Fuad El-Hibri Wire

Fuad El-Hibri	Margaret Hamburg	James Philips

“As we continue working toward our goal of an institution that will serve as a global information platform, we celebrate the election of three new board members who have each made key contributions to the creation of a healthier and safer world,” said Sullivan.

“Through his leadership in the field of biotechnology, Fuad El-Hibri is helping develop strategies to address serious threats to global health security.  Throughout a distinguished career in public service, Peggy Hamburg has focused her considerable intellect and medical training on similar concerns as well as a range of other pressing health policy issues.  And from his position at the vanguard of the information technology revolution, Jim Phillips has helped successfully launch companies and institutions that are improving our ability to connect, communicate and heal.

“We are proud to have earned the active interest and support of Fuad, Peggy and Jim and look forward to drawing extensively upon their experience and expertise as our efforts to develop NHM proceed,” said Sullivan.

Fuad El-Hibri, CEO and Chairman, Emergent Biosolutions

Fuad El-Hibri leads Emergent Biosolutions, a Maryland-based biotechnology company focused on the development, manufacture and commercialization of immunobiotics.  The company operates in two business segments: biodefense and commercial. In its biodefense business, Emergent develops and commercializes immunobiotics for use against biological agents that are potential weapons of bioterrorism. In its commercial business, the company develops immunobiotics for use against infectious diseases with significant unmet or underserved medical needs.

El-Hibri served as chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors of BioPort Corporation from 1998 until 2004, when BioPort became a subsidiary of Emergent.  He also served as chairman of Digicel Holdings, Ltd., a privately held cellular telecommunications firm, from August 2000 to October 2006.  Since 1990, he has also served as chairman of East West Resources Corporation, a venture capital and financial consulting firm.

He is a member of the board of trustees of American University and a member of the board of directors of the International Biomedical Research Alliance, an academic joint venture among NIH, Oxford University and Cambridge University. He also serves as chairman and treasurer of El-Hibri Charitable Foundation which has contributed to a variety of international development projects, including a children’s orphanage in Lebanon.  He holds a master’s degree in public and private management from Yale University and a B.A. in economics from Stanford University.

Margaret A. Hamburg, MD, Senior Scientist, Global Health and Security Initiative, NTI

One of the youngest people ever elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Margaret “Peggy” Hamburg is a highly regarded expert in community health and bio-defense, including preparedness for nuclear, biological, and chemical threats.  She currently serves as Senior Scientist for the Global Health and Security Initiative of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a foundation dedicated to reducing the threat to public safety from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.  A graduate of Radcliffe College, she earned her M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and completed her training at the New York Hospital/Cornell University Medical Center.

From 1997 to 2001, Hamburg held the position of Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), serving as principal policy advisor to Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala.  From 1991 to 1997, she served as New York City Health Commissioner, a position in which she designed and implemented an internationally recognized tuberculosis control program that produced dramatic declines in tuberculosis cases, and created the first public health bio-terrorism preparedness program in the nation.  Between 1986 and 1990, she held a variety of positions within HHS, including Special Assistant to the Director, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; and Special Assistant to the Director, and later Assistant Director, of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

A member of the Harvard College Board of Overseers and the Boards of Trustees of Rockefeller University and the Rockefeller Foundation, Hamburg is also a distinguished senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science.  She holds membership in the New York Academy of Medicine, and the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of Henry Schein Company.  She has served on the boards of other organizations, including the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Primary Care Development Corporation, and the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Infectious Diseases of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

James M. Phillips, Vice Chairman, Luminetx

James “Jim” Phillips’s career has been marked by success at starting and guiding companies through successful initial public offerings and pioneering new technologies into major industry-leading positions – including the PDA, digital cell phone, fixed cellular and internet multimedia.  A classic entrepreneur, Phillips’ began his career with Telecommunications System of America, which was sold to Northern Telecom (Nortel), where Phillips eventually became vice president.  He held subsequent executive positions at SkyTel, which became the nation’s largest messaging company; Telular Corporation, the world’s largest fixed wireless cellular company; and Motorola, where he participated in launching digital cellular and multimedia, bringing cable modem to the market.

Phillips then became Chairman and CEO of IPIX, which produced digital photographs with 360° navigable images that are today widely used on major Web sites.  After taking the company public, he was asked to become involved with the effort to build the FedEx Institute of Technology (FIT), a partnership between Federal Express Corp. and The University of Memphis.  Phillips resigned from IPIX, moved to Memphis and raised $100 million to make FIT a reality.  Information Week has called FIT the technology industry’s “newest center for innovation” and WIRED has compared it to the famous Media Lab at MIT.

After successfully launching FIT, Phillips served as CEO in residence at Morgan Keegan, a Memphis-based investment firm, before raising the capital to launch Luminetx Corporation.  Luminetx produces the VeinViewer, which was named in 2004 by Time as “one of the coolest medical inventions of the year.”  Phillips is Vice Chairman of Luminetx, having previously served as the company’s CEO, president and chairman.  A holder of patents in cell phone, PDA and data modem design, he also serves on a number of boards including the American Museum of Science and Energy, Visio Technologies Corporation, EmergeMemphis, Memphis Biotech Foundation, University of Memphis Fogelman School of Business and Economics, and the Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce.

At a glittering event at the El-Hibri Charitable Foundation on October 4th, a few blocks north of the White House, the Honorable R. Scott Kennedy received the 2008 El-Hibri Peace Education Prize. This prize, a joint effort between Nonviolence International, American University, and the El-Hibri family, was held in front of a large crowd in the renovated historic mansion that now serves as the headquarters of the Fuad El-Hibri and family’s El-Hibri Charitable Foundation.

Fuad El-Hibri and the 2008 El-Hibri Peace Education Prize

R. Scott Kennedy Awarded the 2008 El-Hibri Peace Education Prize

Ms. Nancy El-Hibri, co-creator of the Prize, presented Mr. Kennedy a check for $10,000 which honored his service as a “peace educator and activist of extraordinary impact.” The award presentation ceremony highlighted his central role in “helping establish and promote the now widespread practice of educational delegations for peace particularly to Central America and the Middle East.”

The Honorable Sam Farr of California entered a congratulatory statement in the Congressional Record which paid tribute to Mr. Kennedy and compared his work to that of Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela as a “…true man of peace…”

“His devotion to adult education has changed the lives of thousands of Americans,” said Dr. Mubarak Awad, Chairperson of the Prize Organizing Committee.

The first recipient of the prize in 2007, Professor Abdul Aziz Said of American University, shared his appreciation for peace educators who are doing so much to, “expand the moral imagination of our society.”

“Peace education in the classroom is valuable, yet needs to be complemented with pragmatic hands-on efforts in our communities to make peace and justice a living reality,” said Kennedy at the award ceremony. He expressed deep appreciation for the many colleagues at the Resource Center for Nonviolence as well as the citizens of Santa Cruz for their tremendous support and inspiration over 30 years.

Mr. Fuad El-Hibri, who established the El-Hibri Peace Education Prize, noted that he and the El-Hibri Charitable Foundation will continue to support the prize and its growth each year in an effort to highlight the importance of peace education and to support people who are working for a just, peaceful and healthy planet.

Mr. R. Scott Kennedy is a co-founder of Witness for Peace, the Resource Center for Nonviolence and Interfaith Peacebuilders, which have sent educational delegations to countries around the world to those countries whose people suffer from conflict, lack of educational opportunities, and social injustice.

It sure is wonderful when adult peace education is so strongly honored, and that peace educators have incorporated nonviolent action as a central theme in their work.

Fuad El-Hibri EBS Typhoid Vaccine