March 9, 2006
La Jolla, CA – Dr. Irwin Jacobs, co-founder of QUALCOMM; Richard Freeman, president and chief operating officer of the San Diego Padres; and Ted Waitt, co-founder of Gateway, have been named to the positions of vice chair of the Salk Institute’s Board of Trustees. They join vice chair, Dr. Jennifer Howse, president of the March of Dimes; and Jerry Kohlberg, chairman of the Board of Trustees, to form the upper echelon of board leadership for the Salk Institute.
Dr. Jacobs is the co-founder of QUALCOMM. He and his wife Joan are well known in the philanthropic community as major supporters of the San Diego Symphony, Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla Playhouse, and the University of California, San Diego. Business Week magazine noted in a 2004 publication that the Jacobs were ranked as the 22nd most generous philanthropists in the United States. The Jacobs became involved with the Salk Institute in 2004 when they established the Crick-Jacobs Center for Computational and Theoretical Biology, which uses sophisticated computation-based modeling methods to understand how the brain processes information.
Richard Freeman is the former national Chairman of the Board of the March of Dimes and has been on the Salk’s Board of Trustees for 10 years, while he served as chief operating officer of the Pittsburg Pirates and later the Padres. The March of Dimes provided the initial grant to establish the Salk Institute in 1960.
Ted Waitt helped revolutionize how people use technology as a co-founder of Gateway, Inc. Now retired from Gateway, he is a full time philanthropist and entrepreneur, leading two primary enterprises: Avalon Capital Group, Inc., a billion dollar holding company, and the Waitt Family Foundation and Institutes, his non-profit entities. Ted joined the Salk Institute board in 2004.
The Salk Institute’s Board of Trustees is comprised of 31 men and women from the local, national, and international communities. Jerry Kohlberg, current chairman, and founding partner of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., remarks, “I am proud of this esteemed group of caring and committed trustees who are supporting the basic biological research of Salk scientists. I am delighted that they will be serving with me as the board’s vice chairs.”
Salk President Richard Murphy said, “We are delighted that Dr. Jacobs, Mr. Freeman, and Mr. Waitt are now part of our board’s leadership team. Their appointments reflect the growing importance of the San Diego business and volunteer communities in the Salk’s operations.” Other San Diegans on the Board include Steve Altman, Charles Brandes, Ted Cranston, Dick Helmstetter, Paul Jacobs, Ernest Rady, Darlene Marcos Shiley, and Marna Whittington. In all, San Diegans account for almost one third of the board’s membership.
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to fundamental discoveries in the life sciences, the improvement of human health, and the training of future generations of researchers. Jonas Salk, M.D., whose polio vaccine all but eradicated the crippling disease poliomyelitis in 1955, opened the Institute in 1965 with a gift of land from the City of San Diego and the financial support of the March of Dimes.
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