“Preamble Ramble.”What’s ironic about all this is that through years of very poor federal policy in the US, and a few other issues (which the family law blog mentions) one of which is HHS gender-based policy blended with religious dogma that should be taken behind the dogshed and given a whuppin’ — my life has come to a serious standstill. There are weeks, months, and tIhere have been years, when its forward motion was stopped (work wise) and times when, through lack of alternatives, it’s basically in almost suspended animation.
This relates specifically to the connection between family relationships, legal relationships and finances. It was for a while enough to live very modestly with a reasonably narrow profit margin –providing work wasn’t repeatedly stopped (i’m talking about the process of divorce and custody matters, plus some), at which time the standing slips. There is no accumulation of savings and definitely not of wealth. Some of this locally just relates to greed and seriously emotional human issues and behaviors, i.e., classic ethics.
Meanwhile, I am reading about (through following up on those matters) it turns out the technology and business sectors (with which the religious ones of the more mercenary and evangelistic bents have teamed up) are accelerating unbelievably. A the 1998 “BIO” conference below, they claimed that a drug could be developed an ready for human testing in under three years, thanks to how much genetic knowledge is now available, and by combining with other fields (chemistry and engineering….).
When I look at the development of some of these corporations and groups, and what they do — it is a good lesson. I hope it’s a reasonable one for the readers also.
Intro:
I haven’t really been playing fair. I took part of my last post over to Family Court Matters to keep my Issues with funding too much Theocracy over there. That was an interesting history lesson, about how far women have regressed since the 1200s, when a pre-reformation sect (the Waldensians) of lay preachers (male & female) who helped fund a Bible translation into Provencal, and (after a few centuries of persecution as the largest theological power around took them, who had a proprietary interesting the monopoly on the written word, education, and, ah — preaching — tried to exterminate them, but somehow just COULDN’t.
Then this same sect (for not being Catholic, they were a sect) came out of hiding around the time the Reformation Resistance (that includes armed resistance) was picking up some steam, had a meeting (synod) in 1532, just in time to intersect with the famous (or infamous, dep. on your position), John Calvin. John Calvin’s cousin was sponsored by this same sect in a translation of the Bible into French — and they weren’t wealthy; in fact they’d followed the advice of Christ (give all you have to the poor, and follow me), but the pulled it together for this project.
Then they were advised to come out in the open, and build churches like others — which, upon doing, they suffered some horrible massacres in 1545 and thereafter. Absolutely ghastly. I then brought this up to date, comparing their dedication, resourcefulness and commitment to understanding at least one text, commonly called the Bible, and contrasted it with major surviving denominations to date, up to but not limited to the southern California Saddleback Church as in Rick Warren, and a Purposeful Life (plus all the trademarks). And, how this church in particular treated a woman who reported domestic violence, or at least tried to. They basically froze her out.
So, I put the religious/financial connections back over there. But on returning to the situation that the religious/financial connection (to government) is usually going to grab the wealth and then preach about the poor — I decided to look at how is it that the wealthy are always trying to save the poor and tell them how to stop being low-income people — without listening to what exactly the issues are, unless the person speaking is rather distinguished, pedigreed, and on the conference circuit (or foundation/government payroll).
LIKEWISE, this was an equally fascinating day — as it was again driven home to me that the world’s largest companies are, definitely (it would seem) pharmaceutical. That’s where the money goes and flows – and the technology, making the stuff at HHS going to religious organizations look like pocket change.
This post is continued from another one just blogged today, however, at family court matters, and might make more sense if it’s read first.
A list of the largest 501(c)3s in the District of Columbia led me to investigate the GAVI Alliance — below. I’d heard of Bill and Melinda Gates interest in vaccinations worldwide, but see now how this is being spearheaded and, to a better degree, financed.
Below, eventually in looking at the CEO of GAVI — who had former connections to a fascinating start-up (or, spin-out) called PowderJect Pharmaceuticals & also to Vaxinnate (which I didn’t look at today) — hails from Brown and Harvard: Seth Berkeley. This is a man of obvious talent and serious career path – -in his 50s. I do think about this, because I see men and women in their 50s all over my own neighborhood — some are unemployed long-term highly professionals, some of the women look a little isolated, and (like me) kinda family-less. These are some paths that pursuing employment or professions, can lead to — as this post demonstrates in the matter of Cadbury-Schweppes (below).
PowderJect’s other founder, a Paul Rudd Drayson, started it up in 1993; he is British and in 2004 was elevated to a LordShip. The only reason I looked at Cadbury-Schweppes is that this person (Drayson) used to work there, apparently. From the long history of Cadbury– we can see that this chocolate company from the 1820s, and Schweppes (tonic water, much?) having been started by a German ex-patriate Swiss clock maker (or such), i.e., Schweppes — patented a process discovered in 1770 by none other than Joseph Priestley (whose name you should associate with the discovery of oxygen).
Mixed in here — thoroughly — are such things are mergers, acquisitions, hostile takeovers being defeated, brand-changes, and my coming to understand some of the largest providers of FOOD to the United States, i.e., General Foods. Philip Morris, Kraft, and Kraft’s latest incorporation (Mondelez International) are all in here, happening underneath my very eyes (Mondelez International became a company and got its NASDAQ ticker name as of October 2, 2012 — this month! It’s the Global Snack Company. Kraft Food Group remains a Virginia Company over here….).
Re: Healing, Fueling, Feeding — that’s the motto of the world’s largest BIOTECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATION: “BIO” (Biotechnology Industry Organization). It’s a trade organization based in D.C.
I have been in the habit of looking at grants, grantees, and 990s — but that’s obviously not sufficient to understand the “Cold Hard Facts” of global economy (and what to do about one’s own next decades on earth, etc.). Besides the CAFRs there is the matter of the trade organizations. This one is a 501(c)6.
Here are JUST A FEW of its members and who it is:
About BIO
BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the world’s largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world. BIO produces BIOtechNOW, an online portal and monthly newsletter chronicling “innovations transforming our world.”
Monsanto is (as I recall) on the Executive Board, but the current leader, James Greenwood, has had a career in US Government, after the Pennsylvania Legislature, from 1981 through 2005. Which is to say, he got a B.A. in Sociology, worked three years at a social service agency helping abused children in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and I would say as such is powerfully connected. How it is that a B.A. in Sociology leads to a government career, I don’t know.
On the technology and business end — and in England — it turns out that basically since the Internet started to pick up speed, Oxford University knew EXACTLY what to do — and its wholly-owned corporation (whatever it’s called in England) “ISIS” is kicking technology into business faster than you can wink, which is then bringing money back to the university.
This post needs some more work, but if read after my last one over at Family Court Matters, is definitely an interesting read, esp. for an eclectic lay reader who has an understanding that the future lie of the globe is not going to be found listening to Presidential debates.
In the history of companies who began in the 1700s and 1800s, and then simply expanded (versus technology startups such as are being kicked out from Oxford and MIT, etc.) we can also see the history of the workforce. For example, when Cadbury was bought out by Kraft (which was under Philip Morris, I think at some point in time) — a plant was moved from England to Poland, after it’d been promised they wouldn’t. Tough luck if you resided in England and had been working there for years. It’s a global world for sure!
Happy reading! Again, this post simply consists of me looking things up, posting them, and talking about them some inbetween. What really got me started was the concept of a person running the GAVI Alliance, which intends to vaccinate 250,000,000 of the developing nations’ poor children having previously worked for a technology developed to spray-inject (Particle-mediated injection) medicines — or a product affecting DNA was mentioned — through the skin. And this corporation (PowderJect) having presented in 1998 at BIO (above), which represents some of the largest — and the most — pharmaceutical firms on the planet. They want to cure cancer, AIDs, diabetes, influenza, and almost any other possible pandemic around. They know how to develop technology, modify genes (in plants and animals so far, probably humans as well), and how to raise money for sure. They definitely know how to form companies, and raise capital.
Let’s hope that this is all philanthropic for real. I don’t generally speaking trust human nature to HOPE, but if you have a better alternative, start reading and let me know!
This chart is from The Urban Institute, itself a nonprofit think tank. I make no guarantees of its accuracy.
Click on a state below to see the largest organizations in a state:
I looked at those in Washington, D.C. — or rather, the District of Columbia and looked up one of them, the GAVI Alliance…. The aim of this organization is to immunize 250,000,000 children in the world’s developing countries by 2015. Which they estimate “will save up to 4 million lives.” It has a board of 27 individuals whose names (connections) you should be aware of, and is supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who also have a representative on its board.
[[4 million out of 250 million lives, that is]].
Of course, it is easier to navigate the companies & view their assets of course by clicking on the chart above.
The present CEO of GAVI is Seth Berkeley, who has medical & undergraduate degrees from Brown and training at Harvard (see below).
State = DC
District of Columbia
Number of organizations reporting assets or income: 4,125. Gross Receipts=$40,355,434,844. Assets=$43,704,162,505
~ + ~ + ~ + ~
Largest Organizations (by Gross Receipts) (DC)
Sum.990OrganizationGross ReceiptsTotal Assets1 
American Chemical Society (Washington, DC)6,372,139,1481,109,163,2162 Gavi Alliance (Washington, DC)2,023,553,8702,505,336,0423 Smithsonian Institution Office of the Comptroller (Washington, DC)1,667,718,1613,415,561,2294 Georgetown University (Washington, DC)1,345,990,0982,116,723,2565 Howard University (Washington, DC)1,176,278,7901,458,591,0006 Childrens Hospital (Washington, DC)1,068,500,915918,072,6107 Lucy Webb Hayes National Training School (Washington, DC)934,297,911943,298,3478 American University (Washington, DC)908,421,0011,069,628,7039 Medstar-Georgetown Medical Center Inc (Washington, DC)782,512,904294,903,26210 The Gavi Campaign (Washington, DC)683,792,018276,578,554
Largest Organizations (by Total Assets) (DC)
Sum.990OrganizationGross ReceiptsTotal Assets1 Smithsonian Institution Office of the Comptroller (Washington, DC)1,667,718,1613,415,561,2292 Gavi Alliance (Washington, DC)2,023,553,8702,505,336,0423 Georgetown University (Washington, DC)1,345,990,0982,116,723,2564 Howard University (Washington, DC)1,176,278,7901,458,591,0005 National Geographic Society (Washington, DC)562,723,7581,271,825,1616 American Chemical Society (Washington, DC)6,372,139,1481,109,163,2167 American Legacy Foundation (Washington, DC)81,552,7271,100,583,3518 American University (Washington, DC)908,421,0011,069,628,7039 Lucy Webb Hayes National Training School (Washington, DC)934,297,911943,298,34710 Childrens Hospital (Washington, DC)1,068,500,915918,072,610
Board members
Learn more about GAVI Board Chair Dagfinn Høybråten and the 27 Board members: who they represent, their biographies, term of office and alternates.
Chair: Dagfinn Høybråten, Vice President of The Norwegian Parliament (31 December 2012)
{who will be next, as his term is up in a few months….}
Vice chair: Geeta Rao Gupta, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF (31 December 2013)
Chief Executive Officer, Executive Office
Seth Berkley serves as CEO of the GAVI Alliance.
Seth Berkley joined the GAVI Alliance as CEO in August 2011, as it launched its five year strategy to immunise a quarter of a billion children in the developing world with life-saving vaccines by 2015.
Prior to joining the GAVI Alliance, Seth was the founder, president and CEO for 15 years of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the first vaccine product development public-private sector partnership. Under his leadership, IAVI implemented a global advocacy programme that assured that vaccines received prominent attention in the media and in forums such as the G 8, EU and the UN.
He also oversaw the creation of a virtual vaccine product development effort involving industry, academia, and developing country scientists.
Prior to founding IAVI, Seth served as associate director in the Health Sciences Division at The Rockefeller Foundation. He has also worked for the Center for Infectious Diseases of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and for the Carter Center where he served as an epidemiologist at the Ministry of Health in Uganda.
He has consulted or worked in more than 25 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Seth sits on a number of international steering committees and corporate and not-for-profit boards, including those of Gilead Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences and the Acumen Fund.
In the past, he has also served on the boards of public and private vaccine companies such as PowderJect [See Below***] and VaxInnate and health and development organisations such as OXFAM America.
He has been featured on the cover of Newsweek, recognised by TIME magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” and by Wired Magazine as among “The Wired 25 – a salute to dreamers, inventors, mavericks and leaders.”
Seth received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Brown University and trained in internal medicine at Harvard University.
_ _ _ _ _ _
***PowderJect: (ISIS innovation was the banner at the top of the page where I found “PowderJect”
POWDERJECT PHARMACEUTICALS PLC – PART OF NOVARTIS AG
Originally spun out in 1993, PowderJect Phamaceuticals is a vaccine, drug and diagnostics delivery company specialising in the needle-free, pain-free injection of drugs, biophamaceuticals, conventional and DNA Vaccines and diagnostics in dry powder form. In 2003, PowderJect was acquired Chiron Corporation for $800m.
Chiron was subsequently bought out by Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics.
Isn’t the same company delivering diagnostics AND the drugs a little conflict of interest? Injecting in powder form how – into the nose, or mouth? Onto the skin for absorption?
That $800m is characterized as 540million pounds (i.e., the pound is worth more than the $). PA Consulting, based in the UK (and international) helps industrialize drug delivery and has plenty of offices in the US:
We are extremely pleased to continue our long-standing relationship with PA. PA has worked with us for many years now, and PA’s strategic investment in PowderJect represents independent validation of the strength of our consumer-focused drug delivery technology. Our new collaboration fits well with our strategy of leveraging external expertise to progress our technology to market, and allows us to benefit from PA’s significant experience in industrialising drug delivery devices.”
Subsequently, PowderJect was sold to Chiron for £540 million in 2003.
Corporate headquarters
123 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW1W 9SR London SW1W 9SR
United Kingdom
United States Locations of PA Consulting — where else; in strategic major US Cities (5 on the East Coast). I’m sure the WDC location (near the GAVI Alliance to vaccinate a quarter billion children in developing countries by 2015, doesn’t hurt)
Our offices in the US:
Boston, MA
+1 617 225 2700Denver, CO
+1 720 566 9920Los Angeles, CA
+1 213 689 1515New York, NY
+1 212 973 5900Princeton, NJ
+1 609 806 0800Washington, DC
+1 571 227 9000
PowderJect Pharmaceuticals was a start-up (or, spin-off?) and, in Jan. 2002 that is (NB 9/11/2001) is the only manufacturer of vaccines in Britain. This interview with its co-founder (Paul Rudd Drayson, two years after this interview, make that LORD Drayson) is actually pretty interesting. NB: He was the business brawn, and went looking for tech help after some years in the “biscuit business.” He ended up marrying the daughter of the person who helped with the technology. I am interested in the business aspect, but also not to lose track of the scope and influence of pharmaceutical delivery industries, or vaccines…
Here is a 1998 PRWire stating that this company (Powerject) was launched in 1993 in THREE locations: Oxford, England — Madison, Wisconsin — and Fremont, California. One wonders why those two US Cities (Fremont is a little south of the SF Bay Area’s Oakland, California. It’s home, er WAS home, to a recently high-profile green-tech failure of Solyndra , whose bankruptcy, I see was approved (which will be handy as its employees, who were terminated overnight, have sued….)
1998 news release informs us about PowderJect Pharmaceuticals, paras. not in order…
PowderJect Pharmaceuticals Highlights Needleless Injection Technology At BIO’98
PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc, based in Oxford England, Fremont California and Madison Wisconsin USA, was established in 1993 to exploit research at Oxford University in the field of drug and vaccine delivery.
PowderJect has become the world leader in the field of particle mediated injection of medicines,** developing novel products for leading pharmaceutical companies based upon the use of its proprietary powder injection systems.FREMONT, Calif., and LONDON, June 16 /PRNewswire/ — PowderJect Pharmaceuticals (LSE: PJP) today highlighted its mission to make medicines work better through needleless injection of powdered drugs in a presentation at BIO’98. Using supersonic particle jet technology pioneered at Oxford University, PowderJect is developing a revolutionary technique to painlessly deliver powder-form drugs and vaccines through the skin without the use of needles.
At present, PowderJect has 12 partnered projects including a $320 million DNA vaccines agreement with Glaxo Wellcome; a $15 million protein agreement with Boehringer Mannheim; an anesthetic product development agreement with Chiroscience; research agreements with Pfizer, Zeneca, a Japanese pharmaceutical company and others; and a research collaboration with InSite Vision.
“particle-mediated” (I looked up powder jet injections) means the particles themselves break the outer layer of skin, in micron-sized (very very small) holes. Amazing, actually. Plus somewhat a bit concerning — suppose a person didn’t want to get injected, and just was sprayed instead? They’d have no choice if they had exposed skin!
BIO stands for “Biotechnology Industry Organization”
Motto: “healing, fueling and feeding the world.” (shudder…..)
-
Biotechnology Industry Organization
www.bio.org/Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) is the world’s largest biotechnology … January 29-30, 2013 Tokyo, Japan The BIO Asia International Conference is an …
It is based in washington, D.C. . . . I didn’t see it because it’s a 501(c)6 and not a 501(c)3 !!! It’s a trade organization….Here’s its Executive Board (note the companies represented)The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) is the world’s largest biotechnology trade association. BIO is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. We provide advocacy, business development, and communications services for more than 1,100 members worldwide. It is our mission to be the champion of biotechnology and the advocate for its member organizations – both large and small.This group’s present CEO is James Greenwood from Pennsylvania. He began life, so to speak, with a BA in Sociology and working with abused children in Bucks County, at a Social Service Agency (i.e., most likely he was a civil servant). For three years. From 1981 until 2005, when he took on leading BIO, he has been completely (without exception) first in Pennsylvania State Legislature (six years House of Reps six years Congress) and from there representing Pennsylvania in the US House of Reps, from 1993 (that means through welfare reform) to 2005…Mr. Greenwood graduated from Dickinson College in 1973 with a BA in Sociology. From 1977 until 1980, he worked as a caseworker with abused and neglected children at the Bucks County Children and Youth Social Service Agency. Mr. Greenwood is married with three children and resides in Upper Makefield, Pennsylvania.Small wonder the BIO organization increased a lot under his leadership, with those contacts in Congress!“Since his appointment in January of 2005, he has markedly enhanced the trade association’s capacity – increasing both its staff and budget by nearly fifty percent.”
Convergence of Biology, Chemistry and Information Science Cited at Industry Conference as Accelerating Pace of Discovery – Technology Companies Pioneering New Generation of Pharmaceuticals
| Source | Press Release |
| Company | ArQule |
| Tags | General |
| Date | June 16, 1998 |
New York, NY — June 16, 1998 — A new paradigm for pharmaceutical discovery and development is rapidly emerging from developments at technology companies. This promises to accelerate the pace of drug development to a level previously unknown and unimagined, according to a panel of leaders meeting today at “BIO ’98”, the annual biotechnology industry conference being held this week in New York. The convergence of biology, chemistry, information science and engineering at these companies is making it possible to design and prepare a new drug for human testing in under three years, less than half the time usually needed for such research, the experts agreed.
Among the panelists were Steven C. Clark, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Discovery Research, Wyeth-Ayerst Research; Colin Goddard, Ph.D., President, OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Peter Hirth, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, SUGEN, Inc.; Dr. Hogan of ArQule; and Gregory Went, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, CuraGen Corporation. The panelists described how advances made in the last 3-5 years in genomics, high throughput screening, biological targets, and computational chemistry were transforming the drug discovery process.
Dr. Went, describing the impact of genomics on drug discovery, said: “We are truly at an inflection point. The era of looking at one gene at a time using traditional biology is rapidly being displaced by a new and powerful approach. Through genomics, we finally have the ability to acquire a comprehensive understanding of virtually all the genes underlying complex disorders like cancer, heart disease and diabetes. With this understanding, the opportunity for accelerating the discovery of new targets for therapeutic intervention, as well as new therapeutic agents, is tremendous.”
OK — backing up, I got into this simply looking for the largest nonprofits, by state (and having started with District of Columbia, instead) came up with the GAVI Alliance. From there I looked at the bio (work history) of its founder Seth Berkeley, and surged forth into reading about his prior enterprise (or what he previously was working in), PowderJect. That PowderJect happened to involve a British “Lord” (as of 2004 and possibly as a result of the finances and industry development represented here, though I sure don’t know) — made it just a little more interesting.
From Scooples to scruples
Paul Drayson, chairman and chief executive, Powderject Pharmaceuticals
- The Guardian, Friday 18 January 2002 20.30 EST
The boss of Britain’s biggest vaccine manufacturer made his first fortune in a rather less healthy industry – by developing the Scooples crispy snack.
“It was a shaped crispbread product,” recalls Paul Drayson. “We identified a technology relating to the biscuit extrusion process, which allowed you to shape the product. In a way, we broke the mould.”
He was working for an offshoot of sweet company Trebor. He made more than a quarter of a million pounds after leading a management buyout of the venture – enough to set him up as an entrepreneur.
See title of this post. Money is made in buying and selling firms, starting them up (of they succeed etc) and investing that capital somewhere else. We live in a pretty much capitalistic world. Money and security is not made in working for any of these firms, and a rapidly speeding technology development and rapidly speeding climate of buyouts, mergers and layoffs. This then influences government. Look below at Drayson’s government connections. . .
In the United States, I showed Blackbaud, Inc. trademarking all kinds of names, and making money of federally support industries, marketing “resource centers” for domestic violence (etc.) which get pretty big bucks (as nonprofits) to train public employees, social workers, and of course, the ever-present poor, i.e., supervised visitation industry, etc. . . . . But the founder of Blackbaud (who is British) ended up living in a mansion in S.Carolina and helping manage the local sports team.
SOME of this is training (initial schooling), but a whole lot more is associates and mindset, I would like to think. There’s a skillsets involved. Other parts have to do with, who do you hang out with, obviously. Lord Drayson here, must now be about 51-something, as the interview is now ten yrs old.
During a difficult period for vaccine firms, he could be forgiven a little nostalgia for the cosy world of confectionery.
Drayson is chairman and chief executive of Powderject Pharmaceuticals, which makes many of the vaccines taken by children across Britain. His family stake in it is worth £105m. Among the products of Powderject’s Evans Vaccines subsidiary are jabs for tetanus, flu, hepatitis B and the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis.
Vaccines were thrust into the limelight after the September 11 attacks, when fears of anthrax and smallpox swept the western world. This had barely subsided when the industry faced a barrage of health scares, largely revolving around the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) antidote.
I think it’s a good article. At the bottom, it notes that he got his start selling sugar & chocolate, basically: “Career Early career in product development and marketing at Rover Cars and Trebor Group. Led a management buyout of a subsidiary when Trebor was taken over by Cadbury-Schweppes, then sold the business at a substantial profit in 1991. Co-founded Powderject Pharmaceuticals in 1993″
Cadbury-Schweppes = Chocolate plus beverages. (I’m summarizing from a variety of wikipedia summaries….)
This history is interesting, as Schweppes was started in 1783 in Geneva by a German-born (naturalized) Swiss watchmaker who developed a process discovered by Joseph Priestley in 1770, who I hope you know who the guy is. Think about it (Priestley/ Oxygen — fled Britain to Pennsylvania, also very religious guy, some influence on some of the US founding fathers, etc.) — Schweppes, carbonated mineral water… Schweppes moved to London in 1792 to develop the business.
Cadbury, meanwhile, had been around since 1824 or so, in England (tea, coffee & drinking chocolate) but had to market to the wealthy because of the cost. The Cadbury brothers were Quakers (nonalcoholic in other words). In 1850 they got the “Royal Warrant” to produce for Queen Victoria after which import taxes on cocoa went down, making it more affordable and more product line (i.e., chocolates).
The Cadbury’s sons figured out better transportation to bring in the milk & Cocoa. They relocated close to transportation lines for both of them…. (Canal/rail). One brother bought real estate & planned a model village nearby, which got up to 300 acres, 300+ cottages, etc. they continued developing products, and when 2,000 of their male employees went to war (WWI), delivered goods — including chocolate — to the soldiers. etc.
CADBURY merged with SCHWEPPES in 1969 and bought more companies (Sunkist, Canada Dry….), and licensed HERSHEY, PA to manufacture its products in the US. In 2000 Cadbury-Schweppes bought a few more products, or names: Snapple, Mistic and Stewart ($1.5 Billion), then “Royal Crown” In 2008 they split off Schweppes (which became “Dr. Pepper Snapple Group) and Cadbury sold of some more plants, (etc.) More company sales, plant closing and employees being moved around –get my point? That’s what corporations do. And this is the risk that working for them represents to employees, along with the benefits of fairly steady pay if one doesn’t have the nerves, network, or knowhow, for buying and selling businesess.
Ever heard that the Brits had a serious sweet tooth, if not a reputation for bad teeth? Maybe this has something to do with it. Importing cocoa, exporting chocolate all over, selling sweet carbonated drinks…
Kraft took it over (after a “hostile takeover bid) causing a reaction in the UK; they reached a deal valuing it (Cadbury) at 11.5 billion pounds; they had to raise 7 billion to do this. From there on it becomes quite the global industry case history — because of who, in the UK was countering Kraft’s takeover bid. (wikipedia article has more of the footnotes; I removed several)
On 19 January 2010, it was announced that Cadbury and Kraft Foods had reached a deal and that Kraft would purchase Cadbury for £8.40 per share, valuing Cadbury at £11.5bn (US$18.9bn). Kraft, which issued a statement stating that the deal will create a “global confectionery leader”, had to borrow £7 billion (US$11.5bn) in order to finance the takeover.[23]
The Hershey Company, based in Pennsylvania, manufactures and distributes Cadbury-branded chocolate (but not its other confectionery) in the United States and has been reported to share Cadbury’s “ethos”. Hershey had expressed an interest in buying Cadbury because it would broaden its access to faster-growing international markets. But on 22 January 2010, Hershey announced that it would not counter Kraft’s final offer
The acquisition of Cadbury faced widespread disapproval from the British public, as well as groups and organisations including trade union Unite, who fought against the acquisition of the company which, according to Prime Minister Gordon Brown was very important to the British economy.[30] Unite estimated that a takeover by Kraft could put 30,000 jobs “at risk“,[24][31][32] and UK shareholders protested over the mergers and acquisitions advisory fees charged by banks. Cadbury’s M&A advisers were UBS, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Controversially, RBS, a bank 84% owned by the United Kingdom Government, funded the Kraft takeover.[36][37]
Meanwhile, KRAFT, Phillip Morris, and General Foods Corporation:
I don’t know where the KRAFT name came in from, but Kraft Food Groups’ history page shows it starting as Postum Cereal Company, Ltd. (1893) in Battle Creek, Michigan. I.e., a man develops a ready-to-eat cold cereal called Post Grape-nuts. Between 1897 and 1914 (when he died and passed it on to his daughter), over $12 million was invested in advertising.…..They get offices in Madison Avenue NYC, open an “educational department” and start educating people in Nutrition (of course), targeting these groups:
“nutrition stories for children and a nutrition handbook on school lunches for use by teachers, health workers and food service directors. In 1931, the department name is changed to Consumer Services.”
Pretty soon they have $24 million sales and a building in NYC named the Postum building…. they were targeting the public education system (same as did Blackbaud, Inc. ). By 1925, they buy up Jell-O Company for $67 million “cash and stock.” This company just keeps buying, and buying, and advertising and coaching people on nutrition, etc. After becoming “GFC” in 1947 it partnered with Ford to broadcast some major sports events, and they split the advertising between them. . . . i.e., over TV; watch the Dodgers game if you live near NYC…..
By 1983 although it’s THE largest company in the U.S. operating only in food and beverage ($8 billion sales) only just over half its 65,000 employees work here, and it’s manufacturing and selling in plenty of countries. They are also substantially into coffee, and starting to control major producers in other countries (like, Spain).
In 1985, Phillip Morris buys GFC so it becomes a subsidiary.
So the company ownership goes to Kraft. Unbelieveable — in 1989, Philip Morris Companies merges the (by now huge) General Foods Corp. with Philip Morris’ (then) NEW subsidiary, Kraft, Inc. to form Kraft General Foods, Inc. making Kraft the United States’ Largest Food company.
On 2 February 2010, Kraft secured over 71% of Cadbury’s shares thus finalising the deal.[38] Kraft had needed to reach 75% of the shares in order to be able to delist Cadbury from the stock market and fully integrate it as part of Kraft. This was achieved on 5 February 2010, and the company announced that Cadbury shares would be de-listed on 8 March 2010.[39]
On 3 February 2010, the Chairman Roger Carr, chief executive Todd Stitzer and chief financial officer Andrew Bonfield[40] all announced their resignations. Stitzer had worked at the company for 27 years.[41]
On 9 February 2010, Kraft announced that they were planning to close the Somerdale Factory, Keynsham, with the loss of 400 jobs.[42] The management explained that existing plans to move production to Poland were too advanced to be realistically reversed, though assurances had been given regarding sustaining the plant.
I.e., to keep the workers calm and producing, they pretty much lied to them about their immediate futures, namely their own jobs. Kind of a “calm the natives” move….
Staff at Keynsham criticised this move, suggesting that they felt betrayed and as if they have been “sacked twice”.[43] {{which they had been..}} On 22 April 2010, Phil Rumbol, the man behind the famous Gorilla advertisement, announced his plans to leave the Cadbury company in July following Kraft’s takeover.
In June 2010 the Polish division, Cadbury-Wedel, was sold to Lotte of Korea. The European Commission made the sale a condition of the Kraft takeover. As part of the deal Kraft will keep the Cadbury, Hall’s and other brands along with two plants in Skarbimierz. Lotte will take over the plant in Warsaw along with the E Wedel brand.[45]
CUTE. From what I can tell then Mondelez International (I can’t find out where the HQ is, it looks like it has consumer relations in NJ, and the name sounds either French or Spanish, the word “le monde” is French for, the world — appropriate considering its reach…. who now owns Cadbury also owns quite a bit of KRAFT also. Although not the Kraft Foods Group.
“Creating a More Delicious World.”
Mondelez International was launched like, this month! (oct. 12, 2012) and focuses on the global Snack Industry, as a quick look at their animated site will quickly show…. Who’s ever heard of them? But the top of the web page lists its NASDAQ sale price which, today, is $26.something a share.
It says, $36 BILLION annual sales, and:
Launched on Oct. 1, 2012, and employing around 100,000 people around the world, Mondelēz International comprises the global snacking and food brands of the former Kraft Foods Inc. While Mondelēz International is new, the company’s brands are as diverse and rich with heritage as the 170 countries in which its products are marketed.
As the world’s pre-eminent maker of snacks, Mondelēz International has leading shares in every category and every region of the world in which it competes. The company holds the No. 1 position globally in Biscuits, Chocolate, Candy and Powdered Beverages as well as the No. 2 position in Gum and Coffee.
It’s basically a monster company. This is good for investors, and not so good for consumers. You probably supported one or several of their brands this past week if you live in the US.
What this company is — as of September 19, 2012 — is the former Kraft Foods INC after it got rid of (distributed out), the “North American grocery business, Kraft Foods GROUP, Inc.” by distributing its shares. Some shareholders are doing pretty well I guess. Then it get a facelift and a name-change, as above, and a new name on the NASDAQ (having filed properly with the SEC) I guess.
In short, Mondeliez got out of the business of North American Foods under Kraft. I wonder who is now selling their product, if anyone — and what happened to stuff with the wrong name on the shelf — food banks maybe? (actually the food group still exists, but under a different NASDAQ ticker name: KRFT; not KFT…
Meanwhile I note Mondelez is also preparing an international foundation as well (information on that is not up yet).
| Mondelez International Completes Spin-Off of Its North American Grocery Business |
|
NORTHFIELD, Ill., Oct. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ –Mondelez International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MDLZ), formerly Kraft Foods Inc., announced today that it has completed the previously announced spin-off of its North American grocery business, Kraft Foods Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: KRFT). At 5 p.m. EDT on Oct. 1, 2012 (the “distribution date”), Mondelez International completed the spin-off by distributing all outstanding shares of Kraft Foods Group common stock that it owned ratably to its shareholders of record as of the close of business on Sept. 19, 2012. The distribution was based on a distribution ratio of one share of Kraft Foods Group common stock for every three shares of Mondelez International common stock. Concurrent with the spin-off, Kraft Foods Inc. changed its name to Mondelez International, Inc. Starting tomorrow,Oct. 2, 2012, Mondelez International will trade on The NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “MDLZ,” and Kraft Foods Group will trade on The NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “KRFT.” The ticker symbol “KFT” has been retired. Mondelez International will file its separation agreements with Kraft Foods Group and certain pro forma financial information with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). Please visitwww.mondelezinternational.com/investor for additional information regarding the spin-off, including links to filings with the SEC. About Mondelez International |
Interesting, anyhow . . . .
This is Paul Rudd Drayson, the owner & founder of “PowderJect” (Wikipedia), a British Baron, race-car nut and politician, highly placed in the Ministry of Defence, etc. He and wife bought one of their houses from the Prince and Princess of Kent, etc.: Became “House of Lords” in 2004.
| The Right Honourable The Lord Drayson PC |
|---|
After attending St Dunstan’s College, Paul Drayson graduated from Aston University in Production Engineering, followed in 1986 by a PhD in robotics.[4] From 1986 to 1991 he was Managing Director of the Lambourn Food Company. From 1998 to 1992 he was Managing Director of Justin de Blank Ltd. {{don’t know. See Peerage, lineage; they have even “pop-up pedigree” links! Looks like a private company, maybe in food and brew/restaurants, which keeps changing names and hands}}
In 1993 he co-founded PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc in Oxfordwhich specialised in the production of vaccines, and was Chief Executive until 2003 when PowderJect was acquired by Chiron Corp.
In May 2005 Lord Drayson replaced Lord Bach as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister for Defence Procurement and as Government Spokesman for Defence to the House of Lords. Lord Drayson’s responsibility for defence procurement in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was one of the most high profile jobs in the MoD.
. . .
Between 2001 and 2002 he was the Chairman of the BioIndustry Association, and has been Chairman of the Oxford Children’s Hospital Campaign since 2002.
Since 2003, he has been the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Said Business School, Oxford University.
SAID Business School at Oxford, as the name might imply, has a wealthy donor:
Mr Wafic Saïd
Oxford’s vision of a business school was made real by a founding donation from Mr Wafic Saïd. Mr Saïd’s initial £20 million gift was made on condition that Oxford raised the equivalent to endow core academic posts and contribute a percentage towards the School’s first building. Mr Saïd remains a generous supporter of the School, having donated £70 million to date. More recent donations include £15 million for the new building currently under construction and an endowment for a Strategic Development Fund for the School.
(the benefactors list is interesting; besides Wafic Said, there’s L’Oreal, and Lily Safra, in honor of the late Edmund J. Safra, whose capital helped co-found with Bill Browder the Hermitage Capital Management (see above), American Standard Companies Foundation, and the Rhodes Trust.)
The Peter Moores Dean, “Peter Tufano” was previously at faculty at Harvard Business School for 22 years and, it says:
His work is credited with influencing two US policy initiatives and a new class of American savings products. His other streams of research deal with risk management, financial engineering and mutual funds.
At Oxford Tufano has launched a variety of new programmes and initiatives, including the 1+1 MBA Programme and the Pre-Internship Programme (PIP).
In 2000 he founded an innovative non-profit called the Doorways to Dreams Fund that works with partner organisations to test and promote innovations that serve the financial needs of low income households.
Tufano earned his AB in economics (summa cum laude), MBA (with high distinction) and PhD in Business Economics at Harvard University.
Tufano is married with one daughter. His wife, Mary Jeanne Tufano, is an attorney, arbitrator and mediator.
CONFERENCE SUBJECT AREAS
At CWU, we base our programs and services on research. Therefore, we organized the conference around some of the key areas we draw on for developing our own demonstration programs. These include: social network theory, the neurobiology of poverty, re-allocating government subsidies to promote economic mobility, deep engagement social service practices, behavioral economics, and proving return on investment** as a key to building social investments toward economic mobility.
WHOSE investments? Any nonprofit already has some investment from poor people and middle-class working people! What have we got for our investment in funding thinktanks and Unions that don’t have their ears open?
We were pleased to host an array of distinguished and insightful panelists including academics, social service providers, program participants, researchers, and government officials. The conference attendees reflected a similar mix.
Can a panelist be insightful without being “distinguished” (PhD’d etc.??)
How many program participants — and which programs? Did they get a control group (just go find some poor people — it’s not hard!) (if unsure where to find them, ask a program participant) of people tired of signing up for programs that don’t address critical needs, such as safety, or custody loss for single mothers because of the federal incentives to switch or increase custody to abusive fathers, which allegedly is to increase child support collections (although increasing collections has already been proven not to be matched by actual distributions, as the collected money keeps getting mislabeled, and or “lost” at the collection units, state by state, etc.)
In what follows, we offer you some of the wisdom and learning that emerged at the conference. Numerous panelists submitted papers and suggested readings on their topics. We are also pleased to share abbreviated transcripts from both of our informative and inspirational keynote speakers, Xavier de Souza Briggs of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Anne Mosle of the Aspen Institute.
We thank you for supporting the work of CWU and for your contributions to transforming the lives of low-income women and their families by continuing to bring new ideas and approaches to this critical work.
Deborah Connolly Youngblood, PhD
Vice President of Research and Innovation Crittenton Women’s Union
Good grief — look who “ISIS Innovation Ltd.” is — it’s wholly owned by Oxford University!
Isis Innovation Limited is wholly owned by the University of Oxford.
Isis Innovation has three main business activities:
Isis helps Oxford University researchers to commercialise intellectual property arising from their research: patenting, licensing, spin-out companies.
Isis manages Oxford University Consulting which helps Oxford University researchers to identify and manage consulting opportunities and helps clients access experts from Oxford’s world-class, interdisciplinary research base.
Sounds like Match.com for expert consultants and their clients.
Isis Enterprise provides consulting expertise and advice in technology transfer and innovation management to clients across the public and private sectors around the world.
Isis was established by Oxford University in 1988 as its wholly owned technology transfer company. Isis has developed substantially over the years in a number of phases, as the technology transfer activity has grown, and with the formation of Oxford University Consulting and Isis Enterprise.
This is Oxford University!! The Internet was still developing in the 1980s, right? Far be it from Oxford to be behind the curve….
Answers.com (Yahoo) cites, as I thought, most of it started in the US — and was military related; 1960s. MIT, RAND, Stanford, University of Utah, etc. An Englishman working in Geneva for a European Nuclear Research Center is credited in 1989 for the Web protocol, “Http://” search engine, and HTML — which is a LOT….. (compiled from the few answers submitted)
Packet switching was first proposed by Leonard Kleinrock of MIT in 1961. Independent (and unaware of Kleinrock and each other) research efforts related to packet switching were also undertaken at RAND (1962-1965) and NPL (1964-1967).
The idea of internetworking was first proposed (under the name of “galactic networking”) by J.C.R. Licklider of MIT in 1962.
Source(s):
http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/ (CLICK & SEE – he was an Oxford grad).This bio is fascinating — and we can see he’s still active, and holds a position in CSAIL (Computer Sciences and Artifical Intelligence) at MIT. I think it should be read (at least the short bio) He graduated in 1976 from Queen’s College, Oxford and has these honorary degrees, not to mention a ton of honors. Notice the years and countries, with Harvard being the most recent. “Liege” is Belgium;
Essex University (D.U., 1998)
Southern Cross University (1998)
Open University (D.U., 2000)
Columbia University (D.Law, 2001)
Oxford University (D.Sc., 2001)
University of Port Elizabeth (DSc., 2002)
Lancaster University (D.Sc., 2004)
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (2008)University of Manchester (2008)Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (2009)
Université de Liège (2009)VU University Amsterdam (2009)Harvard University (2011)
in short, a lot of the research happened in America, a major breakthrough however by a Brit, and in no time (say, 1988ff) Oxford was positioned to profit from it by forming the company “Isis.” No one said the British were poor at figuring financial matters!!
Spinout Companies:
Since 1997, Isis Innovation has been responsible for creating spin-out companies based on academic research generated within and owned by the University of Oxford, and has spun-out a new company every two months on average. Over £266 million in external investment has been raised by Isis spin-out companies since 2000, and five are currently listed on London’s AIM market.*** The creation of these new spin-out companies also channels millions of pounds back into University research, benefits local economic development and has created many new jobs in the region.
A separate list of startup companies which are based in the Isis Software Incubator can be found here. (worth a look at the names and logos):
***London’s AIM market:
AIM is the most successful growth market in the world. Since its launch in 1995, over 3,000 companies from across the globe have chosen to join AIM. Powering the companies of tomorrow, AIM continues to help smaller and growing companies raise the capital they need for expansion.
AIM is the London Stock Exchange’s international market for smaller growing companies. A wide range of businesses including early stage, venture capital backed as well as more established companies join AIM seeking access to growth capital.
How, in part, does the GAVI alliance raise money (per Seth Berkeley, in a Forbes interview with Rahmin Kanani, actually dated today: 10/24/2012)? Well, there’s the IFFIm (International Finance Facility for Immunisation):
One program works closely with investment banks to raise funds for immunization on the capital markets. The program is called the International Finance Facility for Immunisation, or “IFFIm.”
It uses long-term payment pledges from donor governments to create and sell what investors call “vaccine bonds.” Specifically, IFFIm has secured $6.3 billion in pledges from nine governments to be paid over 23 years. This, in turn, has helped float bonds that have raised $3.7 billion on the capital markets for immunization over the past six years.
Here again the alliance comes into play. We work collaboratively on this program with investment banks, donor governments, the World Bank as IFFIm’s treasury manager and private investors.
So, developing? or donor? countries are then into long-term debt to this facility to help get their kids immunized.
……
Cold,Hard.Fact$ 
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