the invitation

YOUR INVITATION TO
HONOREES
Global Citizenship Award
Unilever
Kees Kruythoff
President, Unilever North America
Global Leadership Award
David Bonderman
Founding Partner, TPG
Cultural Achievement Award
MTV World
Nusrat Durrani
General Manager and Senior Vice President
Special Address by
Stephen A. Schwarzman
Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Blackstone
Trustee, Asia Society
on the landmark Schwarzman Scholars program at China’s Tsinghua University
Asia Society Policy Institute Announcement by
Stephen Bird
Chief Executive Officer, Citi Asia Pacific
Trustee, Asia Society
Asia Society is the leading educational organization dedicated to promoting
mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among peoples,
leaders, and institutions of Asia and the United States in a global context.
Across the fields of arts, business, culture, education, and policy, the Society
provides insight, generates ideas, and promotes collaboration to address
present challenges and create a shared future.
Asia Society is headquartered in New York, with cultural centers in
Hong Kong and Houston, and offices in Los Angeles, Manila, Mumbai,
San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, and Washington, D.C.
Henrietta H. Fore and Ronnie C. Chan
Co-Chairs, Asia Society
Josette Sheeran
President and CEO, Asia Society
and the Trustees of Asia Society
request the honor of your presence at the
asia society new york
awards dinner
Thursday, October 17, 2013
The Pierre, A Taj Hotel
2 East 61st Street | New York City
Reception 6:00 pm | Dinner 6:45 pm
Business Attire
The dinner will conclude by 9:15.
R.S.V.P. by October 10th to attend the dinner.
Please respond by October 1st to be included in the
Awards Dinner program.
Visit AsiaSociety.org/AwardsDinner for details.
Proceeds from the Awards Dinner support Asia Society’s mission.
Global Citizenship Award
HONOREE
Unilever
Accepted by Kees Kruythoff
President, Unilever North America
Asia Society’s Global Citizenship Award will be presented to Unilever for its
ambitious and pioneering Sustainable Living Plan, which sets out, by 2020, to
improve the health and well-being of 1 billion people, halve the environmental
footprint of their products and source 100% of their agricultural raw materials
sustainably while enhancing the livelihoods across their operations.
The Unilever Foundation is partnering with five leading global organizations—
Oxfam, UNICEF, Population Services International, Save the Children, and the
World Food Programme. The Foundation’s mission is to improve quality of life
through the provision of hygiene, sanitation, access to clean drinking water,
and basic nutrition and enhancing self-esteem.
In addition to its leadership contributions to this global coordinated effort,
Unilever addresses social issues in individual countries. One example is the
implementation of the rural selling operation, Shakti. This program provides
employment to almost 80,000 entrepreneurs, including 48,000 women, in
over 135,000 villages across India. Unilever is rolling out similar initiatives in
Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Africa.
Kees Kruythoff will accept the award on behalf of Unilever. He was appointed
President of Unilever North America in September 2011, and has enjoyed a long
career with Unilever, working in senior roles for the company since the 1990s,
in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. In 2002, he joined the Board of
Unilever Bestfoods in Asia.
Under Kruythoff’s leadership, Unilever factories have made great strides in
reducing its energy, water, and waste footprint. In North America, Unilever
is making significant progress on its goal to achieve 90% sustainably sourced
agricultural materials by 2015.
Global Leadership Award
HONOREE
David Bonderman
Founding Partner
TPG
Asia Society recognizes David Bonderman with its Global Leadership Award
for his humanitarian and business accomplishments in Asia. Through his
work as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Himalayan
Foundation, he has helped build schools, medical centers, and other much
needed facilities in Nepal and Tibet. As a business leader, David Bonderman
has helped strengthen and secure financial institutions throughout Asia, and
has been an early advocate for supporting economic growth in Myanmar.
We also wish to salute his commitment to sustainability practices for all TPG
portfolio companies. These include reducing greenhouse gases, diminishing
landfill waste, increasing recycling, and resourcing clean energy sources
globally. These companies operate in more than 100 countries and employ
approximately 600,000 people. TPG’s investments have included American
Tire Distributors, Burger King, China Grand Auto, Continental Airlines, IMS
Health, J. Crew, Lenovo, Neiman Marcus, Petco, Shriram Capital, and Univision.
Prior to forming TPG in 1992, David Bonderman was Chief Operating Officer
of the Robert M. Bass Group Inc. During his career, he was a partner in the
law firm of Arnold & Porter, a Fellow in Foreign and Comparative Law in
conjunction with Harvard University, Special Assistant to the U.S. Attorney
General in the Civil Rights Division, and Assistant Professor at Tulane
University School of Law. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law
School in 1966, and was a member of the Harvard Law Review and a Sheldon
Fellow. He is a 1963 graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle.
David Bonderman serves on the boards of Caesar’s Entertainment Corporation,
CoStar Group, Inc., General Motors Company, Ryanair Holdings, PLC, of which
he is Chairman, the Supervisory Board for VTB Bank, The Wilderness Society,
the Grand Canyon Trust, and the American Himalayan Foundation.
Cultural Achievement Award
HONOREE
MTV World
Accepted by Nusrat Durrani
General Manager and Senior Vice President
MTV World, a division of Viacom Media Networks, will receive Asia Society’s
Cultural Achievement Award as a pioneer in bringing Asian pop music and
culture to the United States. MTV World has championed hundreds of Asian
artists, ideas, and causes to audiences around the world, creating a sense
of global connection and empathy. The division was conceived by Nusrat
Durrani, General Manager and Senior Vice President.
MTV WORLD was created in 2005 to launch new programming geared toward
Asian-Americans, and to provide a platform for Asian pop culture and talent
in the U.S. The innovative channels MTV Desi, MTV K and MTV Chi were
created for South Asian, Chinese, and Korean-Americans to serve the needs
of emerging hybrid audiences. MTV World and its brands have played a critical
role in the dissemination of Asian culture, and they have been a champion—
often the first—for numerous Asian artists, issues, and genres of music.
MTV World’s programs include The Music Experiment and the forthcoming
Rebel Music documentary series. MTV World programming is featured on
multiple MTV platforms and has won many awards and accolades.
Nusrat Durrani grew up in Lucknow, India, where he attended La Martiniere
College. Before moving to the United States, he worked in New Delhi and
Dubai, where he was the head of marketing for Honda motor cars. He has said
he was inspired by a David Bowie video to change careers. He has held leadership
positions at MTV for the past 17 years, and was part of the team that launched and
developed MTV.COM and VH1.COM. Durrani received the Pinnacle Achievement
Award from the Asian-American Business Development Corporation and the
Trailblazer Award from the South Asians in the Media and Marketing Association.
Schwarzman Scholars
Designed to inspire the next generation of global leaders, Schwarzman Scholars
is the most significant program of its kind since the Rhodes Trust was founded
in 1902. With a $300 million endowment, it will also be the single largest
philanthropic effort ever undertaken in China by largely international donors.
The 200 scholars chosen annually for this highly selective program will work
towards a one-year Master’s Degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing—one of
China’s most prestigious universities. Schwarzman Scholars will be selected based
on their academic credentials, extracurricular interests and leadership potential.
Past Honorees 1979–2012
2012 David M. Cote
Washington SyCip
Patricia A. Woertz
2011 David Henry Hwang
Aung San Suu Kyi
John C. Whitehead
2010 Mukesh D. Ambani
Jeffrey R. Immelt
New York Philharmonic
2009
Joan Ganz Cooney
Richard C. Holbrooke
Nicholas D. Kristof
Kronos Quartet
Kati Marton
Deepak S. Parekh
Smita Parekh
Peter G. Peterson
Sheryl WuDunn
2008
Alain J.P. Belda
Shirin Neshat
Rajendra Kumar Pachauri
Shi Zhengrong
2007
Ban Ki-moon
Neville Isdell
Shahram Nazeri
Yoshio Taniguchi
2006
Tan Dun
Lakshmi N. Mittal
Charles Prince
David Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller IV
2005
David Chu
Vinod Khosla
Chong-Moon Lee
Lulu C. Wang
Jerry Yang
2004
Ronnie C. Chan
Maurice R. Greenberg
Douglas Tong Hsu
Rupert Murdoch
2003 William J. Clinton
2002 Colin Powell
2000
Ela R. Bhatt
Ali Akbar Khan
Gopal Raju
Atal Bihara Vajpayee
Frank J. Wisner
1999 Lawrence H. Summers
1998
Madeleine K. Albright
Peter R. Kann
Pyong-Hwoi Koo
Jonathan D. Spence
Goh Chok Tong
1997 Inder K. Gujral
1996 Henry A. Kissinger
1995 Fidel V. Ramos
1993 Chuan Leekpai
1992 Roh Tae Woo
1991 George H. W. Bush
1990 Sir David Wilson
1989 James A. Baker
Benazir Bhutto
1988 Alan Bond
Robert J. L. Hawke
1988 William F. Ray
James D. Wolfensohn
1987 Mochtar Kusumaatmadja
1985 Nihachiro Hanamura
Tommy T.B. Koh
Porter A. McCray
Soedjatmoko
1984
Robert O. Anderson
John King Fairbank
Saburo Okita
I.M. Pei
1982 A.W. Clausen
1980 George W. Ball
1979 Leonard Woodcock
DINNER LEADERSHIP
(list in formation)
CO-CHAIRS
Morningside Group/Ronnie C. Chan
Betsy and Ed Cohen/Arete
Henrietta and Richard Fore
Courtney Sale Ross
Lulu and Anthony Wang
Warburg Pincus
VICE-CHAIRS
General Atlantic
John D. Rockefeller IV
Christine and Stephen A. Schwarzman
BENEFACTORS
Maurice R. Greenberg
Chairman, The Starr Foundation
Victor and Tara Menezes
PATRONS
Eddie & Chinhui Allen/Eagle Global
Advisors
The Cornell Family Foundation
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF)
SUPPORTERS
Leon Black
Susan E. Lynch
Ambassador Paul W. Speltz
FRIENDS
Carol Gluck
Thomas S. Johnson
Megha and Sumeer Lal
Ambassador John Negroponte
Claudine Malone
Angela Self
ASIA SOCIETY TRUSTEES
Edward R. Allen III
Max Berry
Hamid Biglari
Stephen Bird
J. Frank Brown
Ronnie C. Chan
Chan Heng-Chee
Albert Chao
Purnendu Chatterjee
Betsy Z. Cohen
Henry Cornell
J. Michael Evans
Henrietta H. Fore
Charles C. Foster
Stephanie Foster
Thomas E. Freston
Jamshyd N. Godrej
Toyoo Gyohten
Wahid Hamid
Doris Magsaysay Ho
Omar Ishrak
Mitchell R. Julis
Lewis B. Kaden
Sonny Kalsi
Willem Kooyker
Chong-Moon Lee
Lee Hong-Koo
Rohana Mahmood
Claudine B. Malone
Harold McGraw III
Thomas E. McLain
John D. Negroponte
Robert Niehaus
Harold J. Newman
Frank Gaoning Ning
Richard Plepler
William R. Rhodes
Charles Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller IV
James E. Rogers
Nicolas Rohatyn
Courtney S. Ross
Denise Saul
Stephen Schwarzman
Josette Sheeran
Shin Dong-Bin
Warwick L. Smith
Jerry I. Speyer
Miranda Wong Tang
Zubin Taraporevala
Sandiaga S. Uno
John S. Wadsworth, Jr.
Lulu C. Wang
AsiaSociety.org