Patrick Soon-Shiong, World Renowned Healthcare Visionary & Philanthropist, to Receive ABL's Leadership Award & Make Keynote Presentation

11th Annual Innovations in Healthcare^SM Awards Event Takes Place October 28, in Newport Beach

Santa Ana, CA — October 16, 2009 — Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, billionaire philanthropist, healthcare industry visionary, and Chairman and CEO of Abraxis Health, will receive the Adaptive Business Leaders Organization's 2009 “Leadership in Innovation” Award and Keynote at ABL's 11th Annual Innovations in Healthcare^SM Awards Event on October 28, in Newport Beach. 

Ranked #65 on the Forbes 400 Richest Americans 2009 list, with an estimated net worth of $4 billion, Patrick recently told CNBC.com that he wants to “completely change the mindset about healthcare,” motivating the industry to maintain health rather than to treat illness. “Currently, doctors and drug companies only make money when you’re sick,” said Patrick, “but there need to be incentives to keep people healthy.” Further, Patrick is spending $1 billion to hire the brightest minds in the world to create a smart grid for medical information, creating a way for all of your medical information to follow you portably, encrypted securely to give you control of access, which can then be combined through the right software with the most up-to-date medical information relevant to your situation. He says his smart grid is already in use at several children’s hospitals, where specialists can immediately weigh in online about the best treatment for a sick child. (Jane Wells, “Billionaire Doctor Puts His Money Where His Mind Is,” CNBC.com, October 5, 2009).

Immigrating to America with only a medical school degree from South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand, Patrick joined the faculty of UCLA in 1983, where he performed the first islet-cell transplant. The named inventor on over 50 issued U.S. patents, Patrick has published 100+ scientific papers, and since leaving UCLA in 1991, he has also founded two publicly traded pharmaceutical companies, Abraxis Bioscience, which brought to market Abraxane - the world’s first nanotechnology cancer-fighting drug, and American Pharma Partners, which he sold last year to Fresenius for $3.7 billion.

Earlier this year, Patrick founded Abraxis Health, a fully-integrated, next-generation, evidenced-based, personalized healthcare company dedicated to the discovery, development, validation and clinical application of diagnostics and therapeutics that are tailored to the specific molecular profile of patients, in order to offer safer and more effective treatments for critical illnesses. He’s also established the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation, through which he and his family are focusing on charitable endeavors that will improve healthcare in America and the welfare of its patients. 

Patrick’s significant achievements have been recognized internationally with innumerable prestigious awards, including the J.W. Hyatt Award for Service to Mankind; and now, ABL’s highest honor: its “Leadership in Innovation” Award. ABL’s Innovations in Healthcare^SM Awards – now in its 11^th year – recognize organizations and individual leaders which have demonstrated transformative advances in medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutics, information technology and approaches to the delivery of healthcare, with a particular emphasis on reducing the cost of providing quality healthcare. The October 28^th Awards Event will also honor nine Award Finalists, and feature the presentation of three ”ABBYs” to the winners in each of three categories, who were voted as best meeting the above critieria by Members of the ABL Organization.

More details about the Innovations in Healthcare^SM Awards Event, about Patrick Soon-Shiong, and about the ABBY Award Finalists can be found at www.abl.org/iih2009.htm.

 

About the Adaptive Business Leaders (ABL) Organization
ABL supports the needs of its Member CEOs by providing a place for top-level executives to draw on the experience, knowledge and skill sets of their peers in a vertical industry, personal advisory board – “multi-coach approach” – setting.

The core component of the CEO Membership experience is the group Round Table meeting. Members meet once a month for a half-day with a group of peer CEOs, Presidents, COOs and Division General Managers from non-competing companies, all from the same industry (healthcare, technology or medical device), in a trusted and confidential board room-like setting, which allows ABL Members to tackle topics and enhance their decision making and business performance. Topics include: latest developments in and implications of national and regional healthcare reform, developing and honing new business strategies and best practices, developing new lines of business and an effective board of directors, as well as understanding trends in new markets, mergers and acquisitions, compensation, and other “hot” topics brought to the Round Tables by the Members themselves.

ABL Members also gather several times a year at workshops and conferences to exchange ideas and connect with other chief executives beyond their own CEO peer groups. In effect, ABL Members serve as one another’s business coaches within the Round Tables and are encouraged to connect and leverage their co-Member peers’ particular skills and expertise for additional leadership development, one-on-one, outside of their monthly group meeting. In addition, each Round Table’s Facilitator also serves as an objective business advisor, offering executive and industry insights and advice.

ABL's Chief Executive Leadership Development Round Table program is currently offered in California's Greater Los Angeles, Orange, San Francisco and Santa Clara County areas.

More information about the ABL Organization can be found at http://www.abl.org.

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CONTACT:
Mimi Grant, President of ABL Organization
714-245-1425
mimi@abl.org