Press Release

For Immediate Release	Contact: Michael De Groote
3 January 2006	801.328.5056

Register for this event

Related Press Releases

Chairman and CEO of Abbott Laboratories will deliver keynote for Salt Lake Chamber’s ‘A Giant in Our City’ tribute

Miles D. White, leader of ‘One of the Most Admired Corporations in America,’ will give the keynote speech for Salt Lake Chamber’s ‘A Giant In Our City’ celebration honoring renowned biotechnology entrepreneur James LeVoy Sorenson

SALT LAKE CITY (January 3, 2006) — The Salt Lake Chamber announced today that Miles D. White, chairman of the board and CEO of Abbott Laboratories will be the keynote speaker at the Chamber’s A Giant in Our City award banquet honoring renowned biomedical entrepreneur James LeVoy Sorenson. A Giant in Our City is the Chamber’s most prestigious award and will be presented to Sorenson for his medical inventions, industry building and altruism on February 15, 2006.

As keynote speaker, White brings the engaging viewpoint of a nationally-recognized business leader and head of a Fortune 100 company that has been named One of America's Most Admired Companies every year since 1984 by Fortune magazine. Abbott Laboratories is a diversified health care company that employs 60,000 people in 130 countries. 

Sorenson and Abbott Laboratories have a connection that goes back 25 years when Sorenson sold his medical device company, Sorenson Research, to Abbott Laboratories. At the time, Sorenson Research had produced important medical innovations, including the first computerized heart monitor and the first blood recycling system. The Salt Lake-based company also invented the first catheters that enable long-term indwelling catheterization by preventing blood clotting. Named Intraflo and Dialaflo, these modern catheters revolutionized critical health care practice and quickly became best sellers. With the purchase by Abbott Laboratories in 1980, Sorenson Research became Abbott’s Critical Care division and Sorenson became Abbott’s largest individual shareholder.

“We are very fortunate to have Miles White speak at our award presentation,” said Lane Beattie, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber. “He leads a great company that has distributed many of the innovative medical devices that Jim Sorenson helped create and that have made modern health care safer and more effective for all of us.”

White joined Abbott in 1984, became chief executive officer in 1998 and chairman of the board in 1999. He also holds positions in many prestigious private and public organizations. Among them, he is on the boards of directors of the Tribune Company and Motorola, chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and vice chairman of the board of trustees of the Field Museum. He is also on the board of trustees of Northwestern University and the Culver Educational Foundation. 

Abbott Laboratories regularly wins major business honors, including being listed number 48 among the Top 500 American Companies by Forbes magazine, number 21 among America's Best Wealth Creators by Fortune magazine, and one of the Top 10 Companies for Women by Health magazine. 

The 23rd A Giant in Our City tribute dinner will be held on Wednesday, February 15, 2006. A 6 p.m. reception will be followed by dinner at 7 p.m. The event will be held in the Grand Ballroom at The Grand America Hotel, 555 South Main Street. The cost is $150 per person and $1,500 for a table of ten. Reservations should be made by February 8, 2006 at www.saltlakechamber.org, by e-mailing awards@saltlakechamber.org or by calling (801) 328-5050. Black tie is invited. Seating is limited.

About Abbott Laboratories
Abbott is a global, broad-based health care company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceuticals and medical products, including nutritionals, devices and diagnostics. The company employs 60,000 people and markets its products in more than 130 countries.

About ‘A Giant in Our City’
The Salt Lake Chamber’s Board of Governors established the Giant in Our City award in 1969. The award was created to honor lives of exceptional and distinguished public service and extraordinary professional achievement. It is considered the chamber’s most prestigious award and is given periodically by the Chamber’s Board of Governors. 

The 25 past winners of A Giant in Our City were: 1970, Eric C. Aaberg; 1972, Clarence Bamberger; 1974, E.M. Naughton; 1977, John M. and Glenn Wallace; 1978, N. Eldon Tanner; 1981, John W. Gallivan; 1982, George S. Eccles; 1984, Richard A. Van Winkle; 1985, Wendell J. Ashton; 1986, Arch L. Madsen; 1987, B.Z. Kastler; 1990, S. Chris Johnson; 1992, Gov. Calvin R. Rampton; 1994, G. Frank Joklik; 1995, Fred S. Ball; 1998, Kenneth Y. Knight; 1999, Scott S. Parker; 2000, Verl Topham; 2001, Spencer Eccles; 2002, W. Mitt Romney; 2003, Don Cash and Nick Rose; also in 2003, President Gordon B. Hinckley, and in 2005, Jon M. Huntsman.

About the Salt Lake Chamber
The Salt Lake Chamber is Utah’s largest business association and Utah’s Business Leader™. With roots that go back to 1887, the Salt Lake Chamber has been standing as the voice of business, supporting its members’ success and championing community prosperity for over 100 years. The Salt Lake Chamber is a statewide association of 1,863 member firms representing approximately 350,000 workers. It shortened its name in 2001 from “Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce” to “Salt Lake Chamber.” In 2003 it merged with the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance, which operates as an affiliate of the Chamber. 

# # #

High Resolution photographs of Mr. Sorenson are available at www.sorensoncompanies.com/exec_bios_levoy.html

Back to Press Releases