Newswise — The Wistar Institute recently welcomed Douglas S. Briggs, Ronald L. Caplan, and Maida R. Milone, to its board of trustees.

“I welcome our new board members to Wistar with enthusiasm and am confident that through their leadership and expertise, they will help the Institute to further its mission to end life-threatening illnesses, such as cancer and infectious disease, through basic biomedical research,” said Wistar President and CEO Russel E. Kaufman, M.D.

Douglas Briggs is former president and CEO of cable television home-shopping network QVC, Inc., a position he held from 1995 until his retirement in 2006. Under his leadership, QVC’s revenue grew from $1.5 billion in 1994 to $5.7 billion in 2004. Briggs previously served as president and executive vice president of electronic retailing, executive vice president of programming and merchandising, and senior vice president for marketing planning at QVC. Prior to joining QVC, Briggs served as vice president for marketing at The Franklin Mint.

Briggs was honored with the humanitarian award from the Strang-Cornell Breast Center and the Fashion Footwear Association of New York (FFANY) Humanitarian Award for his advocacy and fundraising for breast cancer research, and he served as honorary chair of Cable Positive, the cable industry’s AIDS action organization. Briggs was inducted into the Drexel 100, an honorary society compromised of the University’s most noted and accomplished alumni. In 2008, he established the Briggs Family Boost Award for an incoming undergraduate student in the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University. Briggs earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Drexel University.

Ronald L. Caplan, a Philadelphia real estate developer, is the founder, president, and CEO of Philadelphia Management Corporation (PMC). For more than 25 years, Caplan has been actively engaged in acquiring, financing, renovating, and managing residential and commercial real estate. PMC specializes in the re-development of older properties, many of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Throughout his career, Caplan has renovated and repositioned nearly 5 million square feet of real estate, and has developed more than 100 residential and commercial properties in Philadelphia.

Caplan serves on the boards of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern Pennsylvania, Michael’s Way, the National Liberty Museum, and Temple University’s President’s Advisory Board. He is vice chairman of the University of the Arts board of trustees. He founded the Ellen and Ronald Caplan Center for Performing Arts at the University of the Arts, and the Ronald and Ellen Caplan Patient Education Center at Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Caplan earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from Northeastern University.

Maida Milone is the CEO of the Philadelphia Art Alliance (PAA), an organization dedicated to the advancement and appreciation of innovative contemporary crafts. Milone joined the PAA in 2009 primarily to focus and refine the mission of the organization. Milone had practiced law and managed non-profit organizations for the previous 20 years, specializing in the pharmaceutical industry.

Milone is the honorary director of the Center for Emerging Visual Artists. She serves on the boards of the Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice and Research at the University of Pennsylvania and St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children. She is a mentor in the The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative Mentoring Program and a member of the Women’s Health Leadership Council of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. She earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a juris doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.

The Wistar Institute is an international leader in biomedical research with special expertise in cancer research and vaccine development. Founded in 1892 as the first independent nonprofit biomedical research institute in the country, Wistar has long held the prestigious Cancer Center designation from the National Cancer Institute. The Institute works actively to ensure that research advances move from the laboratory to the clinic as quickly as possible. The Wistar Institute: Today’s Discoveries – Tomorrow’s Cures. On the Web at www.wistar.org.

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