President Bill Clinton
Wynton Marsalis
Lucy Liu	Dr. David Ho and Jean Young
Dr. Sandy Vasam and Magic Johnson	Walter Wang and Gina Chu

IRENE DIAMOND AWARD
Bill Clinton Helps Raise
Funds for AIDS Research

Story by Roger Webster
Photos by Clint Spalding

M

ORE than 350 business and community leaders joined the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC) to honor former President Bill Clinton with the inaugural Irene Diamond Award at New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center. Actress Lucy Liu hosted the evening, which raised $1.15 million and included appearances by Dr. David Ho, Wynton Marsalis, Magic Johnson, and Dr. David Baltimore.

The Irene Diamond Award is a tribute to ADARC's founder Irene Diamond, who died six years ago at the age of 92. She created the foundation with her late husband Aaron, a real estate developer.  

Over a period of little more than a decade the Fund along with the Aaron Diamond Foundation has distributed more than $220 million, including $50 earmarked for AIDS.

Dr. Ho remembered Mrs. Diamond's courage, compassion and intellectual curiosity, which compelled her to fight the epidemic by establishing the first private laboratory dedicated to HIV/AIDS research -- an investment that realized dramatic returns when a few years later ADARC pioneered antiretroviral therapy.

Magic Johnson presented the Irene Diamond Award – Rafael Viñoly's striking design with a single red rose embedded in a crystalline diamond – to President Clinton.

President Clinton emphasized the critical link between scientific advances pioneered at ADARC and his own work lowering the cost of medications and providing access to treatment in developing nations through the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative.

Nobel Laureate David Baltimore, former chairman of ADARC's scientific advisory board, spoke of key ADARC breakthroughs that have redefined our understanding of HIV and changed the course of clinical care for patients.

Guests included Gina and David Chu, Dr. Marty Markowitz, Agnes Gund, Walter Wang, Jane Silver, Theresa and Frank Hau, Michael Dell, Beatrice Hahn, Mark Goldberger, Susan Ho, Baroness Monica von Zadora-Gerlof, Michel Witmer, Jean Young, Stephanie Sozomenu, Gordon Davis.

Also Jane Silver, Bob Lanier, Dr. Sandy Vasam, Fred Bowen, Sarah Schlesinger, Joseph Kennedy, Lucia Hwong Gordon, Miranda Wong Tang, Dr. Paul Bienaisz, Patty Tong, Van Dalachandar, Alice Park, Daren Bagert, Dr. Paul Bienaisz, Jane and Philip Weingold.