It seems that Michael Milken, the creator of “junk bonds” who pled guilty to securities violations and served nearly two years of a 10-year sentence in the 1980s, is putting his past further behind him all the time.
He’s devoted considerable time and money to charity since then and through his foundation has been a major advocate of medical research.
His 9th annual Global Conference took place last week at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and attracted a record 2,700 attendees over three days including some big names.
Sports stars Lance Armstrong and Andre Agassi were the biggest crowd-pleasers, providing warmly received talks on healthy living.
One of the highlights was a lunch meeting in which Milken chatted engagingly about the challenges of health care (his favorite topic) and global warming with three Nobel Laureates Gary Becker, an economist at the University of Chicago; Daniel Kahneman, a professor of psychology at Princeton University; and Myron Scholes, chairman of Oak Hill Platinum
Partners.
Business speakers included New Corp.’s Peter Chernin, Warner Music Group’s Edgar Bronfman Jr., Yahoo Inc.’s Terry Semel and corporate raider T. Boone Pickens.
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Los Angeles’ master networker Carl Terzian (he claims to literally know everybody) is kicking off his 38th year at the helm of his public relations firm, Carl Terzian Associates, by hosting several upcoming events honoring Dr. Robert Beart. He’s the professor of surgery at the Keck School of Medicine at USC and chief of the colorectal surgery division at USC’s Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. Terzian, 70, hosts 800 networking events every year (that’s more than three per weekday!) at the Jonathan Club and Regency Club.
The events bring together executives interested in becoming board members of non-profit groups. “We think we can save lives for people who have questions about cancer,”
said Terzian.
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For parents with autistic children, help from the government is better late than never.
State Senate President pro Tem Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) just finished appointing members to a Legislative Blue Ribbon Commission on Autism. The 16-member panel will identify gaps in the state’s programs and services. Local members of the commission include Kenneth Simril, CFO of Clipper Corp.; Magdalena Beltran del Olmo, vice president of communications at California Wellness Foundation; Dr. David Feinberg, medical director at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital/David Geffen School of Medicine; Barbara Firestone, president and CEO of Help Group; Lynn Koegel, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Areva Martin, managing partner of Martin & Martin LLP; and Cindy Asner, wife of actor Ed Asner, who are parents of an autistic child.
Staff reporter Kate Berry can be reached at (323) 549-5255, ext. 228, or by e-mail at
[email protected]
.
