Leon Panetta to speak in Presidents' Speaker Series

On October 8, this coming Friday, Leon Panetta will be returning to Santa Clara, his old stomping grounds, to talk to students and the community about national security and law.

Panetta, who is a Santa Clara alumnus will be one of the featured speaker at the school's President's Speaker Series.

On February 13, 2009 he became the 19th director of the Central Intelligence Agency and has been leading the agency and managing much of the security and intelligence gathering for the United States.

Before he joined the CIA, Panetta and his wife, Sylvia, ran the Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy.

The institute is based out of California State University, Monterey Bay and is focused on instilling the virtues and values of public service in young men and women.

Panetta has a long history of public service.

He represented California's 16th Congressional District (now the 17th) from 1977 to 1993.

From 1994 to 1997 he served as Chief of Staff to President Clinton.

Panetta graduated with a political science degree from Santa Clara in 1960 and then went on to graduate from its law school in 1963.

The talk will take place in Mayer Theatre at 8:00 pm.

Tickets for the event were in high demand and have therefore all been distributed out or purchased.

Other speakers in the series are Rosalyn Higgins and David Drummond.

Higgins was the first woman to be elected as a judge of the International Court of Justice and will be coming to the Mission Church on February 24, 2011.

Drummond is Google's senior vice president for corporate development and the firm's general counsel and is coming to Mayer Theatre on April 13, 2011.

Tickets for both are on sale now through the Center of Performing Arts Box Office.