Vicky Ward, Chronicler of Corruption,
Author Of ‘Kushner, Inc.,’ to Speak Nov. 20

Vicky Ward

Vicky Ward, a writer who has specialized in exposing skullduggery in high places, has written books about the notorious wheeling and dealing in Manhattan’s real estate industry (“The Liar’s Ball”), and the downfall of Lehman Brothers and why it happened (“The Devil’s Casino”). Earlier this year, she turned her gaze on two particularly tasty targets and produced her newest book, “Kushner Inc.,” an investigation into the lives and businesses of Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. The subtitle is “Greed, Ambition, Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump,”

On Wednesday, Nov. 20, Ward will be our guest speaker and if you’re interested in learning more about the adventures of the president’s daughter and son-in-law — and who isn’t? — please make it your business to reserve a place now. (Instructions on how to do that appear below.)

In addition to her best-selling books, Ward keeps busy with a variety of other media assignments. Born in Britain, where she was a columnist and feature writer for The Independent, a British newspaper, she moved to New York in 1997 and is now a naturalized U.S. citizen. She is an editor at large at HuffPost and HuffPost’s long-form magazine, Highline, and bears the same title at Town & Country. From the time she landed in New York, Ward has been a presence in newspapers, magazines and on television. From 1999 to 2001, she was the features and news features editor at the New York Post and her column appeared in the London Evening Standard from 2007 to 2011. In addition, she was a contributing editor at Vanity Fair from 2001 to 2012, writing about politics, finance, art and culture. For most of that time, she was Tina Brown’s executive editor at Talk magazine. Earlier this year, she was named a senior reporter at CNN. She has also written for Esquire, including a piece on Jared Kushner in October 2016, plus numerous other magazines in the U.S. and Britain.

The date:   Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019
The time:   Noon.
The place: The National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South.

PLEASE NOTE: You may reserve via Eventbrite by linking to
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vicky-ward-at-the-intersection-of-power-money-corruption-tickets-77488767991

When you reach that site, click on the word “TICKETS” and follow the directions. You will then receive an email confirming your reservation.

You can no longer reserve by emailing Michael Serrill, but you may continue to reserve by calling the Silurian reservation line at 212-532-0887. Please spell your name clearly and include a contact number or an email address. Lunch prices are $55 for members, $65 for guests, payable at the door by cash (exact change, please), check or credit card. Regardless of how you reserve, if you’re bringing a guest, make sure to give us your guest’s name. Each member is allowed to reserve for one guest, with additional guests put on a waiting list, pending a final count.

One other reminder. Because we must give a final tally to the National Arts Club at noon on Nov. 18 — the Monday before the luncheon — we cannot cancel any reservations after that time. No-shows will be asked to pay for their seats.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
TO STEVE KROFT OF ’60 MINUTES’

President David Andelman (right) presents Steve Kroft of “60 Minutes” with the Silurian Press Club’s 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award at a gala dinner Oct. 16 at the National Arts Club. For more photos of the dinner, click here.

All Silurian Officers Re-elected for 2019-20 Term;
Board of Governors Returns Virtually Intact

VIRTUALLY THE ENTIRE SLATE of officers and board members of the Silurians Press Club was re-elected for the 2019-20 term at the June luncheon meeting at the National Arts Club, the final lunch before activities resume in September.

David A. Andelman, president

All officers were re-elected. They are David A. Andelman, president; Michael Serrill, first vice president; Joseph Berger, second vice president; Linda Amster, secretary; and Karen Bedrosian Richardson, treasurer. Serrill also continues as editor of the Silurian News. Silurian presidents generally serve two consecutive one-year terms, then are succeeded by whoever is first vice president.

A former president of the Overseas Press Club, Andelman — a foreign correspondent, author and commentator — has compiled a long and distinguished record that spans print and broadcast media as fluidly as it does national borders. Over the course of his career, he has traveled through and reported from 86 countries. A graduate of Harvard University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, he is director of The Red Lines Project, and a “Voices” columnist for CNN Opinion. In 2018, he won a Deadline Club award for Best Opinion Writing for his CNN columns and in 2019 the same award a second time for his Reuters commentaries.

Michael Serrill, first vice president

For more than seven years, he was editor and publisher of World Policy Journal. Previously, he was an executive editor of Forbes.com. Earlier, he was a New York Times correspondent in New York and Washington; a Southeast Asia bureau chief, based in Bangkok; and East European bureau chief, based in Belgrade. He then moved to CBS News where he served for seven years as Paris correspondent. Subsequent assignments: Washington correspondent for CNBC, news editor of Bloomberg News and business editor of The New York Daily News. He has written or translated four books—most recently “A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today”; and, scheduled for July publication, “An Impossible Dream: Reagan, Gorbachev and a World Without the Bomb,” which he translated from the French.

During his inaugural term as president, Andelman presided over a series of monthly lunches featuring an array of outstanding speakers: Linda Greenhouse, Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., Craig Newmark, Les Hinton, Tony Schwartz, Dan Barry and Keith J. Kelly. Lifetime Achievement Award winner Ken Auletta spoke at a dinner honoring him in November 2018, and Rich Lamb of WCBS Newsradio 880 addressed the club at a luncheon this past April, when he was given the Peter Kihss Award.

Andelman also introduced the idea of having a keynote speaker at the annual Excellence in Journalism Awards Dinner, the first of whom was Newsday’s Debby Krenek in May. (All talks are available for viewing by clicking on the link in the box at the top of the panel on the home page’s right side.)

It was also during Andelman’s first year as president that the Society of the Silurians, known by that name since 1924, changed its name to the Silurians Press Club so that it could be more easily found on websites of media organizations.

Returning board members are Betsy Ashton, Jack Deacy, Bill Diehl, Allan Dodds Frank, Tony Guida, Aileen Jacobson; Myron Kandel, Bernard Kirsch, Carol Lawson, David Margolick, Ben Patrusky, Myron Rushetzky, Mort Sheinman and Scotti Williston. The only board change was the resignation of Valerie Komor, who stepped down because of time constraints imposed by her duties at The Associated Press, where she is the founding director of corporate archives.