GOOD MORNING from Beverly Hills where the Milken Institute’s Global Conference kicks off later today. I’m Suzanne Lynch, bringing you Global Playbook throughout the week with the POLITICO team here on the ground, as senior figures from the world of politics, finance, philanthropy, sport and entertainment converge on the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles. Background: Now in its 27th year, the Milken Institute’s annual conference has recently expanded in scope and size. In true Californian fashion, its origin story is the stuff of Hollywood. Michael Milken, who served time in prison for securities and tax reporting violations in the 1990s, morphed from junk bond king to philanthropist, pouring his fortune into good causes including cancer research. Now 77, he’ll be as prominent as ever this week, chairing a number of the conference’s most high-profile sessions, including interviews with David Beckham, Elon Musk and Bill Clinton. THE GUEST LIST: Here’s POLITICO’s selection of some of the top names in attendance this week: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Argentine President Javier Milei, performer Usher, footballer and Authentic Brands Group partner David Beckham, businessman Elon Musk, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva, First Partner of California Jennifer Siebel Newsom, investor David Rubenstein, Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods, Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Mandy Cohen, Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger, Chevron CEO Michael Wirth, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, Governor of Tokyo Yuriko Koike, Governor of Hawaii Josh Green, Jordan’s Queen Rania Al Abdullah, U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, Joe Manchin, James Lankford and Kyrsten Sinema, political strategist Kellyanne Conway, Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel, Time CEO Jessica Sibley, Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf , hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, investor Steve Mnuchin, Bombardier CEO Éric Martel, former British Prime Minister Theresa May, former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Investment Khalid A. Al-Falih, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden, OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap, Chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Rostin Behnam, Special Presidential Advisor for the Americas Chris Dodd and American Cancer Society CEO Karen Knudsen. WEST COAST VIBES: We are, after all, in the laid-back state of California, so the good folk at Milken have laid on an array of wellness activities to ensure the high-flyers don’t burn out. Attendees can sign-up for a free three months of CALM, the mindfulness app, and delegates can also escape to the Wellness Garden for some meditation if it all gets too much. PUPPY LOVE: Dog lovers should pop into the Wellness Garden between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. tomorrow where there’ll be a chance to hang out with some puppies. Free yoga classes are also offered each morning to nurture those zen levels. TACKLING THE WORLD’S PROBLEMS: There is of course plenty of serious conversation and deal-making happening at the Milken Institute this year. Playbook will give a run-down of the must-see events each day (See the Agenda section below). Before things officially kick-off today, I caught up with some delegates. HITTING RUSSIA WHERE IT HURTS ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVE: One group you won’t be hearing much from here in Los Angeles is a Russia delegation. But the war in Ukraine is sure to be a hot topic of discussion. More than two years in, Kyiv’s fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin — and just how far the West is prepared to support it — is a key political issue ahead of elections in the United States and Europe in the coming months. Making Putin pay: Bill Browder, the financier and prominent anti-Putin campaigner, is in town to push the case for using frozen Russian central bank reserves to help Ukraine defend itself and rebuild. He’s on a panel Tuesday, along with Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of the Russian legislature now based in Ukraine. “The situation for Ukraine has become more and more desperate — financially and on the battlefield — and there is $300 billion of Russian central bank reserves sitting there,” Browder said. “That money should be confiscated.” It’s complicated: The reality is that the West is deeply divided on this issue, particularly at the G7 level, where the U.S. leading the charge in the face of resistance from EU countries. They’re worried about setting a precedent, even though they have already agreed to target the windfall profits on the frozen assets (most of which sit in Europe) Crossing the Rubicon: Browder doesn’t buy the EU line. We now have agreement in the EU that it’s ok to take the interest but not the principal, which is in many ways absurd. You can take all of it or you can take none of it, but to be able to take some of it makes no sense at all,” he said. “It’s either legal or illegal. It’s ultimately a political decision, and the question is, should European taxpayers bear the burden before Putin for a war of destruction that he created.” Muddying the waters: He also dismissed a new idea proposed by the U.S. which gained traction during meetings on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank Spring meetings: of raising debt for Ukraine secured against the future profits from the frozen assets. “I think this is an added complication,” he said. “They should just confiscate the assets and be done with it.” TRAINING UP RETHINKING THE WORLD OF WORK: In the hyper-competitive, academic-focused pressure cooker of our modern world, a college degree is exalted as the holy grail of personal and professional achievement — not least in this part of the world. One company wanting to rethinking that is Multiverse. Founded by Euan Blair, the firm offers apprenticeships and in-house training in the workplace, partnering with some of the big names of the corporate world like Microsoft and Citi. Closing the gap: In the true tradition of New Labour (the third way politics championed by Euan’s father, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair), Blair the younger said he wanted to help those traditionally sidelined from the world of work. Multiverse’s ethos is about “providing equitable access to economic opportunity for everyone,” he told Playbook. In addition to upskilling the incumbent workforce, his goal is to provide “routes into the best jobs in the labor market for people outside of the workforce, regardless of their academic credentials, or background or status.” Co-piloting with AI: Multiverse is embracing the AI revolution. The company recently acquired Searchlight, a tech company that uses AI to identify candidates for jobs. “We can use generative AI to help mitigate against some of the negative consequences it will bring for the workforce, namely short term job displacement,” Blair said. “Because while generative AI will actually create lots of jobs in the long term, it will move people away from tasks into more fulfilling interesting work.” Bedding down: The company has been scooping up investment, raising $220 million in Series D funding in 2022, and securing buy-in from investment firms like General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners and StepStone Group. The company has yet to turn a profit. “This is a business that can and will be profitable. We spend to drive growth,” Blair said. “If we can use Generative AI, as we’re beginning to do, to both diagnose skills gaps in the workforce and prescribe treatments in terms of learning programs to counter these gaps, we can reach far more people.” AGENDA Here’s what’s happening today at the Global Conference: — 10 a.m. Milken Institute Health Welcome Breakfast — 11.30 a.m. “What Matters Now”: Fireside chat with C-suite executives (invite-only) — 12 p.m. Philanthropic Investors’ Forum. — 3 p.m. The Three R’s on Hong Kong: Recovery, Relaunch and Reinvention — 3 p.m. Media reception at the Waldorf Astoria hotel — 5 p.m. Welcome Reception — 6 p.m. Prosek’s Kick-Off Cocktails, Peninsula Hotel Thanks to: Editor Stephan Faris. | 
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