Home > 125 Events > The 2007 Wharton Economic Summit
The 2007 Wharton Economic Summit ::
Keynote Speakers
Michael Milken
In 1972, three years after Michael Milken began a legendary career on Wall Street, his wife told him her mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer. That was when Milken began a search for medical solutions that has played as large a role in his life as his better-known innovations in finance. Three decades later, under the headline “The Man Who Changed Medicine,” Fortune magazine said, "No one had ever really pulled together the full picture of how — and how much — [Milken] has shaken up the medical establishment and saved lives."
He is now recognized for his three decades of driving medical research toward cures and improved treatments for all serious diseases. From among these, Fortune zeroed in on Milken's work in prostate cancer, noting that he "has energized the medical establishment in a quest for a cure. Now thousands of men are living longer — and leaders everywhere are taking notice." But long before he focused on prostate cancer, Milken had become one of America’s most active philanthropists. He formalized his previous philanthropy in 1982 by co-founding the Milken Family Foundation, which has supported inner-cities solutions, assistance to families of children with cancer, and worldwide research on pediatric neurology, nutrition, brain and breast cancers, and leukemia. The Foundation’s National Educator Awards, called the “Oscars of Teaching” by Teacher Magazine, is the largest such program in the U.S. and since 1985 has honored more than 2,100 K-12 teachers in 48 states. Each educator receives an unrestricted $25,000 prize.
Milken’s latest medical initiative is FasterCures, a Washington-based think tank dedicated to accelerating progress against all life-threatening diseases. He also chairs the widely respected Milken Institute, a non-partisan think tank whose scholars consult for government and private organizations, publish influential reports and hold major conferences on regional and global economic issues. The 10th annual Milken Institute Global Conference, which will bring 3,000 decision makers to Los Angeles, will be held April 23-25, 2007. Registration information is at www.milkeninstitute.org.
Milken is an investor in hundreds of companies, many in the field of education including enterprises operating early childhood education centers, K-12 and post-secondary online courses, and lifelong learning.
As a financier, he is often said to have revolutionized modern capital markets, making them more democratic and dynamic. A Washington Post column said he “helped create the conditions for America’s explosion of wealth and creativity,” a process that Business Week said “shook America’s defeatist Establishment out of its gloom.” He financed thousands of companies that created millions of jobs. The former editor of the Harvard Business Review wrote, “Much of the strength and resilience of the economy today — including its ability to rebound in times of adversity — is due to the way people using Milken’s financing vehicles remade ailing companies or put their entrepreneurial zeal to work.”
A summa cum laude graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Mike (what everyone calls him) received his MBA from Wharton. He and his wife Lori have three grown children and will soon celebrate their 39th anniversary.
