Philanthropist Tad Taube Profiled in San Francisco Chronicle

From his escape from Poland just months before the Nazi invasion to his successful career in business and philanthropy here in the Bay Area, Tad Taube told his story to the San Francisco Chronicle this past Sunday for an extensive profile.

Taube is the president of the Koret Foundation, chairman of Taube Philanthropies, and chairman and founder of Woodmont Companies. He is being honored with The Commonwealth Club's Distinguished Citizen Award at tonight's 108th Anniversary and 23rd Annual Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner in San Francisco. The other honorees include Mary B. Cranston, firm senior partner and immediate past chair at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, and Janet W. Lamkin, president of Bank of America California.

San Francisco Examiner Interviews Mary B. Cranston

Attorney Mary B. Cranston, firm senior partner and immediate past chair of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, was profiled in the San Francisco Examiner yesterday. We heartily recommend you take a look at it and learn more about this leading legal voice and what makes her tick.

There's just a little bit more time to join us tomorrow as we honor Ms. Cranston with The Commonwealth Club's Distinguished Citizen Award at our 108th anniversary and annual dinner in San Francisco. She is being honored along with Janet W. Lamkin, president of Bank of America California, and The Honorable Tad Taube, president of the Koret Foundation, chairman of Taube Philanthropies, and chairman and founder of Woodmont Companies.

Learn more about our biggest fundraising event of the year.

Synergenics' Dr. Bill Rutter to Receive Lifetime Achivement Award from Commonwealth Club

The Commonwealth Club of California will present its William K. Bowes Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Bill Rutter, chairman and CEO of Synergenics.

He will receive award at the Club’s 22nd Annual Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner, which will take place April 29, 2010, at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

As founder, chairman, and CEO of Synergenics, Dr. Rutter sits at the helm of a groundbreaking consortium of 10 independent biotechnology firms. Operating in shared laboratory facilities, the firms of Synergenics all benefit from a collaborative environment and managerial guidance from Dr. Rutter. Previously, Dr. Rutter co-founded the biotechnology firm Chiron Corporation in 1981 and served as chairman of both the board and the executive committee until 1999. During that time, Dr. Rutter took a hands-on approach to management, involving himself in operations -- from developing vaccines to leading financial planning.

Before his career in biotechnology, Dr. Rutter was recruited to UCSF to establish and chair a new department of biotechnology and biophysics. After serving as department chair from 1979 to 1982, he then directed the Hormone Research Institute at UCSF from 1983 to 1989. During this time Rutter’s lab made key contributions to the knowledge base upon which the multibillion dollar biotechnology industry now sits, including developing the first Hepatitis B vaccine. An accomplished and extensively published scientist, Dr. Rutter is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences..

Also being honored at the annual celebration are the Honorable George P. Shultz, former U.S. secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan, and his wife, California and San Francisco Chief of Protocol Charlotte Mailliard Shultz; Pixar Animation Studios' writer and director Brad Bird; and O'Neill Wetsuits founder and Chairman Jack O'Neill. As leaders and innovators, these distinguished citizens embody “The Spirit of California” in creative, technological, civic, entrepreneurial, environmental, and, increasingly, global contexts.

Visit our web site for more information on The Commonwealth Club's 107th Anniversary and 22nd Annual Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner.

Jack O'Neill a Commonwealth Club Distinguished Citizen

The Commonwealth Club of California will honor Jack O'Neill, founder and chairman of the board of O’Neill Wetsuits in April, for revolutionizing California’s iconic surfing industry with his invention of the wetsuit in the 1950s.

He will receive The Commonwealth Club's Distinguished Citizen Award at the Club’s 22nd Annual Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner, which will take place April 29, 2010, at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

In pursuit of a way to lengthen surfing sessions, O’Neill began experimenting with flexible plastic foam in the 1950s, an endeavor that ultimately led to the innovative idea of fashioning surfing vests from neoprene foam. O’Neill sold his first crude vests and balsa wood surfboards out of San Francisco’s original Surf Shop until relocating his operations in 1959 to Santa Cruz. In the 1960s, O’Neill began coating neoprene with an elastic, nylon fabric, a procedure that would increase wetsuit durability and comfort. In the wake of this breakthrough, O’Neill Wetsuits would expand greatly, emerging in the 1980s as an international presence.

Today O’Neill spends much of his time on philanthropic projects that seek to foster educational achievement and environmental stewardship in California’s schoolchildren. In 1996, O’Neill founded the O’Neill Sea Odyssey, a unique educational program for 4th-6th graders that, utilizing the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary as a classroom, instills in young minds urgent lessons about our endangered oceans. In 2005, the program received the California Governor’s Award in Economic and Environmental Leadership, as well as U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer’s Conservation Champion award. O’Neill himself has received numerous accolades from the surfing industry that he helped to establish, including having been named “Waterman of the Year” in 2000 by the Surfing Industry Manufacturers Association.

Also being honored at the annual celebration are the Honorable George P. Shultz, former U.S. secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan, and his wife, California and San Francisco Chief of Protocol Charlotte Mailliard Shultz; Pixar Animation Studios' writer and director Brad Bird; and Dr. Bill Rutter, chairman and CEO of Synergenics. As leaders and innovators, these distinguished citizens embody “The Spirit of California” in creative, technological, civic, entrepreneurial, environmental, and, increasingly, global contexts.

Visit our web site for more information on The Commonwealth Club's 107th Anniversary and 22nd Annual Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner.

George Shultz & Charlotte Mailliard Shultz to Be Honored at Commonwealth Club Annual Dinner

The Honorable George P. Shultz, former U.S. secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan, and his wife, California and San Francisco Chief of Protocol Charlotte Mailliard Shultz, will receive The Commonwealth Club of California's Distinguished Citizen Award.

They will receive the award at the Club’s 22nd Annual Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner, which will take place April 29, 2010, at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. The Club is honoring George P. Shultz and Charlotte Mailliard Shultz for their decades of service on the local, regional, national, and international levels.

Leaving the Bay Area where he had served as President of Bechtel Corporation since 1975, George Shultz served as President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state from 1982 to 1989. Before that appointment, he served as labor secretary and treasury secretary during the Nixon Administration and as a senior staff economist on the Council of Economic Advisers during the Eisenhower administration. Regarded as one of the preeminent political minds of our time, Secretary Shultz played a pivotal role in the most precarious and delicate international issues facing the United States during his day, including the Cold War. In 1989, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Today he offers his insights on global political and economic policy as a distinguished fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. In 1997 The Commonwealth Club of California honored Secretary Shultz with the Distinguished Citizen Award, along with former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry; Secretary Shultz is the only person to receive the Club’s Distinguished Citizen Award twice. The author of five books and numerous academic articles, he has taught at a number of prestigious universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Chicago Graduate School of Business, and Stanford. He earned his Ph.D. in industrial economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1949. He received his B.A. in economics from Princeton University in 1942, joining the US Marine Corps that same year.

Together, the Shultzes constitute a dynamic and accomplished team of devoted San Franciscans. Serving in the volunteer position of chief of protocol for the State of California, it has been Mrs. Shultz’ job since 2004 to promote California on the global stage. To accomplish such a task, she has planned a multitude of events to highlight the many facets of the state’s economic and cultural life, from its technological capabilities and cosmopolitan business hubs, to its environmental diversity and scenic attractions. In her additional role as chief of protocol and director of special events for the City and County of San Francisco, Mrs. Shultz has served seven different mayors of San Francisco in a similar function, organizing, among other events, the visits of numerous foreign dignitaries to the Bay Area. Mrs. Shultz is no stranger to either civic involvement or civic honors. She is widely acknowledged as responsible for having revived the San Francisco Symphony’s Black and White Ball, for which she served as chair in 1982, ’83, ’85 and ’87. Currently she serves on the boards of the San Francisco Ballet, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the War Memorial Performing Arts Center, the World Affairs Council of Northern California, and The Commonwealth Club of California. She has been named the State of California Woman of the Year and received the United Nations Association of San Francisco’s Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Also being honored at the annual celebration are Jack O'Neill, founder and chairman of the board of O’Neill Wetsuits; Pixar Animation Studios' writer and director Brad Bird; and Dr. Bill Rutter, chairman and CEO of Synergenics. As leaders and innovators, these distinguished citizens embody “The Spirit of California” in creative, technological, civic, entrepreneurial, environmental, and, increasingly, global contexts.

Visit our web site for more information on The Commonwealth Club's 107th Anniversary and 22nd Annual Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner.

Pixar's Brad Bird to Receive Distinguished Citizen Award at Commonwealth Club Gala

The Commonwealth Club of California will present its prestigious 2010 Distinguished Citizen Award to Oscar-winning director and writer Brad Bird of Emeryville-based Pixar Animation Studios.

The award will be given to Bird for his invaluable contributions to California at the Club’s 22nd Annual Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner, which will take place April 29, 2010, at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

Bird is perhaps best known for his work as director of the animated films Ratatouille and The Incredibles, for which he also holds the sole writing credit. His films have consistently utilized the most cutting-edge animation technologies. They have additionally benefited from Bird’s proven ability to foster creativity among his production team by tapping into the potential of what he calls the studio’s “black sheep” animators.

Even before joining Pixar, Bird’s work in movies and television had garnered attention for its stunning originality and its emphasis on technological innovation. Bird also holds directorial and writing credits for the 1999 animated feature, The Iron Giant, which won the International Animated Film Society’s Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Feature. Along with Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood, Bird once directed an episode of Steven Spielberg’s 1980’s television show Amazing Stories. Bird’s contribution, however, was unique in featuring the first digitally recorded soundtrack on network television. Bird completed his first animated short at the age of 14. This feat would help him land a job at Walt Disney Studios in Southern California, where he would receive mentoring from famed animators Milt Kahl and Eric Larson.

Also being honored at the annual celebration are Jack O'Neill, founder and chairman of the board of O’Neill Wetsuits; the Honorable George P. Shultz, former U.S. Secretary of State, and his wife, California and San Francisco Chief of Protocol Charlotte Mailliard Shultz; and Dr. Bill Rutter, chairman and CEO of Synergenics. As leaders and innovators, these distinguished citizens embody “The Spirit of California” in creative, technological, civic, entrepreneurial, environmental, and, increasingly, global contexts.

Visit our web site for more information on The Commonwealth Club's 107th Anniversary and 22nd Annual Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner.