Scripps Research Board Elects Three New Members

The Scripps Research Institute Board of Trustees has elected three new members, two of whom were recommended by the Scripps Florida Funding Corporation (SFFR), which oversees state funding for the Institute's new operations in Palm Beach County, and the third a prominent Florida business leader.

The SFFC recommended, and the Scripps Research board unanimously elected, Phillip Frost of Miami, a clinical professor of dermatology at the University of Miami School of Medicine, and J. Michael Cook of Greenwich, Connecticut, the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Deloitte and Touche, LLP, one of the nation's leading professional services firms.

The trustees also unanimously elected Lawrence F. De George of Jupiter, the chairman and CEO of LPL Investment Group, Inc., and LPL Group, Inc., a private venture capital firm with investments in telecommunications, biotechnology, and financial services throughout Europe, South America, and the United States.

"The Scripps Research Institute is fortunate to have three individuals who are leaders in their respective fields available to advise and guide the organization, particularly at this time of exciting expansion in Florida," says Scripps Research President Richard A. Lerner.

Phillip Frost

A native of Philadelphia, Frost received his B.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1957 and his M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York in 1961. He did his internship at New York's Montefiore Hospital and his residency in dermatology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. From 1963 to 1965, he served at a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service, stationed at the National Cancer Institute, Dermatology Branch, in Bethesda, Maryland, then completed a one-year senior residency at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida.

Frost joined the faculty of the University of Miami School of Medicine as assistant professor of dermatology in 1966. In 1972, he was named chair of the Department of Dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center of Greater Miami in Miami Beach, a position he held for 18 years. In 1991, he took his current position as clinical professor of dermatology at the University of Miami School of Medicine.

He has served in leadership positions with many corporations and organizations, and is presently a director of Northrop Grumman Corporation, a governor of the American Stock Exchange, chairman of the board and CEO of IVAX Corporation, chairman of IVAX Diagnostics, and is chairman of the board of trustees at the University of Miami.

J. Michael Cook

Cook, retired chairman and CEO of Deloitte & Touche LLP, also served as chair of the Deloitte & Touche Foundation and as a member of the board of Deloitte & Touche Tohmatsu. He directed the global merger of Deloitte Haskins & Sells and Touche Ross in 1989.

He graduated with honors in 1964 from the University of Florida, majoring in business administration, and was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the university in 1986. He has received numerous awards for his commitment to the advancement and retention of women in business, including the CEO Recognition Award from Women in Technology International and Working Mother magazine's Family Champion of the Year Award. He was the only male member of the President's Commission on the Celebration of Women in American History. He is chairman emeritus of the Board of Catalyst, the nation's leading organization for the advancement of women in business.

Cook has been a leader in his profession, serving as chairman of the American Institute of Certified Public Accounts in its centennial year and a member of its Auditing Standards Board. He is the immediate past chairman and president of the Board of Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation, the overseer of the Financial Accounting and Governmental Accounting Standards Boards. He was the 62nd inductee into the Accounting Hall of Fame in 1999 and the recipient of the Public Oversight Board's McCloy Award in 2001. He is chairman of the GAO Accountability Advisory Panel, providing guidance to the Comptroller General of the United States and other GAO executives, and has recently been appointed to the Advisory Council of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

He is a member of the boards of The Dow Chemical Company, Comcast Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, and the Fidelity Group of Mutual Funds, among others. His civic leadership includes active service with the United Way of America, Central Park Conservancy and the New York City Ballet. He is a former member of the Board of Overseers of the Columbia Business School and a member of the Business Advisory Board of the University of Florida.

Lawrence F. De George

De George received his veterinary medicine degree in 1980 from the University of Pennsylvania, where he also did his residency and served as an instructor in medicine. He began his business career in 1984 as executive vice president with LPL Group, Inc., in Wallingford, Connecticut, specializing in mergers, acquisitions and leveraged buyouts. From 1986 to 1991, he was first chief financial officer, then president of Amphenol Corporation, Inc., also of Wallingford, a Fortune 500 company that is a leading multinational manufacturer of telecommunications interconnect products for commercial and military applications and the cable television industry. In 1991, he became chairman and CEO of LPL Investment Group, Inc., and LPL Group, Inc., in West Palm Beach.

De George is also founder and chairman of CompleTel LLC, a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) in Amsterdam and Paris; former director of United Global Communications, Inc., a multinational broadband communications services provider; founder and director of iPlan Networks, a CLEC providing voice, data and internet infrastructure services in Argentina; founder and former director of GigaRed, S.A., a converged broadband cable television operator in Argentina; founder and chairman of Cervalis, LLC, a high end provider of manager server hosting, disaster recovery and storage for business outsourcing IT functions and internet-based companies requiring N+1 security.

He is also founder and director of Advanced Display Technologies, Inc., based in Denver, a development stage company developing and manufacturing full color display screens for stadium, advertising and highway applications.

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" The Scripps Research Institute is fortunate to have three individuals who are leaders in their respective fields available to advise and guide the organization, particularly at this time of exciting expansion in Florida."

- Richard A. Lerner