RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – The Coachella Valley’s PGA Tour event has a new personality on the board of its charitable organization: Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Rice will join the directors of the Mickelson Foundation, host organization for The American Express, the PGA Tour event held each January in the desert at PGA West and La Quinta Country Club.
In her new role, Rice will bring her experience and leadership capabilities to the foundation to enhance its growth and overall charitable impact, the foundation said in announcing the addition to the board. Rice’s exact role with the foundation and whether she would have a presence at the 2022 American Express tournament was not detailed.
“I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Condoleezza Rice for a number of years and her experience and leadership skills are rivaled only by her passion for sports,” said Phil Mickelson, host of the tournament and a two-time winner of the American Express in his World Golf Hall of Fame career, in a statement announcing Rice’s new position. “Condoleezza makes any organization better instantly by just becoming part of it, and Amy and I couldn’t be happier to have her join our foundation’s board to make a bigger impact for important causes and communities in need.”
A devoted sports aficionado, Rice is a member at Augusta National Golf Club, host of the Masters Tournament. She served on the inaugural College Football Playoff Selection Committee and chaired an NCAA commission on the future of college basketball. She is also the faculty fellow for the Stanford Women’s Golf Team.
Rice is currently the Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business; the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution; and a professor of Political Science at Stanford University. She is also a founding partner of RiceHadleyGates, LLC.
From January 2005-2009, Rice served as the 66th Secretary of State of the United States, the second woman and first Black woman to hold the post. Rice also served as President George W. Bush’s Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (National Security Advisor) from January 2001-2005, the first woman to hold the position.
The Mickelson Foundation became the charitable arm of the tournament for the 2020 tournament, with Mickelson taking on the role of host for the event.
In 2020, the Mickelson Foundation donated $1 million in proceeds from the American Express to 14 Coachella Valley-based charity organizations. In January 2021, the tournament raised more than $1 million additionally which will be donated to local Coachella Valley Charities, which brings the overall charitable contribution during the tournament’s history to $63 million for the local area.
