Mikhail Gorbachev to speak at NPRA Luncheon

Mikhail Gorbachev is to speak at the NPRA Luncheon, it was announced in an email update to members from NPRA on Monday.

He will give the keynote address at the International Petrochemical Luncheon on Tuesday 31 March 2009 in San Antonio, Texas.

In his biographical notes, the NPRA programme says:

Mikhail Gorbachev served as leader of

the Soviet Union from 1985-1991. He is

world-renowned and admired for streamlining

and decentralizing the oppressive

system he inherited. In an effort to secure

relations with the West, Gorbachev

signed two broad disarmament pacts,

and ended Communist rule in Eastern

Europe. He taught the world two new

words: perestroika (governmental

restructuring) and glasnost (political

openness). As a result of his extraordinary

achievements, Gorbachev was the

recipient of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize,

the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner of

Labor, and the Badge of Honor.