Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Edith Sanford Convenes National Thought Leaders Council

Sioux Falls, SD (PRWEB) June 11, 2013

The Edith Sanford Breast Cancer Foundation is breaking new ground in the nonprofit space by looking to successful entrepreneurs and social innovators to help reach its philanthropic goals. Last week in Sioux Falls, S.D., the Foundation convened the first meeting of its National Thought Leaders Advisory Council, a think tank designed to help formulate fresh new strategies for building grassroots support.


"The Edith Sanford initiative was founded as a catalyst for transformational change in the way we think about and treat breast cancer," said Kimberly Simpson, president of the Edith Sanford Breast Cancer Foundation. "Part of our success depends on going beyond the mainstream and leveraging the experience, connections and insights of creative, entrepreneurial thinkers from a wide variety of professional backgrounds."


Edith Sanford stands out because it embraces innovation in everything from its mission to the way it does business, said council member Ron McCray, a private investor and corporate director who has also served as chief administrative officer of Nike, Inc. and as chief legal officer of Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Every for-profit business knows that a culture of creativity and innovation is the key to success, but its unique for a charitable nonprofit to be so nimble and forward thinking.


The distinguished council represents recognized leaders in areas including biotechnology, IT, health care, food, consumer goods, apparel, digital media, finance, and political consulting. Each member was carefully selected to ensure a diversity of experience and perspective that the Foundation will draw on to help identify and maximize engagement, grassroots fundraising and major gift philanthropy opportunities.


In addition to McCray, the council boasts names such as Jan Fields, former president of McDonald's USA, LLC, who has been named to the Forbes list of The Worlds 100 Most Powerful Women.


"I am very excited about the bold new approach to breast cancer," said Fields. "I think Edith Sanford is the answer to finally ending this devastating disease."


Another leader on the council is Craig Arnold, president and CEO of Permara LLC. Arnold previously served as a director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where he led initiatives to bring access to computers and the internet to small towns and large cities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Chile.


"I believe in Edith Sanford's approach to ending breast cancer and raising the standard of care for women everywhere. I'm eager to contribute to the success of its mission," said Arnold.


Council Members:

Ron McCray

McCray is a private investor and corporate director. He previously served as the chief administrative officer of Nike, Inc., and chief legal officer of Kimberly-Clark Corporation. McCray is the minority owner of the Boston Celtics NBA franchise and serves on the boards of Cornell University and the Harvard Law School. By nomination of President Obama and Senate confirmation, he is also a member of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board.


Janice (Jan) Fields

Fields is the former president of McDonald's USA, LLC, and one of the most widely recognized women in business leadership. She currently serves on the boards of St. Louis-based Monsanto, The Field Museum, The Global Board of Ronald McDonald House Charities, and chairs the Board of United Cerebral Palsy. She is also a member of The Chicago Network, an organization of professional women in the upper echelons of business, the arts, government, and academia.


Fields has been named to the Forbes list of The Worlds 100 Most Powerful Women, Fortunes 50 Most Powerful Women in Business list, The Wall Street Journals 50 Women to Watch list, and Crains Chicago Business list of 25 Women to Watch.


Craig Arnold

Arnold is the president and chief executive officer of the technology company Permara LLC and a former director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where he led one of the foundations earliest initiatives to bring access to computers and the internet to small towns and large cities in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Chile. Arnold has also served as chief executive officer at Plymouth Energy and has been a board for NPower.


Katie Behnke

Behnke is managing partner and cofounder of The Starboard Group. She is a successful political and fundraising campaign advisor who has worked with a veritable whos who of Colorado politics, including U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Gov. Bill Owens.


Ralph Kauten

Kauten is the chairman and chief executive officer of Quintessence Biosciences, Inc. located in Madison, Wisc. Kauten has served as co-founder and leader of a number of biotechnology companies including Promega Corporation, PanVera Corporation, and Mirus Corporation. He has also been designated as an Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young.


Clare A. Martorana

Martorana is a digital media executive who has held senior leadership positions with WebMD Health, including the role of senior vice president of partnerships and editor-at-large at WebMD Health, and the senior vice president and general manager of the WebMD Network. Before joining WebMD, she served as chief operating officer at Oncology.com. Martorana's previous experience includes the positions of vice president and executive producer at CBS HealthWatch by Medscape, where she developed CBS HealthWatch radio and broadcast programming as well as special projects for CBS. Martorana has also worked as an independent film producer at SDR Films and Coleman Parker Productions in New York where she produced numerous feature films and documentaries.


Pierce H. McDowell III

McDowell is a co-founder and current president, co-chairman and co-chief executive officer of South Dakota Trust Company LLC and South Dakota Planning Company LLC. The former is a national trust boutique company for the wealthy based in Sioux Falls, S.D., and the latter a trust/estate planning consulting, marketing and sales firm based in New York City.


Matthew Meskell

Meskell works on operations, product and strategy at a privately-held company based in Silicon Valley whose software enables integrating, analyzing, and visualizing large-scale data. He previously served as a managing director for a multi-billion dollar investment fund dedicated to macro trading strategies. Meskell has also served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and practiced law with a focus on intellectual property disputes.


Catherine Rodewald

Rodewald has served as the president and chief executive officer with Prudential Asset Resources, Inc. and the managing director/chief information officer for Prudential Mortgage Capital Company. Rodewald has also held leadership positions with AMRESCO (international publicly traded diversified financial services corporation) and Ernst and Young (formerly Kenneth Leventhal & Company). She was also formerly president of the Komen affiliate in Dallas.


Dwayne Spradlin

Spradlin is the chief executive officer of Health Data Consortium, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit public private partnership advocating and enabling improvements in health and health care through better use of health data. He previously served as president and chief executive officer of InnoCentive, the pioneer in open innovation and crowdsourcing, president of Hoovers Online, president and chief operations officer of StarCite Inc., senior vice president at VerticalNet Inc., and director at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he spent ten years delivering technology and strategy solutions to Fortune 500 clients.


Spradlin recently coauthored The Open Innovation Marketplace, published by FT Press; and his article Are You Solving the Right Problem? was pu

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