The Board of Directors of the United Nations Association of New York invite you to celebrate
The 2015 United Nations Day Humanitarian Awards Gala Dinner
Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the United Nations
2015 and Beyond: Education and Equality for All
Tuesday, October 22, 2015
___
J. W. Marriott Essex House
160 Central Park South,
New York City
___
Cocktail Hour | 6:30 p.m.
Dinner Program | 7:30 p.m.
Black Tie or National Dress
2 0 1 5 H O N O R E E S
___
GUCCI
Marco Bizzarri
President and CEO
Honoring their extensive philanthropic initiative to girls' and
women's empowerment, and to a decade of partnership with UNICEF
benefiting millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia
UNICEF
Anthony Lake
Executive Director
Honoring their extraordinary commitment to improving and
transforming the lives and future of children through quality education
initiatives, especially benefiting girls and women
MADAME BAN SOON-TAEK
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Honoring her 40-year involvement in advancing the cause of
women and children, promoting women's empowerment and her
activity in the UN Women for Peace Association
___
M A S T E R O F C E R E M O N I E S
Richard Lui
Anchor, MSNBC
___
E V E N I N G P E R F O R M A N C E
Adam Gyorgy
Concert Pianist
On this very special evening honoring the 70th Anniversary of
the United Nations, concert pianist and Steinway artist Adam Gyorgy
will open the gala dinner with a celebratory performance
2015 HUMANITARIAN AWARD HONOREE
Gucci
MARCO BIZZARRI
President and CEO
Marco Bizzarri is President and Chief Executive Officer of Gucci, one of the world's leading luxury fashion brands with a renowned reputation for creativity, innovation and Italian craftsmanship, founded in Florence in 1921. Gucci is part of the Kering Group, a world leader in apparel and accessories that owns a portfolio of powerful luxury, sport and lifestyle brands.
Bizzarri first joined the Kering Group in January 2005 as President and Chief Executive Officer of Stella McCartney and a member of the Kering Management Committee. In January 2009 he took on a new role within the group as President and Chief Executive Officer of Bottega Veneta, and subsequently joined Kering's Executive Committee in 2012. In the following year he was selected to be a non-voting Director of the Kering Board of Directors. Bizzarri was then appointed to the newly created role of CEO Luxury - Couture & Leather Goods in April 2014, before assuming his current position at the helm of Gucci in January 2015.
Over the years, Gucci has been recognized for the proactive and innovative approach it has taken towards corporate social responsibility.
Since 2005, as one of Unicef's significant long-term corporate partners, Gucci has contributed more than US $20 million to the organization's work, positively impacting the lives of more than 7.5 million children in sub-Saharan Africa through the Schools for Africa initiative, which helps the most disadvantaged children, including girls, orphans and those living in extreme poverty, gain access to quality education. To mark the partnership's ten year anniversary, Gucci released Growing Tall, a short film shot in Mozambique that highlights the power of education to transform lives.
Inspired by its collaboration with Unicef, in 2013 Gucci established the CHIME FOR CHANGE campaign to convene, unite and strengthen the voices speaking out for girls and women around the world. Led by co-founders Salma Hayek Pinault and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter the campaign uses inventive approaches to raise funds and awareness for girls' and women's empowerment, with a focus on Education, Health and Justice. Through the power of crowd funding, CHIME FOR CHANGE has so far raised more than $7 million to support over 400 projects in 86 countries through 144 non-profit partners. In July 2015, CHIME FOR CHANGE announced a long-term partnership with Global Citizen, a content and campaigning platform that aims to unlock the power of every individual to play his or her part in the movement to end extreme poverty by 2030.
2015 HUMANITARIAN AWARD HONOREE
UNICEF
ANTHONY LAKE
Executive Director
In May 2010, Anthony Lake became the sixth Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund, bringing to the position more than 45 years of public service. During his career, Anthony Lake has worked with leaders and policy makers across the world. In 2007-2008, he served as a senior foreign policy adviser to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, a role he also performed during the Clinton presidential campaign of 1991-1992. He has managed a full range of foreign policy, national security, humanitarian and development issues at the most senior levels: as National Security Advisor (1993-1997) under President Bill Clinton, and as Director of Policy Planning in President Carter's administration (1977-1981). He joined the US State Department in 1962 as a Foreign Service Officer.
Upon leaving the government, he served as the United States President's Special Envoy, first in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and later in Haiti, from 1998 to 2000. His efforts, for which he received the 2000 Samuel Nelson Drew Award, contributed to the achievement of the Algiers Agreement that ended the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. He also played a leading role in shaping policies that led to peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Northern Ireland.
His experience in international development began in the 1970s, as Director of International Voluntary Services, leading the work of this 'private Peace Corps'. In that same decade, he also served on the boards of Save the Children (1975–1977) and the Overseas Development Council. Over the past 10 years, Anthony Lake has been an International Adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross (2000-2003) and Chair of the Marshall Legacy Institute, which works in conflict-affected countries to remove landmines and assist survivors, and advance children's rights.
Anthony Lake's ties with UNICEF are long-standing, dating back to 1993, when he worked with UNICEF's third Executive Director, James P. Grant, on the organization's presentation of its flagship publication, 'The State of the World's Children', at the White House. From 1998 to 2007 he served on the Board of the US Fund for UNICEF, with a term as Chair from 2004 to 2007, after which he was appointed a permanent honorary member.
Immediately prior to his appointment with UNICEF, Anthony Lake served as Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees at Mount Holyoke College and a member of the Advisory Council of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, and has served on the Governance Board of the Center for the Study of Democracy at St. Mary's College of Maryland.
He obtained a B.A. degree from Harvard in 1961, read international economics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and went on to receive his Ph.D. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1974.
A native of New York, Anthony Lake is married and has three children and six grandchildren.
2015 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Madame
Ban Soon-taek
UN Women for Peace Association
Madame Ban Soon-taek (Yoo Soon-taek) was born in Goesan, North Chungcheong Province, Korea, on 10 January 1945.
In 1962, she graduated Chungju Girls' High School with honours and as President of her class. Madame Ban furthered her academic studies at ChungAng University in Seoul, Korea, where she majored in Library and Information Science. After graduation, Madame Ban worked as a Librarian at ChungAng University.
Madame Ban and Ban Ki-moon wed on the 20th of March 1971 in Seoul, Korea. They have three children.
Madame Ban's special interests include children's education and welfare, autism awareness and research, HIV/AIDS, the elimination of violence against women, and other issues concerning women's development and health.
UN WOMEN FOR PEACE ASSOCIATION
The UN Women for Peace Association is dedicated to activities that promote tolerance and respect toward the creation of a peaceful world.
The UN Women for Peace Association was founded in 2008, under the patronage of Madame Ban Soon-taek. It helps to advance the goals of academic and charitable organizations that provide opportunities for women to partake in the global peace building process through social, cultural, educational and women empowerment programs.
The UNWFPA is committed to the prevention of violence against women and girls, to the provision of services to those affected by violence, to strengthening the implementation of laws and policies against violence, and to the empowerment of women in countries and societies where they are under-advantaged.
Much of its energy is directed toward raising funds for the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women. The UN Trust Fund, established by the General Assembly in 1996 and managed by UN Women, focuses in particular on developing countries, countries in conflict, and post-conflict settings. Their contributions to the Trust Fund directly support these efforts.
MASTER OF CEREMONIES
RICHARD LUI
Richard Lui anchors MSNBC News on weekdays from 10 a.m. until noon, breaking down the nation's most compelling issues of the day. He joined MSNBC's dayside team in September 2010.
Before joining MSNBC, Lui spent five years at CNN Worldwide, most recently with CNN Headline News as the solo anchor of the 10 a.m. hour of "Morning Express." He also led the network's morning political reporting throughout the 2008 presidential election. Lui anchored and reported on all of CNN Worldwide's English-language networks including CNN US, CNN International, and HLN.
Lui's field work includes reporting in Africa and Asia on global issues such as defense systems, terrorism, human trafficking, SARS, and Bird Flu. In 2010, he traveled to the Gulf to report extensively on the oil spill cleanup, an industry in which he spent five years working professionally. In addition, Lui brings a 15-year career in international business that spans five industries including consulting, manufacturing, food and beverage, environmental, and technology fields, spending the 90s in Silicon Valley.
He has spent 25 years in community service, volunteering in Africa, Asia, and the United States for organizations like Habitat for Humanity and the YMCA. He serves as a pro bono strategy consultant and board member for non-profits involved with homeless and affordable housing.
Lui graduated with a bachelor's degree in rhetoric from UC Berkeley and holds an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He currently is enrolled at Stanford University pursuing a Graduate Certificate in International Security.
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
ADAM GYORGY
Adam Gyorgy achieved worldwide recognition when he opened EURO 2012, the Uefa European Football Championship in Warsaw. Here his unique interpretation of Chopin's Winterwind went out via televised broadcast to 300 million people across the globe.
An esteemed Steinway Artist, Adam Gyorgy is a member of the prestigious community that includes Lang Lang, Krystian Zimerman and Mitsuko Uchida. One of the finest Liszt players in the world, and the Liszt ambassador in his home country of Hungary, his recitals have been described by the world's press as 'sensitive,' 'playful,' 'elegant' and 'warm.'
Mr. Gyorgy made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2008, returning for two sell-out performances in 2011 and 2012. In 2013 he played to a full-house for two nights at Aula Simfonia Concert Hall (Jakarta) and one-night shows at Esplanade (Singapore); and the Palace of Arts (MUPA, Budapest). He has toured extensively to Belgium, Brunei, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Mauritius, Poland, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and U.S.
His recordings include: Adam Gyorgy Plays Liszt, Bach and Mozart; Adam Gyorgy: Concert in Budapest; Adam Gyorgy plays Bach and Mozart; and Adam Gyorgy Plays the Piano. Forthcoming CDs and DVDs include The Carnegie Hall Concert, and live footage of his return to Budapest.
Born in 1982 in Hungary, Adam Gyorgy began his music career at the age of four. While studying with Katalin Halmagyi, he was accepted to the Béla Bartók Conservatory of Budapest in 1994 aged 12. From 2000 to 2006, Mr. Gyorgy attended the prestigious Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he is currently pursuing a PhD in his spare time.
Since 2009, the pianist's own charity, the Adam Gyorgy Foundation, has continued to establish connections between Europe, Asia and the US to support young musicians. In this endeavor, Mr. Gyorgy continues to inspire promising music students who have benefited from master classes at the Adam Gyorgy Castle Academy in Hungary, and the newly established Island Academy in Indonesia (launched December 2013).
Read about and see photos from
The 2014 Humanitarian Awards Dinner
2015 DINNER INVITATIONS
Download the Dinner Invitation here
Download the Dinner Reply Card here
2015 CORPORATE SPONSORS
Download sponsor information kit here