This is our focus: to cultivate a one-stop-shop of world-class people—people like yourself—that ignites the kinds of conversations that lead to new ideas, enlivened dreams and personal motivation. A tall order, for sure, but one we’ve been successful at for 32 years.

Over the past three decades, the Churchill Club has hosted industry and government leaders and luminaries. Past speakers include founders and executives of major companies such as IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Netflix founder & CEO Reed Hastings, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk; prominent investors such as Vinod Khosla, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Ron Conway; and government and other leaders such as former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, filmmaker James Cameron, and Hollywood talent über-agent Ari Emanuel.

It’s an impressive list, but it would be no more than a roster if we weren’t committed to the idea of an independent forum that facilitates the open and timely exchange of ideas, opinions and viewpoints among business leaders and innovators. At the Churchill Club, collaborators and competitors meet on stage to share and discuss their newest thinking. They commit to have unscripted conversations that go beyond the hype. Attendees have the opportunity to ask questions directly of speakers, uncensored by the moderator.

We host up to 24 such events every year, drawing an audience of business executives, investors, entrepreneurs, academics, and invited members of the press from the innovation capital of the world. We also offer opportunities to network and develop critical business relationships with influential individual and corporate members representing a diverse range of industries, companies and expertise.

Don’t miss out on the many individual and corporate member benefits. Join the club and become a part of one of the most acclaimed organizations in Silicon Valley.

Churchill Club Mission and Equality Statement

As a not-for-profit, public benefit organization, Churchill Club exists to encourage innovation, economic growth, and societal benefit for all who share our interests and intentions, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin or citizenship status, sex, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, sexual orientation, age, income, or disability.

Churchill Club History

The first meeting of Churchill Club was held November 12, 1985, featuring speaker Robert Noyce, integrated circuit pioneer and founder of Fairchild and Intel. More than 275 attended that first program.

Churchill Club was founded by Rich Karlgaard, now publisher of Forbes magazine, and Tony Perkins, former Editor-in-Chief of AlwaysOn. The two and a group of friends set about creating an organization dedicated to producing programs where “important people say important things.”

What’s with the bowler hat?
We’re glad you asked. The bowler, also known as the derby, became a symbol of class equality throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The bowler leveled the visual playing field, thereby encouraging more openness toward others and their ideas—exactly what we strive to do by igniting conversations.