2007 Winner of the Lifetime Achievment Award
TED TURNER
Chair, Turner Enterprises, Inc.
In 1997, Ted Turner pledged $1 billion to the United Nations through the United Nations Foundation. His gift funds maternal and reproductive health care, life skills training and economic opportunity for women in the most low-income areas of the world, and fuels a new spirit in international philanthropy.
Turner founded the first all-news, 24-hour cable network, CNN, and created the Turner Broadcasting System, TBS. He also gained notoriety as owner of the Atlanta Braves and as an accomplished yachtsman. Today, he chairs Turner Enterprises, Inc., a private company that manages his business interests and investments, including oversight of two million acres of land and 45,000 bison.
His philanthropic commitments, through the Turner Foundation, Captain Planet Foundation and Turner Endangered Species Fund, improve water and air quality, develop sustainable energy sources, restore wildlife habitats, and empower children to protect the environment. Turner launched the Nuclear Threat Initiative to reduce the global threat of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
Turner was six when the United Nations was formed and remembers being inspired by its goal of international cooperation. His gift to promote the UN is the largest single donation to the UN and has generated momentum worldwide to support vital health care and services for women. Turner’s contribution has ensured the health and dignity of women for generations to come.
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2006 Winner of the Lifetime Achievment Award
MARY D. LINDSAY
Founder, Americans for UNFPA
Before founding Americans for UNFPA, Mary D. Lindsay spent more than 50 years fighting for the right of women to determine whether and when to have children. She began her career in nursing, drawn by the wartime demand. In 1963, she accompanied her husband, a lawyer and then head of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, to Chile—one of many countries where family planning was illegal and women paid the price. The experience fueled her life’s work.
As early as 1994, Lindsay saw that the waning support from the United States government for the work of UNFPA was a trend. By the time the U.S. began withholding funds, Lindsay and others had already generated allies and established an official country committee for UNFPA. Through the creation of Americans for UNFPA, she determined to prove that, though the U.S. government would not contribute, U.S. citizens would.
A born activist, Lindsay volunteered on the boards of hospitals and trained health care volunteers while raising her four children. Over the years, she has brought her leadership to the boards for Planned Parenthood of New York City and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Pathfinder International and Columbia School of Nursing.
Americans for UNFPA is privileged to recognize Lindsay for a lifetime commitment to the health and dignity of women. The muscle and momentum she brings to all her projects astonishes us.