The 41st annual Board of Governors Meeting will take place May 29-31, 2011, featuring panels, keynote speeches and the awarding of honorary doctorates to noted international personalities.
Highlights:
- International rock legend and Live Aid founder Bob Geldof KBE will receive an honorary doctorate;
- Lecture by Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer;
- Keynote address by: The Rt Hon Sir Martin Gilbert CBE, DLitt, UK Sowing the Seeds of Jewish Statehood: Britain and Palestine, 1909 – 1922 who will also be receiving an honorary doctorate;
- Prof. Manuel Trachtenberg, Chairman of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education will address the opening plenary session;
- Innovation 2011 fair featuring Israeli Internet guru Yossi Vardi;
- A Panel Discussion: Women in Academia – Breaking the Glass Ceiling with the participation of four women university presidents;
- And a talk by Start-up Nation co-author Saul Singer “What’s next for the Start-up Nation?”
This year, noted academic and cultural personalities will be receiving honorary doctorates. The five recipients include:
Bob Geldof KBE, UK, is a noted activist and rock star. He is the founder of Band Aid and the organizer of the Live Aid concert in 1985 and the Live 8 concerts in 2005 to benefit Ethiopia. He is the former lead singer of the Boomtown Rats and later went on to have a successful solo career. He was given an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth for his activism.
Prof. France A. Córdova, USA, is the president of Purdue University in Indiana. A professor of physics, she is a former chancellor of the University of California, Riverside and the former chief scientist of NASA.
Sir Martin Gilbert, UK, is a leading historian of the Holocaust and the official biographer of Winston Churchill. In addition to the multi-volume Churchill biography, Gilbert has written a one volume history of the Holocaust, as well as books about the two world wars and the twentieth century.
Prof. Donna E. Shalala, USA, has served as the president of the University of Miami for the last decade. She served as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Clinton Administration – and held the position longer than anyone else in US history. She has also served as the president of Hunter College of the City University of New York and chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen, UK, began his career as a financial journalist. Moving quickly upwards, he established Euromoney Publications, which grew into a publishing empire. Waley-Cohen has become the managing director of several prestigious West End theaters and the producer of the longest-running show in history Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap.” Sir Stephen is also the chairman of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), the Combined Theatrical Charities and of the Garrick Charitable Trust.
