2013 Speakers


Beverly Hills Tomorrow Speakers
 Nancy Aossey
President & CEO, International Medical Corps
In her 27 years as President & CEO of International Medical Corps, the Los Angeles-based humanitarian organization, Nancy Aossey has led the effort to save lives and train health care workers in areas hardest-hit by natural disaster, conflict and disease.

Shortly after International Medical Corps was founded in 1984, Aossey became its startup CEO, one of the first female executives to lead a global humanitarian organization. She scaled up International Medical Corps’ programs – from that first program in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan - today reaching more than 10 million people each year with lifesaving health care and training.

International Medical Corps has responded to most of the major disasters of the last 30 years, including civil war in Angola, war and famine in Somalia, the genocide in Rwanda, ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo, conflict in Darfur, the Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina in the U.S., the earthquake in Haiti, the Japan earthquake and tsunami, and Hurricane Sandy.

With a staff of 4,500 and thousands of volunteer doctors and nurses, Aossey has transformed International Medical Corps into a preeminent relief and development organization, delivering more than $1.4 billion of assistance to millions of people in 70 countries. Its focus to this day remains training and investing in people to help build self-reliance.

Aossey has testified before Congress, briefed the White House, including Presidents, Vice Presidents and First Ladies, and appeared in most of the major media, including on Good Morning America, CNN's Larry King Live, NPR, and in the LA Times, New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

She has been awarded the UCSF Medal in recognition of her humanitarian contributions, along with the UC Berkeley Public Health Organizational Hero Award. The Los Angeles Business Journal named her its Non-Profit Female CEO of the Year. She has also received the Young Presidents' Organization's Global Humanitarian Award, as well as its Legacy Award.

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Aossey serves on the Board of Directors of the Pacific Council on International Policy and the Advisory Board of the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy.

The recipient of several honorary doctorates, Aossey was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and holds a BA, an MBA, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Northern Iowa.

Michael Burns
Vice Chairman, Lionsgate

Since joining Lionsgate’s Board of Directors in 1999 and becoming Vice Chairman of Lionsgate in March 2000, Mr. Burns has joined with CEO Jon Feltheimer in building Lionsgate into a leading global entertainment company.

Under the stewardship of Messrs. Burns and Feltheimer, Lionsgate has grown into a more than $2 billion diversified corporation through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions such as Trimark Holdings (2000), Artisan Entertainment (2003), UK-based Redbus Film Distribution (2005), now Lionsgate UK, the Debmar-Mercury television syndication company (2006), independent film production and distribution studio Roadside Attractions (2007), TV Guide Network (2009) and most recently Summit Entertainment (2012). The company is also owner of a prestigious and prolific 15,000-title library.

Lionsgate’s diversified portfolio of businesses features a film slate that generated more than $2.5 billion at the worldwide box office in 2012, led by the global blockbuster THE HUNGER GAMES, and a vibrant television business that encompasses 26 shows on 19 networks, including the multiple Emmy Award-winning Mad Men.

In addition to his leadership of Lionsgate’s corporate management team, Mr. Burns has played a key role in the acquisition, production, and distribution of some of Lionsgate’s most successful films, including the Academy Award®-winning Best Picture Crash (2006), the Academy Award®-winning Monster’s Ball and the Oscar nominated Precious.

Mr. Burns has been profiled or featured in such varied major media outlets as AMC’s Sunday Morning Shootout, Barron’s, BloombergTV, Business Week, CBS MarketWatch, CNBC Power Lunch and Fast Money, Dow Jones, the Financial Times of London, Fortune, The NewYork Times, Reuters, and The Wall Street Journal. He also has been featured as a contributing writer for the Huffington Post.

Mr. Burns served for nine years as managing director and head of Prudential Securities’ Los Angeles investment banking office and specialized in raising equity within the media and entertainment industry. Prior to joining Prudential, he spent nine years at Shearson/American Express in New York and Los Angeles.

Mr. Burns graduated with a B.S. from Arizona State University and received his M.B.A. from the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California at Los Angeles where he recently joined its distinguished Board of Visitors.



Henrik Fisker
Founder, Fisker Automotive

Immediately prior to co-founding Fisker Automotive in August 2007 Fisker was, and remains, co-founder and chief executive officer of Fisker Coachbuild, an automotive design house established in 2005 that revived the art of coachbuilding by combining beautiful design with existing world-class engineering.

From 2001 to 2005 Fisker held prominent design positions at Ford Motor Company. He was creative director at Ingeni, Ford's London-based design and creativity center. At Aston Martin he served as a member of the Board of Directors and design director. There he designed the Aston Martin V8 Vantage and was responsible for the production launch design of the DB9, variants of which were James Bond's preferred vehicles.

Fisker was also director of Ford's Global Advanced Design Studio in southern California. Designed under his direction were several show cars including the Shelby GR1 concept showcased at the 2005 North American International Auto Show.

In January 2001 Fisker became president and chief executive officer of DesignworksUSA, BMW's California-based industrial design subsidiary. Some of his most notable works include the BMW Z07 concept (1997) and Z8 roadster (1999), another Bond car.

In 1989 Fisker began his career in Germany at BMW's advanced design studio, BMW Technik GmbH, upon graduating from The Art Center College of Design in Switzerland.

Fisker is a native of Denmark.


Dr. Eduardo Marban
Director, Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute

Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, the director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and the Mark S. Siegel Family Professor, is an international leader in cardiology and a pioneering heart researcher. Under Dr. Marbán’s direction, CSHI brings together physician-scientists expert in all areas of cardiac medicine to swiftly translate groundbreaking research into state-of-the-art patient care. The Institute is ranked among the best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.
Dr. Marbán also directs Cedars-Sinai's Board of Governors Heart Stem Cell Center. Using techniques that he originated, Dr. Marbán has completed a first-in-human Phase I clinical trial exploring whether a patient’s own cardiac stem cells can be safely and effectively used to repair damage to the heart muscle caused by a heart attack. This was the first human trial to show evidence of therapeutic regeneration. Dr. Marbán also received a Disease Team grant from CIRM which was the first CIRM grant to lead to an approved IND. CIRM will also support the Phase II ALLSTAR trial of allogenic cardiosphere-derived cells in patients post-myocardial infarction.

For 10 years, Dr. Marbán served as editor of Circulation Research, an AHA journal. His work there was recognized with the AHA's Award of Meritorious Achievement in 2009.

Among the many other honors Dr. Marbán has received are the Basic Research Prize of the AHA, the Research Achievement Award of the ISHR, the Gill Heart Institute Award, and the Distinguished Scientist Award of the AHA.

A native of Cuba, Dr. Marbán came to the United States at the age of six as a political refugee. He attended Yale University School of Medicine in a combined MD/PhD program.


Lynda Resnick
Vice Chairman
Roll Global

At the age of 19, Lynda Resnick founded a full-service advertising agency. Running a successful business so early in life gave her invaluable hands-on marketing experience. Her sound entrepreneurial instinct, a passion for authenticity and a deep understanding of consumer behavior have been the hallmarks of her 50-year career.

Lynda has been dubbed the POM Queen for obvious reasons. In 2002, only 12 percent of the population even knew what a pomegranate was. Today, pomegranates are everywhere – in beverages, foods, nutritional supplements, even cosmetics – primarily due to the effective marketing efforts of Lynda and her team at POM Wonderful.

In 1979, in one of her first entrepreneurial forays, Lynda and her husband Stewart purchased a fledgling floral wire service called Teleflora. She had the inspiration to pair fresh flowers with a collectible keepsake container. This simple idea turned ordinary flowers into something more lasting and meaningful, and earned her a Gold Effie Award. Today, Teleflora is the world’s largest floral service and floral products company.

In late 2004, Lynda and Stewart acquired FIJI Water. She quickly orchestrated a brand identity relaunch, with marketing initiatives that were as unique as the brand itself. FIJI Water is now the largest imported bottled water brand in the United States.

Lynda and Stewart also own Paramount Farms and Paramount Citrus Companies, as well as JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery and Landmark Vineyards. For Paramount Citrus’s Mandarin oranges, Lynda creates Cuties, a breakthrough branding idea in a traditionally staid category. For Paramount Farms, she helped create the iconic Get Crackin’ campaign for Wonderful Pistachios, a successful advertising and marketing campaign now in its fifth year.

In 2009, Lynda shared her marketing secrets in a best-selling book, RUBIES IN THE ORCHARD.
Published by Random House, it was an authoritative guide to building memorable brands and creating fresh approaches to launching them.

In addition to her business achievement, she is Vice Chairman of Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Board of Trustees; serves on the executive boards of The Aspen Institute, UCLA Medical Sciences, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, and the Milken Family Foundation; and is a trustee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

In 2010, Lynda turned her philanthropic attention to California’s Central Valley, where a large portion of her company’s employees live and work. Her efforts resulted in the launch of the Central Valley Leadership Project, a multi-pronged program that focuses on K-12 education initiatives, nurtures future leaders and transforms low-income and underserved towns into hopeful and vibrant communities.

In 2012, Lynda was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters by Bard College.

The Resnicks are proud parents and grandparents and maintain homes in Beverly Hills, California and Aspen, Colorado.

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