Other Honorees Include Golden Globe Award-Winning Actress Jane Seymour, Academy Award-Winning Director James Keach, Emmy Award-Winning Actor Robert Loggia & former MLB All-Star Mike Piazza
CINCINNATI – Union Institute & University (UI&U) is proud to announce that UI&U Board of Trustees member and P&G Senior Vice President Dr. Shekhar Mitra joined Golden Globe Award-Winning actress Jane Seymour and Academy Award-Winning director James Keach and other Ellis Island Medals of Honor recipients on Saturday, May 8 at the 25th Annual Ellis Island Medals of Honor Ceremony on Ellis Island.
Dr. Mitra is recognized inside and outside P&G as a connector of ideas, people and opportunities and as an enabling leader who cares deeply about both people and business results. He has maintained and supported his ethnic identity and passionately advocated for diverse communities through personal and professional development, most recently demonstrated by his role in the founding of the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE, www.saseconnect.org). Dr. Mitra’s contributions truly exemplify how P&G’s Company purpose to deliver meaningful innovation helps improve more consumers’ lives, in more parts of the world, more completely.
Dr. Mitra received a Master of Science in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, and earned his Masters of Science and Ph.D. in life sciences from Columbia University. Upon completing a Jane Coffin Medical Research Fellowship at Yale University, he joined P&G in 1984 in the Company’s Oral Care business, working on the industry leading Crest brand. Throughout his career, Dr. Mitra has focused on improving consumers’ lives through game-changing branded innovation, both here in the US and in developed and developing markets around the globe. This includes his work on key brand innovation programs including Crest®, Crest® Whitestrips, Aleve®, Prilosec, OLAY®, SK-II, and Secret and establishing the Company’s Beijing Technical Center in 1997. He has been awarded over 50 patents spanning multiple categories in health and beauty.
Each year since 1986, NECO – whose mission is to honor our diverse past, to advocate for positive change in the present, and to build strong leaders for the future – has honored our nation's diverse past by sponsoring the Ellis Island Medals of Honor. The Ellis Island Medals of Honor annually pays tribute to the ancestry groups that comprise America’s unique cultural mosaic. The medals are presented on Ellis Island, in a dramatic ceremony, to American citizens of diverse origins for their outstanding contributions to their communities, their nation and the world.
Past Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipients include six Presidents of the United States, Nobel Prize winners, athletes, leaders of industry, artists and others whose work has made a lasting impact on humanity. They are awarded annually to outstanding American citizens, from all walks of life, who have distinguished themselves through their significant contributions to this country. The Ellis Island Medal of Honor ranks among the nation’s most prestigious awards. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have officially recognized the Ellis Island Medals of Honor, and each year the recipients are listed in the Congressional Record. To date, more than 1,600 American citizens have received Ellis Island Medals of Honor.
Some previous Medalists include: U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist; Generals Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell; Sen. John McCain; Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell; Mayor Rudolph Giuliani; U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno; Lee Iacocca; Dr. Michael E. DeBakey; Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao; Rosa Parks; Elie Wiesel; Frank Sinatra; Bob Hope; Opera diva Renee Fleming; Yogi Berra; Muhammad Ali; Arnold Palmer; Tom Brokaw; Walter Cronkite; Barbara Walters; Mike Wallace; Quincy Jones; Gloria & Emilio Estefan, Gary Sinise, Siegfried & Roy, H.E. Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, President – United Nations 61st Session General Assembly (International Recipient), just to name a few.
For further information about NECO and the Ellis Island Medals of Honor, please visit: www.neco.org.
