WASHINGTON, D.C. - Think Aspen. Think technology. Think Maggie Wilderotter. Microsoft Senior Vice President Maggie Wilderotter will assess the future of the technology and software sectors as a speaker at The Progress & Freedom Foundation’s upcoming Aspen Summit. She will deliver a luncheon address at 12:30 p.m. (Mountain) on Monday, August 18, at the St. Regis Hotel in Aspen, Colorado.

An annual gathering of the digital world’s most prominent business leaders, probing thinkers and influential policymakers, this year’s Summit will be held August 17-19. It opens Sunday evening with comments by a surprise, high-level guest. Registration and other information can be found at: http://www.pff.org/aspen2003/aspen03.htm.

“Maggie Wilderotter is a respected trend-setter and trend-spotter who happens to help lead one of the world’s most dynamic and powerful companies,” says Progress & Freedom Foundation President Raymond L. Gifford. “We are excited to hear what she believes may be in store for software and technology.”

Previously, the Foundation announced Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy J. Muris and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell plan to deliver major policy addresses at the Aspen Summit. In addition, on April 18, at 9:30 a.m., a “CEO Roundtable” will feature remarks by executives of, Allegiance Telecom, Covad, Qwest, SBC and Verizon Wireless. Additional Aspen Summit participants will be announced soon. Not long after its 1995 debut, the Aspen Summit earned a reputation as the most interesting and prominent event of its kind. Wired compared it to the Davos summit in Switzerland and the famed Renaissance Weekend. Recent presenters include industry leaders Jeff Bezos, Carly Fiorina, Peter Chernin, Ivan Seidenberg and Les Vadasz. Top policymakers, regulators and academics also take part, as do such big thinkers as George Gilder, Esther Dyson and Alvin Toffler. And members of the audience – who have included the likes of Eisner and John Doerr – have much to contribute to the Summit’s forward-looking discussions about major technology and communications-related public policy issues. See media highlights of the 2002 Aspen Summit.