Michael Milken
Chairman, The Milken Institute
Over the past four decades, Mike Milken has been at the forefront of initiatives that have influenced public policy, accelerated medical research, re-envisioned education, and expanded access to capital for growing companies. Esquire magazine listed him among “The 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century.”
As a financier, Milken is often said to have revolutionized modern capital markets, making them more dynamic and democratic. A Washington Post column said he “helped create the conditions for America’s explosion of wealth and creativity.” Starting in 1969, he financed 3,200 companies that created millions of jobs and played a leading role in building the cable television, telecommunications, cellular phone, home building, hospitality and entertainment industries.
Milken is an investor in companies that help build human capital. Over the past decade he has travelled to more than 35 nations consulting with industry, medical and government officials on a wide range of global challenges. He is a co-founder and chairman of Knowledge Universe, an international company headquartered in Singapore that invests in a wide range of educational, healthcare and other companies in the United States, Europe and Asia.
He chairs the Milken Institute, a non-partisan economic think tank whose annual Global Conference each spring brings 3,000 thought leaders from more than 50 nations to Los Angeles. Global Conference panels explore solutions to challenges of international finance, energy, education and health. Last fall the Institute hosted its first major international conference, The Milken Institute Summit, in London; this year the Institute hosts events in London and Singapore.
As one of America’s leading philanthropists, he formalized his earlier giving in 1982 by co-founding the Milken Family Foundation, which has supported a broad range of breakthroughs against life-threatening diseases and advanced programs of education reform.
Fortune magazine called Milken “The Man Who Changed Medicine” for his decades-long commitment to medical-research initiatives. He heads FasterCures, a Milken Institute center dedicated to accelerating progress against all life-threatening diseases. He chairs the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropic source for prostate cancer research, which has funded more than 1,600 programs at nearly 200 research centers in 15 countries. He also helped launch the Melanoma Research Alliance, which supports innovative translational research studies that advance the diagnosis, staging and treatment of melanoma, the deadliest skin cancer.
In his forthcoming book – Where’s Sputnik? – Milken focuses on America’s evolving global role and offers prescriptions for change in energy, education, housing, entitlements, health and immigration. More details are at www.wheressputnik.com.
Milken graduated with highest distinction from the University of California, Berkeley – where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa – and earned his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He and his wife Lori, who have three children and six grandchildren, celebrate their 44th anniversary this year. Additional details and a selection of articles are at www.mikemilken.com.
