Month: June 2024

International Olympic Committee news

Pride House Paris 2024 will be a place full of life and celebration during the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer at the Péniche Rosa Bonheur on the Seine.

As part of its ongoing efforts to promote fairness, inclusion and respect for diversity, Pride House Paris 2024 presented its entire legacy for more inclusive sport and a better way of “living together” to mark International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia on Friday (17 May).

“At the Olympic Games we are all equal. There is no discrimination,” International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said in a statement.

“This is the fundamental spirit of the Olympic Games and the Olympic Village, where athletes from the territories of all 206 National Olympic Committees and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team live together in harmony under one roof.

“We welcome that the Paris 2024 Organising Committee has made sure that diversity and inclusion are central to the Olympic project and we wish Pride House Paris 2024 every success as part of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.”

Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet added: “Inclusion, openness and respect for everyone are at the heart of the values of sport, and of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“As the organiser of the world’s biggest sporting event, Paris 2024 is committed to making our society more inclusive and advancing the fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender in France and around the world.

“We are proud to have this Pride House · Paris 2024, which will be a place full of life, celebration and awareness-raising.”

The first step in building its legacy was the launch of its research laboratory last January. Comprising three working groups, the aim of this “Lab” is to propose operational solutions that can easily be put in place by sports associations wishing to work on their inclusion. Each working group focuses on a specific theme, in conjunction with Pride House partners and with guest speakers who provide a real opportunity to share experience from the field. The results of this work will be shared at a special event in July.

As a legacy project of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, the Organising Committee and Fier-Play are committed to working together to harness the momentum of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to drive lasting social and cultural change in the French and global sporting landscape.

This objective is all the more present with the involvement of the IOC in Pride House. The result is an historic partnership that has made Pride House Paris 2024 the first Pride House to obtain such support. This unprecedented collaboration opens up new prospects for promoting LGBTI+ inclusion in sport worldwide.

WHAT IS A PRIDE HOUSE?

Under the aegis of Pride House International, a Pride House is a benevolent and inclusive venue at major sporting events. Its aim is to combat discrimination and make LGBTI+ people more visible in sport. It offers a festive, cultural, sporting and educational programme to raise awareness among as many people as possible and make sport universal, accessible to all without discrimination.

WHERE WILL THE PRIDE HOUSE FOR PARIS 2024 BE LOCATED?

The Pride House Paris 2024 will be located on the Péniche Rosa Bonheur of the Seine. A mobile Pride House will visit various Olympic sites during the Games, in and around Paris, and a digital Pride House will make the project accessible to everyone.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., June 21, 2024 /3BL/ – Direct Relief today announced the appointment of three new members to the organization’s Board of Directors, each bringing extensive business and nonprofit expertise to support the organization’s growing humanitarian efforts. Henrietta Holsman Fore, Heitham Hassoun, MD, and Perry Siatis will be joining Direct Relief’s board at a time of significant growth for the organization’s global humanitarian response efforts, which last fiscal year included provision of essential medications, a broad range of medical supplies, and financial support in response to requests from healthcare providers and other local organizations across 88 countries and 55 U.S. states and territories.

A leader in providing medical humanitarian aid to those in need, Direct Relief is ranked fifth on the Forbes List of Top 100 Charities and earned a renewed four-star rating from Charity Navigator in 2024, America’s largest independent charity evaluator, for the 13th consecutive year.

“Direct Relief is excited to welcome these accomplished individuals to its board,” said Mark Linehan, Direct Relief’s Board Chair. “The expertise that each brings will strengthen and further the organization’s mission of mobilizing essential medical and other resources across the U.S. and around the world.”

The new directors are:

Henrietta Holsman Fore recently served as the seventh Executive Director of UNICEF. Prior to taking up this appointment, she served as both the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance in the U.S. State Department. From 2005 to 2007, Ms. Fore served as Under Secretary of State for Management, the Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. Department of State. Prior to that, she was the 37th Director of the United States Mint, a position she held from 2001 to 2005. Currently Ms. Fore serves as the Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Holsman International, a manufacturing and investment company.

Heitham Hassoun, MD, serves as the Chief Executive of International at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, California. In this role, he leads the institution’s international patient services as well as global strategy and operations. He joined Cedars-Sinai in 2018 as vice president and medical director of International. He is a highly regarded clinician and healthcare leader with a wealth of experience in global partnerships, international patient services, health system development and academic medicine. Dr. Hassoun shepherded Cedars-Sinai’s first global affiliation as well as several academic and strategic collaborations in China, Ecuador, Indonesia, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates. He also has overseen the expansion of Cedars-Sinai’s regional offices in multiple countries, including China, Mexico and Singapore. In addition to leading International, Dr. Hassoun is a professor of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai and maintains a clinical practice in vascular and endovascular surgery. Prior to Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Hassoun served as global medical director at Johns Hopkins Medicine and as an associate professor in the Department of Surgery at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Perry Siatis is Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at AbbVie, a global biopharmaceutical company, where he is responsible for Legal and the Office of Ethics and Compliance. He is credited with negotiating highly successful global business deals, navigating complex government policy, and providing strategic legal guidance for multiple billion-dollar brands. Mr. Siatis began his career by practicing commercial and intellectual property (IP) litigation at DLA Piper LLP. He joined Abbott in 2005 as Counsel and progressed to Division Counsel, IP Litigation, and later became Divisional Vice President and Section Head, IP Strategy. In January 2013, Mr. Siatis joined AbbVie where he served as Vice President, Biologic Strategic Development and Legal Regulatory. He also served as the Senior Vice President of Legal Transactions and R&D/Alliance Management and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer. In 2020, he led the legal strategy for the acquisition of Allergan, one of the largest acquisitions in pharmaceutical history.

The Direct Relief Board of Directors may serve up to three three-year terms.

A full list of Direct Relief’s Board and leadership is available here.