President Bill Clinton |
Wynton Marsalis |
Lucy Liu |
Dr.
David Ho and Jean Young |
Dr. Sandy Vasam and Magic Johnson |
Walter Wang and Gina Chu |
IRENE DIAMOND AWARD
Bill Clinton Helps Raise Funds for AIDS Research
Story by
Roger Webster
Photos by Clint Spalding
ORE than 350
business and community leaders joined the Aaron Diamond AIDS
Research Center (ADARC) to honor former President Bill Clinton
with the inaugural Irene Diamond Award at
New York's
Jazz at
Lincoln
Center.
Actress Lucy Liu hosted the evening, which raised $1.15 million
and included appearances by Dr. David Ho, Wynton Marsalis,
Magic Johnson, and Dr. David Baltimore.
The
Irene Diamond Award is a tribute to ADARC's founder Irene
Diamond, who died six years ago at the age of 92. She created
the foundation with her late husband Aaron, a real estate
developer.
Over a period of little more than a decade the Fund along
with the Aaron Diamond Foundation has distributed more than $220
million, including $50 earmarked for AIDS.
Dr. Ho
remembered Mrs. Diamond's courage, compassion and intellectual
curiosity, which compelled her to fight the epidemic by
establishing the first private laboratory dedicated to HIV/AIDS
research -- an investment that realized dramatic returns when a
few years later ADARC pioneered antiretroviral therapy.
Magic Johnson presented the Irene Diamond Award – Rafael
Viñoly's striking design with a single red rose embedded in
a crystalline diamond – to President Clinton.
President
Clinton emphasized the critical link between scientific advances
pioneered at ADARC and his own work lowering the cost of
medications and providing access to treatment in developing
nations through the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative.
Nobel
Laureate David Baltimore, former chairman of ADARC's scientific
advisory board, spoke of key ADARC breakthroughs that have
redefined our understanding of HIV and changed the course of
clinical care for patients.
Guests included Gina and David Chu, Dr.
Marty Markowitz, Agnes Gund, Walter Wang, Jane Silver,
Theresa and Frank Hau, Michael Dell, Beatrice Hahn, Mark
Goldberger, Susan Ho, Baroness Monica von Zadora-Gerlof,
Michel Witmer, Jean Young, Stephanie Sozomenu, Gordon Davis.
Also Jane Silver, Bob Lanier, Dr. Sandy Vasam, Fred
Bowen, Sarah Schlesinger, Joseph Kennedy, Lucia Hwong Gordon,
Miranda Wong Tang, Dr. Paul Bienaisz, Patty Tong, Van
Dalachandar, Alice Park, Daren Bagert, Dr. Paul Bienaisz,
Jane and Philip Weingold.
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