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Mike Milken
Co-Founder and Chairman
Knowledge Universe |
Co-Founder and Chairman of Knowledge Universe, Mike Milken is a legendary financier widely known for innovations that helped create millions of jobs in the more than 3,200 companies he has financed since 1969. He played a leading role in building the cable television, telecommunications, cellular phone, home building, hospitality and entertainment industries.
Milken is often said to have revolutionized modern capital markets, making them more democratic by innovating a wide range of financing techniques previously unavailable to most companies. The Washington Post said he "helped create the conditions for America's explosion of wealth and creativity," a process that Business Week said "shook America's defeatist Establishment out of its gloom." "Much of the strength and resilience of the economy today," a former editor of the Harvard Business Review wrote, "is due to the way people using Milken's financing vehicles remade ailing companies or put their entrepreneurial zeal to work."
A Fortune magazine cover story that chronicled his three decades of efforts to accelerate medical solutions referred to Mike as "The Man Who Changed Medicine." Regarded as one of America's leading philanthropists, he co-founded the Milken Family Foundation in 1982 to advance programs in medical research and education. More recently, having concluded that progress wasn't coming fast enough, he founded FasterCures, which works to eliminate bureaucratic and regulatory barriers to progress against all life-threatening diseases. Mike also chairs the Milken Institute, a think tank whose conferences feature leaders of business, finance, government and philanthropy from 60 nations. Among the many awards he has received is the Marcus Garvey Award for major contributions to the formation and inspiration of African-American businesses. He earned his bachelor's degree at the University of California at Berkeley, and his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Mike and his wife Lori have three children and three grandchildren and celebrated their 40th anniversary this year. More information is at www.mikemilken.com. |
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