Evaluating Proposals
“He can talk to people at pharmaceutical companies with knowledge of what they’re talking about,” Little said in an interview. “He can evaluate what they’re proposing.” Chan met Frenk, the school’s dean, when giving a talk at the institution that centered on entrepreneurship and public health. Students invited Chan to be a commencement speaker in 2012, when he talked about how private enterprise can serve public health needs. “Many of our graduates will work for the public good in organizations which are private sector in their organization and operation, at once making profits and doing works which were previously consigned to the charitable or the public sector,” Chan said in the 2012 address. “For them, the goals of making a profit and doing good works are not mutually exclusive.” Enabling innovation can be a career choice for more public health professionals, Frenk said in an interview. Entrepreneurship, Innovation “Traditionally in public health we’ve had two career paths: research and public service,” Frenk said. “Gerald pioneered a third path of going into entrepreneurship and innovation.” Chan said he has worked to make sure his business dealings have held benefits for society. “Even in business,” he said, “return is not measured only in financial terms but in human lives and human health.” The public health school will be the second at Harvard, along with the John F. Kennedy School of Government, to be named for an individual. The gift will be invested in the school’s endowment, and the funds generated will help relieve the debt burdens of graduates who want to work in underserved areas of the U.S. and other countries, Frenk said. The money will also support the work of junior faculty and researchers in innovative fields that don’t qualify for government funding, as well as “21st-century” classrooms and computer resources, according to Frenk. “It’s a dream gift that allows us to dream bigger than we ever have,” he said. (Bloomberg)
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