Global Programs in March
Business & Policy Events at Asia Society Texas Center
Schedule | Registration | Event Details | Keynote Speaker | Panelists | Moderators
Schedule
Economic & Foreign Policy Discussion
Hamid Biglari – Mitchell Julis – Ronnnie Chan
Thursday, March 6, 10:30 am
Innovation Discussion
Dr. Ronald DePinho – Henrietta Fore – Omar Ishrak
Thursday, March 6, 11:30 am
Luncheon with Josette Sheeran
with Charles C. Foster
Thursday, March 6, 12:30 pm
Registration
Click here to download the registration form. Please fax your completed form to 713.496.9989, or email it to Bronwyn Walker, Individual Giving Manager, at [email protected].
Event Details
Economic Foreign Policy Discussion
Thursday, March 6 | 10:30 am | The Brown Foundation Theater
Some of the most dominant economic and foreign policy issues in the 21st century will be decided in the Asia-Pacific region. What does this mean for the United States? What role will the powerhouse nations of Asia play? A diverse panel of experts – Hamid Biglari, Ronnie Chan, and Mitch Julis – discusses key areas that provide both challenges and opportunities for Asia, the United States, and beyond.
Panel Discussion on Innovation
Thursday, March 6 | 11:30 am | The Brown Foundation Theater
Innovation has changed the face of Asia and shows no signs of slowing. Asia’s new entrepreneurs are driving forces in the economy and have transformed the region in a few short years. Can the United States keep up with Asia in the 21st century? Join experts Dr. Ronald DePinho, Henrietta Holsman Fore, and Omar Ishrak, as they discuss how innovation is changing our global society.
Luncheon with Asia Society President Josette Sheeran
Thursday, March 6 | 12:30 pm | Edward Rudge Allen III Education Center
Since 1956, the Asia Society has promoted mutual understanding and strengthened partnerships among peoples, leaders and institutions of Asia and the United States in a global context. Josette Sheeran, the seventh president and CEO of the Asia Society will be in discussion with Charles Foster, Asia Society Texas Center chairman, on the future of the Asia Society.
Keynote Speaker Biography
Josette Sheeran
Josette Sheeran is the seventh president and CEO of Asia Society. In the position, which she assumed in June 2013, she is responsible for leading and advancing the organization's work throughout the U.S. and Asia, and across its disciplines of arts and culture, policy and business, and education. Josette is former Vice Chair of the World Economic Forum, which hosts the annual Davos and Davos in China gathering of world leaders. In this position, she helped advance global initiatives and global, regional and industry agendas such as Grow Africa, which has attracted $4 billion in investment commitments to end hunger and malnutrition in Africa. She recently served at the Harvard Kennedy School as a Fisher Fellow in the Future of Diplomacy.
Prior to her tenure at the World Economic Forum, Josette was executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2006. There she was responsible for managing the world's largest humanitarian organization, leading a team of 13,000 people in more than 70 countries, and managing an annual budget of more than $3 billion — including $1 billion in Asia. In 2011, Forbes named Josette the world's 30th most powerful woman; Foreign Policy has listed her among its top 100 women on Twitter; and Josette's TED Talk on ending world hunger has been viewed more than one million times.
Panelist Biographies
Hamid Biglari
Hamid Biglari is formerly Vice-Chairman and Head of Emerging Markets at Citigroup. He was a member of Citigroup’s Operating Committee and held senior management roles throughout his tenure there, including Chair of the Business Development Committee (the most senior client committee in the bank) and Chief Operating Officer of the Institutional Client Group (the investment and corporate banking arm of the bank).
Prior to joining Citigroup, Dr. Biglari was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he co-led the Firm’s investment banking consulting practice. In that role, he advised CEOs at several bulge-bracket investment banks, commercial banks, insurance companies, investment management companies, and private equity firms. His experience base spans the entire spectrum of financial services. Prior to that, Dr. Biglari was a theoretical nuclear physicist at Princeton University’s Plasma Physics Laboratory, the nation’s leading center for controlled thermonuclear fusion research. He is a member of Council on Foreign Relations as well as a Trustee of Asia Society.
Dr. Ronald A. DePinho, MD
Dr. Ronald A. DePinho, MD, is President of The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. His research program has focused on the molecular underpinnings of cancer, aging and degenerative disorders and the translation of such knowledge into clinical advances. Dr. DePinho’s independent scientific career began at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he was the Feinberg Senior Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research. He then joined the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Department of Medicine and Genetics at the Harvard Medical School. He was the founding Director of the Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a Professor of Medicine and Genetics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. DePinho is a former member of the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research, and has served on numerous advisory boards in the public and private sectors, including co-chair of advisory boards for the NCI Mouse Models of Human Cancers Consortium and for The Cancer Genome Atlas Project. Dr. DePinho studied biology at Fordham University, where he graduated class salutatorian, and received his MD degree with distinction in microbiology and immunology from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
For his fundamental contributions to cancer and aging, he has received numerous honors and awards including the March of Dimes Basil O’Connor Scholar Award, the James S. McDonnell Foundation Scholar Award, the Cancer Research Institute Investigator Award, the Melini Award for Biomedical Excellence, the Irma T. Hirschl Career Scientist Award, the Kirsch Foundation Investigator Award, and the Richard P. and Claire W. Morse Scientific Award. He is the recipient of the 2002 American Society for Clinical Investigation Award, the 2003 AACR G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award, the 2007 Biomedicum Helsinki Medal and the 2009 Albert Szent-Györgyi Prize.
He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science. In 2010, Dr. DePinho was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2012, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a founder of a number of biopharmaceutical companies focused on cancer therapies and diagnostics.
Omar Ishrak
Omar Ishrak has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Medtronic since June 2011. Medtronic is the world’s leading medical technology company, with more than $16 billion in annual revenue, and operations reaching more than 120 countries worldwide. Medtronic provides therapies that are used to treat a wide range of conditions, including cardiac and vascular diseases, diabetes, neurological and spinal conditions, and more. The Medtronic Mission is to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life for millions of people around the world.
Omar joined Medtronic from General Electric Company, where he spent 16 years, most recently as President and CEO of GE Healthcare Systems, a $12 billion division of GE Healthcare, with a broad portfolio of diagnostic, imaging, patient monitoring and life support systems. Omar also served as an Officer and a Senior Vice President of GE. Earlier in his career, Omar amassed 13 years of technology development and business management experience, holding leadership positions at Diasonics/Vingmed, and various product development and engineering positions at Philips Ultrasound.
Omar is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Asia Society and is also on the Health Leadership Council of the Save the Children Foundation.
Mitchell R. Julis
Mitchell R. Julis is Co-Founder, Co-Chairman and Co-CEO of Canyon Partners, LLC, a leading global alternative asset management firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Canyon manages close to $23 billion in assets, specializing in credit-oriented investments for institutional investors worldwide. Canyon’s investment strategies focus on bank debt, distressed debt, high yield and convertible bonds, securitized assets, direct investments, arbitrage and value equities. Canyon also invests in real estate through Canyon Capital Realty Advisors and the Canyon Johnson Urban Fund, and in emerging market debt securities through ICE Canyon LLC.
Mr. Julis is a graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University (B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), Harvard Law School (J.D., magna cum laude) and Harvard Business School (M.B.A., honors). He serves on the Advisory Council for the Julis Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is also a Member of the Governing Board for The Institute for New Economic Thinking, the Asia Society Board of Trustees, and the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute Advisory Council.
Moderator Biographies
Ronnie C. Chan
Mr. Chan is the Chairman of Hang Lung Group Limited and its subsidiary, Hang Lung Properties Limited. Both are publicly listed companies in Hong Kong, dealing in real estate investment, development and management. Founded in 1960, the Hang Lung Group expanded its reach into mainland China in 1992. Following successes in Shanghai, from 2005 to 2009 Hang Lung has been investing US$5 billion and building commercial complexes in several Chinese cities, including Tianjin, Shenyang, Jinan, Wuxi and Dalian. Mr. Chan also co-founded the privately held Morningside group which, in the past two decades, has owned and managed businesses in manufacturing, public transport operations, outdoor advertising, media, healthcare, online game operators, high-tech and biotech investments, developmental capital investments and other venture capital investments around the world. In addition, Mr. Chan is actively involved with many non-profits, philanthropic endeavors, and educational organizations.
Henrietta Holsman Fore
Ms. Fore is Chairman and CEO of Holsman International, a manufacturing, consulting and investment company. From 2007 to 2009, she was Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, holding the equivalent rank as Deputy Secretary of State. From 2005 and 2007 she served as Undersecretary of State for Management. She was the 37th Director of the U.S. Mint in the Department of Treasury from August 2001 to August 2005. She currently serves as Co-Chair of WomenCorporateDirectors, and of the North Africa Partnership for Economic Opportunity. She is a Trustee of the Aspen Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She serves on the Boards of Exxon Mobil Corporation and Theravance, Inc. Ms. Fore also serves on the Boards of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, Diagnostics for All, Center for Global Development, and Women's Foreign Policy Group.
Charles C. Foster
Charles C. Foster is Co-Chairman of Foster Quan, LLP (formerly Tindall & Foster, P.C.), one of the largest global immigration law firms. He received his Bachelors from the University of Texas and his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law. Mr. Foster is the founding Chairman of the State Bar of Texas Immigration and Nationality Law Section and a Board member, past national President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and Chairman of the American Bar Association Coordinating Committee on Immigration Law. Mr. Foster served as the principal advisor to President Bush on U. S. immigration policy during the 2000 and 2004 Presidential Campaign, and was an advisor on immigration policy issues to President Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign. He is Chairman of Americans for Immigration Reform, a 501(c)(3) affiliate of the Greater Houston Partnership and the GHP’s Immigration Task Force. He was designated a ”Texas Super Lawyer” 2003-2012by Texas Monthly magazine; the “Top Notch Lawyer in Immigration” in the Texas Lawyer “ Go To Lawyers Guide,” the #1 Ranked Immigration Lawyer in Texas by Chambers USA 2006-2011 and he was listed as one of the nation’s “20 Most Powerful Employment Attorneys” in immigration by Human Resource Executive, June 2011.
Business and policy programs at Asia Society Texas Center are made possible by support from United Airlines—Official Airline of Asia Society Texas Center. Additional support provided by Asia Society contributors and members.