Peter A. Peyser on October 8 presided over the dinner in New York City at which Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute and author of the bestselling biography Jobs, accepted the 2013 Benjamin Franklin Medal awarded by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA).  Peyser serves as the Chair of the U.S. fellows of the RSA, a UK-based non-profit with a global fellowship that promotes enlightment thinking and social progress. (http://thersa.org )

The Benjamin Franklin Medal was instituted in 1956 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin becoming an RSA fellow.  Franklin was particularly active in the RSA during his time serving in London as the representative of American colonies before the British parliament in the years before the Revolutionary War.  Previous winners have included  British Prime Minister Harold McMillan, Senator George Mitchell, General Colin Powell, Judi Dench, Sam Wanamaker and other leaders from politics, the arts and industry.