Pathways to Peace, The Culture of Peace Initiative, The Metta Center, and The Shift Network.

By the age of 19, Eric had his own office at Warner Bros. movie studio. Later that year, he got a job working in the Story Department at Universal Studios. At 22, he became a columnist for the New York Post, the 5th largest newspaper in the US, where he was also a special correspondent. He has written for The New York Times magazine group, The Los Angeles Times, CBS News, and a think tank in Washington, DC. He was on the team that covered the Academy Awards for The Los Angeles Times. His syndicated articles have appeared in more than 100 newspapers and magazines around the world.

Eric wrote speeches for the White House and members of the President's Cabinet. He was the personal writer for a White House Chief of Staff and former US Attorney General. After his time in Washington, Eric worked in management at INTEL, the Fortune 500 chipmaker in Silicon Valley, where he wrote for CEO’s Gordon Moore (creator of "Moore's Law"), Andy Grove, and Paul Otellini, a thought-leader and innovator who is now a board member of Google.

Eric wrote a blog article in the Huffington Post, "Columbus Day? True Legacy: Cruelty and Slavery," that ignited a controversy. It received 85,000 Facebook "Likes" in only 24 hours in 2015; it now has a total of 200,000 Facebook "Likes". Since he wrote this article, the cities of Seattle and Olympia, Washington, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, Portland, Oregon, Traverse City, Michigan, and Albuquerque, New Mexico all voted that they will no longer observe Columbus Day (some cities now celebrate Indigenous People's Day instead). This striking change was widely reported by CNN, CBS, ABC, The Washington Post, and the Associated Press.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-kasum/columbus-day-a-bad-idea_b_742708.html

Eric is currently working on two new books: "IMAGINE: How We Can Create a New Story for Humanity," and "The Blueprint: What the Movements That Changed History All Had In Common." Eric's first book, "The 100 Worst Ideas in History," was published in 2014 by SourceBooks.

Eric served on the California State Taskforce on Autism (2012). He has served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Autism Spectrum of Support in Orange County, California, and he is currently on the Advisory Board of the Grandparent's Autism Network and the Family Autism Network. He lives in San Diego, California and has two sons, Ben (aged 25) and John (aged 23). Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Eric grew up in Boise, Idaho and graduated from Boise High School. He attended the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles.