Milken Institute Global Gourmet Games Honors Dr. Richard Merkin With Inaugural Tommy Lasorda Leadership Award

The first ever Lasorda Leadership award was presented to Dr. Merkin on April 28^th at a benefit held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, and raised more than $3 million for FasterCures, a medical center at the Milken Institute pursuing accelerating the pace of critical medical discoveries. The event marked the beginning of the four day annual Milken Institute Global Conference.

"I'm overwhelmed to be honored with this award," said Dr. Merkin, "and am especially pleased to be recognized by an organization like FasterCures that has done so much to change the world. I never thought there would be a sentence that connected my name with Tommy Lasorda's and am delighted now there is," he continued.

Milken Institute Chairman Michael Milken commented, "Dick Merkin's business and philanthropic achievements are legendary and I'm proud that he partnered with me in co-founding the Milken Institute's FasterCures Center, where he is a highly valued board member. His many achievements – in healthcare, education and the arts – emerge from a profoundly personal commitment to making the world a better place. That sustained commitment has made him the role model that earned the Lasorda Leadership Award."

The Lasorda Leadership Award, named after baseball icon Tommy Lasorda, "recognizes individuals who embody Tommy's legacy of leadership and management, a philosophy that applies across multiple disciplines. Leadership rules were always simple and straightforward. Love what you do and instill pride in those you lead. Appreciate what your team and your organization do for you. Be clear and honest in your communications. Put the team before the individual. And motivate your players to make sure they want it more than the other team – even if the other team had more talent."

The event attracted more than 400 people with actor John O'Hurley, a veteran of the Global Gourmet Games, presenting the Global Gourmet Games competition instructions with notables Michael Milken, Tommy Lasorda, Sasha Cohen, 2006 Olympic Silver Medal winner, Director John Landis, Oscar nominated costume designer Deborah Nadoolman, John Salley, former NBA star, Natasha Duffy, Lisa Mesloh, former Dodges star Steve Garvey and his wife Candace all joining in on the fun testing their gourmet food, wine and trivia knowledge.

Dr. Merkin is the CEO and founder of the Heritage Group. Under his stewardship, the Heritage Group has become the largest, physician-owned and operated integrated delivery system in the United States with over 50 related healthcare companies. The Heritage Group encompasses numerous patent, venture capital, private equity, and insurance companies.

Dr. Merkin serves on the Board of the California Institute of Technology and the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. He is the Co-founder of Fastercures. He has established the Richard Merkin Foundation for stem cell Research at the Broad Institute at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Richard Merkin Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Brain Sciences Institute, the Richard Merkin Foundation for Neural Regeneration at UCLA, and the Merkin Family Foundation Fund for Regenerative Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at USC.  He is on the board of the California Nano Systems Institute and serves on many other boards that focus on science, healthcare and finance.

Inspired by the X-Prize Foundation, Dr. Merkin launched the Heritage Health Prize, a $3 million global incentivized competition seeking to achieve a fundamental breakthrough in our ability to predict future hospitalization. Dr. Merkin supports the Merkin initiative to study payment and clinician reform at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC.

In furtherance of HPN's philanthropic efforts and intense focus on improving patient outcomes, Dr. Merkin founded the Heritage Medical Research Institute in 2002. The Institute conducts medical research emphasizing health-care quality and outcomes, as well as core medical research in areas such as stem cell applications in neurodegenerative diseases, cancer immunotherapy, and gene editing tools. The Institute has pursued its mission in partnership with many organizations, including the Broad Institute at Harvard / MIT, the Brookings Institute, and Caltech.

SOURCE Heritage Provider Network, Inc.