Press Releases

Constella Group Convenes Advisory Board Led by Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson

DURHAM, N.C., May 9, 2006—Constella Group, a leading global provider of professional health services, today announced that it has convened an advisory board to provide strategic advice and to help the company identify new opportunities, partners and thought leadership for expanding its portfolio of programs and services. Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson will chair the board, which represents a group of individuals with exceptional knowledge and expertise relevant to domestic, global and commercial health issues.

"It is an honor to have this distinguished group of people helping us advance our vision of enhancing human health around the world, every day," said Donald A. Holzworth, Constella Group chairman and CEO. "This group has worked on some of the most critical health issues of our time, and their advice and leadership are essential toward our successful journey to create a healthy world, one free of disease."

Former Secretary Thompson, who is now a partner with the Washington, D.C. law firm Akin Gump, Strauss Hauer & Feld, is well known for his response to the threat of bioterrorism and for his leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the United States and abroad. He currently serves as the honorary chairman of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Before entering the private sector in 2005, Secretary Thompson spent his career in public service. From 1966 through 1986, he served on Wisconsin's state assembly, then as assistant assembly minority leader and as assembly minority leader. He served as governor of Wisconsin from 1986 through 1993, and in 1994 became the first governor in the state's history to be elected to a third four-year term. He served a fourth term until his appointment as secretary of Health and Human Services in 2001.

"I am honored to lead this amazing group of advisors for a company whose vision is so closely aligned with my personal passion of enhancing human health," said Thompson. "Constella is setting the pace for defining new strategies to address some of the globe's most critical health concerns, and I'm proud to play a part in that." In addition to Thompson, the advisory board consists of the following:

• William Roper, MD, MPH, chief executive officer of the University of North Carolina Health Care System and dean of the UNC School of Medicine. Prior to his current positions, Dr. Roper was dean of the UNC School of Public Health, a member of the White House staff and, from 1990 to 1993, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
  
  
• Ciro de Quadros, MD, MPH, president and CEO of the Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute. Dr. de Quadros is recognized as the leading figure in the massive campaign that eradicated poliomyelitis and measles in the western hemisphere. He started his international public health career in the 1970s with the World Health Organization as the chief epidemiologist for the Smallpox Eradication Program in Ethiopia. Before joining the Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute in 2003, he served as director of the Division of Vaccines and Immunization of the Pan American Health Organization.
  
  
• Carol Browner, JD, principal, Albright Group. Prior to founding The Albright Group, a global advisory firm, Browner served as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a member of President Clinton's cabinet for eight years. While in government, she was widely recognized for forging partnerships with the business community and non-governmental organizations to find new solutions to public health and environmental challenges. During her tenure, she enacted the strongest-ever national air pollution standards, created alternatives to traditional regulatory programs, and leveraged more than $1 billion in public and private funds to cleanup brownfields.
  
  
• Kenneth Olden, PhD, ScD, LHD, most recent past director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Toxicology Program, positions he held from 1991 to 2005. Dr. Olden returned full time to his research position as chief of the Metastasis Group, Laboratory of Molecular Carcinogenesis at the NIEHS, a position he held while director. He is a recipient of the Toxicology Forum's Distinguished Fellow Award, the Presidential Distinguished Executive Rank Award, the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award for sustained extraordinary accomplishments, the HHS Secretary's Distinguished Service Award, the Julius B. Richmond Award in Public Health and the American College of Toxicology's First Distinguished Service Award. He was also elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, in 1994.
  
  
• Sandra Thurman, CEO, International AIDS Trust. Thurman has served as the director of the Office of Citizen Exchanges at the United States Information Agency. A recognized expert on AIDS issues, she is a former director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy. Thurman has provided testimony before the United States Senate, the White House Conference on HIV/AIDS and the National Commission on AIDS and orchestrated the first $100 million commitment of U.S. federal dollars to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.
  
  
• Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy; associate director, National Center for Food Protection and Defense; professor, School of Public Health and School of Medicine, University of Minnesota. In 2005, Dr. Osterholm was appointed as a member to the newly formed National Science Board on Biosecurity and from 2002-2004 served on then Secretary Thompson's Advisory Council on Public Health Preparedness. He is a recognized expert in infectious disease and epidemiology. Dr. Osterholm is also an international leader on the critical concern regarding our preparedness for an influenza pandemic, and on the growing concern regarding the use of biological agents as catastrophic weapons targeting civilian populations.
  
  
• Paul Antony, MD, MPH, George Washington University Medical Center (GWUMC) and chief medical officer, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Dr. Antony serves on the faculty of GWUMC's Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine, which is working with the Gates Foundation to develop treatments for neglected diseases of developing countries. Dr. Antony previously served in the United States Navy as flight surgeon and senior medical officer for the Marine One Presidential Helicopter Squadron and as a White House Fellow from 1993-1994 serving in the Executive Office of the President.
  
  
• Margaret Dardess, JD, PhD, associate provost for strategic partnerships, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Dardess spent 15 years at GlaxoSmithKline, beginning in the legal department and later as senior vice president of corporate affairs, and was a member of the board of directors for Glaxo Wellcome, Inc. At UNC-Chapel Hill, she has served as senior associate dean for the School of Public Health and as interim dean from 2004-2005.
  
  
• Robert Smith, PhD, Constella Group. Dr. Smith joined Futures Group in 1978 as the director of Washington, D.C. operations. He became vice president in 1982, president in 1986, and CEO and chairman of Futures Group in 1989. Prior to joining Futures Group, Dr. Smith was the director of public-sector marketing for Syntex Corporation. Dr. Smith is a recognized expert in designing health and population programs in developing countries and a frequent speaker and lecturer on issues affecting development alternatives.

About Constella Group Constella Group is a leading provider of professional health services worldwide, dedicated to enhancing human health around the world, every day. Through its work in health sciences, international development, and pharmaceutical product development, Constella creates and provides health intelligence to help industry and government clients identify and solve critical problems affecting human health. The company's 1,200 employees serve clients from company headquarters in Durham, N.C., from U.S. offices in Washington, D.C; Rockville and Frederick, Md.; Glastonbury, Conn.; Atlanta; and Morgantown, W.Va., from U.K.-based offices in Bath, Oxford and Cambridge; from offices in Cologne, Germany; Paris, France; and New Delhi, India; and from client sites and other offices across the world. For more information, visit www.constellagroup.com.