Professor of Philosophy Mark Okrent gets a close look as board chairman Mike Bonney '80 (left) and President Nancy Cable do the ribbon cutting. Photograph by Rene Minnis.

The journey of Paul Marks ’83 from Bates to China, and from being “a fairly unengaged student” to an international business leader, made an ideal narrative for the ceremonial reopening of Roger Williams and Hedge halls, facilities newly repurposed for the academic exploration of border crossings — borders national, cultural, philosophical, spiritual, disciplinary.

• Video: Paul Marks ’83 and fellow speakers at the dedication

Now based in Shanghai and CEO of the global aerospace technology firm Argosy Inc., Marks was one of Bates’ first students to graduate with a China-focused history major. His address at the dedication ceremony recounted how a Short Term trip to China in 1981, 30 years ago this year, was the challenge that set him on his life’s path.

Remarks by Bates board chair Michael Bonney ’80, college President Nancy Cable and Student Government President Cosmin Ghita ’12 were also on the program for the dedication late Thursday afternoon. Two symbolic acts completed the ceremony, as the faculty and staff who are the buildings’ stakeholders received honorary keys to Hedge and the Bill, and a ribbon-cutting made their reopening official.

Paul Marks '83 speaks to the dedication audience about his defining experience in China in 1981. Photograph by Rene Minnis.

As Marks recalled, his parents were not thrilled about the notion of his going to China. It took the persuasive powers of Professor of Sociology George Fetter, who had arranged Bates’ first-ever Short Term expedition to China two years previous, to bring them around.

Fetter had promised Marks that the trip would “change his life.” That prediction came true. During five weeks in China, Marks told his listeners, “I became hooked on China. I wanted to understand this chaotic, totally different world.”

Part of the attraction was a spur to his competitive spirit from the group’s Chinese guide, who insisted that the foreigners couldn’t learn the language. Marks rose to the challenge, betting the guide five bucks that he could indeed learn Mandarin. With his first instructor at Bates an adjunct faculty member who was the wife of a local Taiwanese dentist, Marks became Bates’ first student of the Chinese language, and continued his studies as a postgraduate.

In his welcome, Bonney, CEO of the pharmaceuticals firm Cubist, stated the theme for this celebration of two new academic buildings. “Faculty at Bates are helping students [prepare] to live, to work, to think, to lead and ultimately to solve problems in the global society. These two buildings are spaces that foster that kind of learning.”

“The decision to renovate these buildings was not an easy decision, Bonney said, owing to their age and condition after years of hard use as residence halls. “And yet we stand here today with two remarkable buildings that do honor to our history, but also position us beautifully for the future.”

Bonney was the right person to situate the buildings’ symbolic role in the context of time, as his family has been associated with Bates for nearly a century, roughly the same amount of time that the Bill and Hedge have been here. (And he and Marks, who were both students during Roger Bill’s heyday as a meeting place for, let’s say, joie de vivre, took the opportunity to point out that a benefit of the renovation was the elimination of the spilled-beer smell.)

Board chair Mike Bonney presents a symbolic key to Roger Williams Hall to Spanish professor Claudia Aburto Guzmán. Photograph by Rene Minnis.

“These two academic buildings, and the campus at large, are powered by Bates faculty,” Cable told the 175 or so listeners gathered in a tent on Alumni Walk, near the Bill and Hedge. “It is the faculty’s attention to the individual that makes the Bates experience so vitally special and distinctive academically.

“Paul’s stories inform our sense of what lasts over time, from the simple connection of a faculty member to a student, the heart of what we do.”

The ceremony began with international students Mustafa Basij-Rasikh ’12 of Kabul, Afghanistan, and Romina Istratii ’12 of Athens, Greece, welcoming the Bates community in their native languages (Istratii, anticipating Marks’ subject, also offered a greeting in Chinese, which she is studying at Bates).

Ghita, of Bucharest, Romania, touched on the chilly dampness of the day in his remarks, bringing the thought neatly around to the ceremony’s theme of global citizenship. “Cultures around the world perceive rain as an omen of good fortune,” he pointed out. “I never would have known that had I not immersed myself in the study of another language.”

Dear Members of the Bates College Community,

On behalf of the Bates College Board of Trustees, I write to announce that President Elaine Hansen has informed the Trustee Executive Committee of her intention to step down as Bates President effective July 2011.

Elaine has accepted a new leadership position well aligned with her professional interests. She expects her new position to be made public within the next two weeks, but given the timing she wanted us to know of her decision as soon as possible so that we could prepare for this transition.

We are profoundly grateful to Elaine, who has served for nine years as Bates’ President, leading the faculty, staff, students and alumni of Bates College.

Elaine’s capable dedication to Bates began with a tall order of requests from the 2002 Board of Trustees: provide strong support for our faculty and academic life, broaden the reach of Bates to a more diverse array of talented students, and secure philanthropy that will assure the college’s fiscal strength. We also asked her to consider improvements to the college’s buildings and grounds, and to provide strong financial and organizational leadership to the college as a whole.

In these past nine years, Elaine has met these challenges, strengthening the college in many significant ways. Working energetically with the Board of Trustees as well as our outstanding Bates faculty, staff, students and alumni, she achieved many key institutional goals in academic and student life, fundraising, faculty support and innovation, facilities planning, fiscal management, and collaboration in college-wide strategic initiatives. As Michael Chu, chairman of the Trustee Investment Committee, noted, “Elaine has managed the college with skill and determination through the most turbulent economic times in recent memory. My fellow trustees and I are deeply grateful for her adroit leadership which ensures that the college has the financial resources to support its strong and exciting future.”

Elaine has also inspired us as trustees by her intellect, insight into higher education, and her proven advocacy for diversity and inter-cultural understanding. The trustees and the college have also benefited from her engaging work in the national arena of higher education, ranging from service on the board of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities to leading numerous peer review teams for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and other regional accreditation bodies.

I have especially appreciated Elaine’s energy, warmth, professionalism and kindness. As a Bates alumnus with a long family history with the college, I know that generations of future Bates students, faculty, staff and alumni will benefit from her significant contributions to the college.

In the months ahead we will find appropriate ways to honor Elaine for her many contributions to Bates. I hope all members of the Bates community will join me in these upcoming opportunities to express our shared appreciation to her and to her family.

I am also very pleased to report that the Bates College Board of Trustees, after consultation with faculty and staff leadership, has appointed Nancy J. Cable as Interim President of Bates College effective July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012, after which she will return to her position as Vice President and Dean of Enrollment and External Affairs. Given Nancy’s senior leadership experience in exceptional colleges and universities, coupled with her deep commitment to the academic mission of the College and clear support for the work of our faculty and staff, the Board voted unanimously to appoint her as Interim President and, in doing so, the trustees have expressed their complete confidence in Nancy’s leadership capabilities. We know that our Bates community will benefit from her experience, her skills and energy, and her willingness to serve the College as Interim President during this transition.

The search for Bates’ new president will begin immediately, and the trustees will be forming a search committee, keeping members of the college community informed about the selection process. I will serve with other trustees selected for the search committee including Valerie Smith ’75 and Michael Chu ’80 and current Bates parent (co-chairs); Alison Bernstein, Bates parent ’09; Lena Sene ’00;  Darrell Crate ’89;  Steve Fuller ’82 and current Bates parent; and trustee emerita Kate Stimpson LL.D. ’90. I have met with the leadership of the Committee on Faculty Governance and asked them to oversee the election of faculty representatives to serve on the presidential search committee. The search committee will also identify student and staff representatives.  Each trustee recognizes that the search process will benefit from the continued momentum at Bates and expects continued college-wide collaboration will draw the very best future president to Bates.

Please join the entire Bates Board of Trustees in our profound appreciation for Elaine’s dedicated service as Bates president and in our very best wishes to her as she assumes her new leadership role.

With kind regards,

Mike Bonney ’80, P’09, P’12, Chair
Bates College Board of Trustees

The Bates College Board of Trustees has elected Michael W. Bonney, a member of the Bates class of 1980 from Sudbury, Mass., as chair of the board, Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen and the trustees have announced.

Bonney succeeds Joseph T. Willett ’73, who retired from the board following 15 years of service, including the last four as chair.

A member of the Bates board since 2002, Bonney is president and chief executive officer of Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Lexington, Mass. Since graduating from Bates with a degree in economics, he has established an outstanding business career in the biopharmaceuticals field while providing substantial service to Bates and to various community organizations.

Bonney began his career with Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, holding positions of increasing responsibility in sales, marketing and strategic planning over the course of 11 years. In 1995 he joined Biogen Inc., ultimately serving as vice president for sales and marketing. He joined Cubist in 2002 as president and chief operating officer, and has been president, chief executive officer and a member of the Board of Directors since 2003.

During his tenure at Cubist, Bonney has created a successful and innovative business model to support the development and commercialization of novel therapies that improve health and save lives. Under his leadership, Cubist completed development of and launched CUBICIN ® (daptomycin for injection) in the U.S. seven years ago. It is now available in 40 countries around the world and continues to track as the most successful intravenous antibiotic, in dollar terms, in U.S. history.

To support its growing pipeline of additional therapies, Cubist has grown its employee base from 194 when Bonney became CEO to more than 600 today; and is in the process of substantially expanding its Lexington headquarters.

Earlier this year the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council recognized Bonney’s accomplishments in his professional field by presenting him its second annual Innovative Leadership Award, which honors an industry executive who represents a company with a strong presence in and commitment to growing in Massachusetts.

Additionally, the award recognizes a leader who has demonstrated active support for community-based organizations and science education to prepare the future workforce, and who has fostered the creation of a positive work environment. Under Bonney’s leadership, Cubist has established a corporate giving program focused on the support of middle- and upper-school science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education — a topic for which Bonney is a vocal proponent.

Bonney also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and is a former board member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. Last year he became a board member of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Bonney and his family have many strong connections to Bates. His father, sister, wife and oldest daughter are all Bates graduates. His grandfather attended Bates and his youngest daughter is a member of the class of 2012. Bonney has been very active in his class fundraising activities, with the Career Development Center and with the Office of Admissions.

Both Bonney and his wife, Alison Grott Bonney ’80, served on their 10th Reunion Gift Committee and more recently as chairs of the Parents Fund.

The Bates College Board of Trustees has elected Michael W. Bonney, a member of the Bates class of 1980 from Sudbury, Mass., as chair of the board and Alison R. Bernstein, Ph.D., of New York City and Atlanta as vice chair, Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen and the trustees have announced.

Hansen also announced the appointment of five new members to the college’s Board of Trustees.

Bonney succeeds Joseph T. Willett ’73, who retired from the board following 15 years of service, including the last four as chair. Read more about Bonney.

Bernstein succeeds Victoria A. Wicks ’79, who joined the Board of Trustees in 1996 and will remain a member of the board.  Read more about Bernstein.

Hansen said, “Mike Bonney and Alison Bernstein will bring tremendous and complementary strengths to their leadership of the Bates board, strengths we have seen them demonstrate throughout their service with the board.

“Mike has shown both a deep understanding and respect of the academic enterprise while contributing the many applicable insights of business leadership. Alison brings both her own strong academic career and decades of support for educational opportunity and philanthropy nationally and internationally.

“We look forward with great anticipation to their work in their new roles on our board.”

By this fall, Steven Kates ’83 will be reaping the rewards of an important breakthrough on a medical mystery. Or he might be looking for a new job.

That’s when Kates expects to see the results of a human clinical study of a new drug he has been working on relentlessly for six years. The drug, CMX-2043, is designed to reduce the damage to heart tissue that can occur when normal blood flow is restored after a blockage.

And if the data on some 120 patients show promise, Kates and his company, Massachusetts-based Ischemix, will likely find themselves courted by venture capitalists and big pharmaceutical companies anxious to turn CMX-2043 into a gold mine.

On the other hand, if the drug fails to deliver (or worse, causes harm) Ischemix’s investors will be out millions of dollars and the biotech company, with no other drugs in development, will face at best “an uncertain future,” says Kates, Ischemix’s vice president of research and development. A veteran chemist in the biotech industry, Kates majored in chemistry at Bates and earned a Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Brandeis.

“People don’t realize how many failures there are in this process and the costs involved in bringing a drug to market,” he says.

To be sure, consumers are less focused on the drug-discovery process than on the result — a pill they can pop every morning to keep allergies in check or control a chronic illness that a generation ago could have meant lifelong debilitation.

That contrast in perceptions has created a fundamental disconnect. While Kates and his industry colleagues focus on the life-enhancing work they do — drug discoveries have saved countless lives and immeasurably improved the way people live — Americans nevertheless trust pharmaceutical companies even less than they do Congress.

It’s understandable. Drugs are a potent pocketbook issue for the public, and an unrelenting wave of high-profile media stories tell about drug-test coverups and misleading marketing by pharmaceutical companies.

So is the U.S. drug industry an engine of medical innovation responsible for improving the quality of peoples’ lives? Or is it a damn-the-consumer enterprise subservient to its stockholders?

Actually, it’s a hybrid — the rare industry that stirs skepticism even as it saves lives.

Take our country’s senior citizens. This group has probably benefited the most from pharmaceutical breakthroughs, yet the seniors’ advocacy organization AARP has often criticized the drug industry for the high and rapidly rising prices of brand-name medications that hit uninsured patients and fixed-income seniors the hardest. (In the interest of full disclosure, besides writing an occasional freelance story for Bates Magazine, I have a professional awareness of these issues in my work as a strategic adviser for AARP.)

Kates compares creating a drug to building a house. “So many disciplines are involved,” he says.

Big Pharma justfies its prices by citing the risks and costs associated with bringing a drug to market. Oft-cited studies and experts say it costs about a billion dollars and 10 years to bring a single drug candidate from lab to pharmacy. Industry critics say the figure is inflated and place the cost of developing a new drug — as opposed to reformulating an existing one — at between $100 million and $300 million.

Still, that’s a lot of zeroes, especially when there is no guarantee that the initial drug candidate will ever win Food and Drug Administration approval. In 2004, for example, just 8 percent of compounds entering clinical trials were ultimately deemed safe and useful enough by the FDA to be approved for sale. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office said that from a drug’s initial discovery to market averages about 12 years.

Kates compares creating a drug to building a house. “So many disciplines are involved,” he says. “You need guys who pour the foundation, plumbers, painters, carpenters. Bringing a drug to the field initially requires hard-core chemists and biologists. Then there is work in toxicology and regulatory. Then you start dealing with the M.D.s and biostatisticians. It’s a plethora of highly skilled people.”

But the homebuilding metaphor breaks down when you consider that most houses eventually get built. It is the rare drug compound that gets approved.

At Ischemix, investors have waited years and wagered millions of dollars that CMX-2043 will work as intended. In 2007, the drug entered Phase 1 of clinical FDA trials, to assess basic safety. In April, a Phase 2a trial started to measure the drug’s effectiveness.

Phase 3 will be the big hurdle, when the drug has to prove its effectiveness in a broad population.

In the end, it may not prove effective, and Phase 3 has been a “real graveyard” for drug candidates like CMX-2043, Kates says. While testing a new cancer-fighting drug is straightforward — because success is measured in lives saved — Kates’ drug seeks a goal that’s less bold and harder to measure: minimizing post-blockage heart damage that’s not necessarily life-threatening. “Drug success has been very challenging for these indications,” he says.

The lynchpin of the drug discovery process is the patent system. In the U.S., drug compounds have 20 years of patent exclusivity before low-cost generics can enter the market and sap a brand-name drug’s profit potential. However, this two-decade clock begins ticking not when the drug is approved by the FDA but when the drug is patented. So a company has a limited window to earn back its investment.

Not surprisingly, the industry often criticizes the FDA for taking too long to vet drug candidates for sale. In recent years, the agency has in fact dramatically cut its average approval time to a little over a year while vowing not to sacrifice safety in the name of speed.

“The FDA gets criticized for being too fast and too slow at the same time,” says Anne Ruggles Pariser ’83, recently appointed acting associate director of rare diseases at the FDA’s Office of New Drugs at the Center For Drug Evaluation and Research. A chemistry major at Bates, she earned a medical degree at Georgetown. “That is probably the biggest challenge, figuring out the balance.”

Mike Bonney ’80 knows well the roller-coaster ride that is drug discovery. Bonney is president and CEO of Cubist Pharmaceuticals, based in Lexington, Mass. He is credited with shepherding to market the drug Cubicin, a highly successful intravenous drug in the fight against certain antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Last year, Cubist was ranked No. 1 among the “Top 100” publicly traded Massachusetts-based businesses by The Boston Globe. And in April, Mike Bonney was honored by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council for his success in making Cubist a model biotech company.

Recently, however, Cubist had a setback of its own. The company had hoped that a drug in its pipeline called Ecallantide would stop blood loss in patients during heart bypass surgery. But clinical human trials showed that it did not, and on March 31 Cubist announced it had stopped all work with Ecallantide.

Losing a promising drug hurts, Bonney says, and he’s not just talking about the bottom line.

“If you are a business person, the pharmaceutical or biotech industry is a complete anathema.”

“The vast majority of people at Cubist are doing this work because they think they have the opportunity to make a difference in millions of peoples’ lives,” he says. “When it goes down, particularly in a case like this where we had early data suggesting it would work, it’s disappointing.”

An economics major at Bates, Bonney also knows that the business model of the drug industry doesn’t always add up in the public’s mind. Or, for that matter, to investors.

“If you are a business person, the pharmaceutical or biotech industry is a complete anathema — unless you grew up in it,” Bonney says. He sums up the typical reaction from an investor unfamiliar with the industry: “‘You commit hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a product that might not be a product for 10 to 12 years and there’s no revenue? How does that work?’”

Of course, when the risks pay off, they can pay off big, and sometimes drug companies just get lucky.

Scientists at a Pfizer facility in England were experimenting in the mid-1990s with a compound called UK-92,480 designed to treat angina. The drug didn’t work so well on angina but was remarkably successful stimulating blood flow in another part of the body. That’s how Viagra became a $1 billion-a-year franchise.

For the biggest companies, revenues grew a robust 8.6 percent a year between 2001 and 2008. Lipitor, the world’s best-selling drug, generates $12.8 billion a year in sales for Pfizer; last year, the company’s CEO earned $13.7 million.

But the era of blockbuster drugs like Lipitor, Prilosec, and Plavix is coming to an end. Eighteen of the world’s 20 biggest drugs will end their patent-protected lives in the next five years. And while the anticipated rise in generic competition is good for consumers, it sends fear into the hearts of pharmaceutical executives, who worry about eroding profits.

One response to this so-called patent cliff has been for Big Pharma to make deals with generic rivals that effectively delay the entry of a low-cost generic to the market. Companies say that these payments, generally millions of dollars, stave off potential patent litigation, but critics say these “pay to delay” deals merely milk a few more months of profit out of a name-brand drug.

To a consumer who might view pharmaceuticals as a public good — along the lines of, say, fire protection or law enforcement — the level of profit-seeking can seem out of place, yet profits are what drive the drug-development process. “Without profit you wouldn’t have the incentives or resources to innovate,” says Victoria Wicks ’74, vice president of external affairs for sanofi-aventis U.S.

Some drug companies, including sanofi-aventis, have taken steps on their own to operate more transparently and to disclose their payments to physicians who prescribe their drugs. And the industry trade group has adopted voluntary guidelines limiting physicians’ gifts and entertainment.

Operating more transparently is simply good business, Wicks says. “It improves partnerships with researchers, boosts the confidence of healthcare practitioners, and may help us regain the image as a contributor to developing solutions that bring significant value to patients.”

Efforts around transparency and disclosure should get a boost from the new federal healthcare legislation, which requires drugmakers to report their financial ties to doctors. Another federal action, this one to rein in misleading drug company marketing, came in May with the debut of the FDA’s “Bad Ad Program,” which encourages healthcare providers to report misleading drug advertisements to the agency.

From the drug industry’s perspective, the problem isn’t regulation itself but the complexity of the regulatory environment, says Wicks, whose comments for this story are her own, not her company’s. “One set of national standards on transparency would reduce the need to build complex compliance systems based on different legal requirements across multiple states,” she says.

Next year, the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (the law that covers market exclusivity for brand-name drugs) comes up for reauthorization, and drug industry leaders are already focusing on whether lawmakers will try to reduce the length of market exclusivity.

Drug companies must “let key audiences know where we’re headed and why,” Bonney says.

Bonney alluded to this issue in remarks he made after receiving the MassBio award in April. “Investors whose bets historically have fueled innovation are pulling back or becoming more cautious,” he said, partly because “reasonable periods” of patent exclusivity could be challenged by Congress.

But the onus to improve the pharmaceutical scene is not just on regulators, Bonney says. Drug companies hoping to excel at creating drugs to treat ever-more challenging diseases must “let key audiences know where we’re headed and why,” he said in his remarks.

It’s a point Bonney also made in his conversation with me. Between consumer groups that highlight industry profits and ethical lapses, and drug companies’ constant warnings about threats to innovation, “I don’t think we’ve done a good job explaining our challenges,” he said. “Life sciences work is a very inefficient process. We clearly have a lot more failures than successes and our successes are burdened with paying for our failures. It’s not an easy or intuitive story to tell.”

More than anything, Bonney says, an improved spirit of cooperation is needed between the industry and regulators.

At the award luncheon, Bonney told how Cubist set out to test Cubicin to treat deadly, antibiotic-resistant infections more than a decade ago. For such a drug, “there were no trial protocols, no precedent, no regulatory path, no guidelines,” Bonney recalls. So Cubist formed ad-hoc alliances with academics and regulators to study the drug’s potential. “We sat down and developed a protocol that was challenging but doable. Ultimately, we were able to make a difference in the lives of patients.

“I wonder if such collaboration would be possible in today’s environment.”

Bill Walsh ’86, a former newspaper reporter and now a strategic adviser for AARP, wrote about young alumni working in post-Katrina New Orleans for the Fall 2009 issue of Bates Magazine.

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio) presented its second annual Innovative Leadership Award to Cubist Pharmaceuticals CEO Michael Bonney ’80.

Preceding the award were remarks by Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen, who noted the relationship between Bonney’s capacities and values and those “that a rigorous liberal arts education promotes.”

“He demonstrates three of the most important and interrelated capacities that a rigorous liberal arts education promotes:  seeing around corners, building bridges and embracing contradictions and conflicts with generosity.”

The MassBio Innovative Leadership award honors an industry executive who represents a company with a strong presence in and commitment to growing in Massachusetts.Additionally, the award recognizes a leader who has demonstrated active support for community-based organizations and science education to prepare the future workforce, and who has fostered the creation of a positive work environment. The presentation ceremony was held at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston March 31.

“I attribute Mike’s outstanding performance in both for-profit and not-for-profit realms, of course, to his education and leadership experience at Bates,” Hansen said. “He demonstrates three of the most important and interrelated capacities that a rigorous liberal arts education promotes:  seeing around corners, building bridges and embracing contradictions and conflicts with generosity.”

Under Bonney’s leadership, Cubist has established a corporate giving program focused on the support of middle- and upper-school science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education — a topic for which Bonney is a vocal proponent. In addition to his role as president and CEO of Cubist, Bonney serves on the boards of trustees of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Bates College. Earlier this year, Bonney became a board member of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

During his tenure at Cubist, Bonney created a successful and innovative business model to support the development and commercialization of novel therapies that improve health and save lives. Under his leadership, Cubist completed development of and launched Cubicin (daptomycin for injection), which is now in its seventh year since launch in the U.S. It continues to track as the most successful intravenous  antibiotic, in dollar terms, in U.S. history.

To support its growing pipeline of additional therapies, Cubist has grown its employee base, from 194 when Mr. Bonney became CEO, to more than 600 today. In addition, the company recently received approval from the Town of Lexington to add an additional 110,000 square feet of lab space at its Lexington headquarters.

In her remarks, Hansen said she valued Bonney’s “sharp peripheral vision” in his work on the Bates Board of Trustees.

“He has proven to be a quick study of our industry, never trivializing or dismissing the way we do business in academe but at the same time bringing his experience and insights as a corporate CEO to bear on our challenges and helping us, for example, become more strategic thinkers,” she said.

“In the particularly threatening seas of the last 18 months or so, Mike has also been adept at maneuvering his fellow trustees through potentially destabilizing differences of opinion by inviting all ideas to be heard; acknowledging the realities of uncertainty, confusion, and high stakes; and then setting us on the most promising course.

“Educating students in the liberal arts and sciences has always been an exciting business, and now more than ever it’s both critical and high risk.   Mike has been extravagant in both his passion and his ambitions for Bates College.”

In prepared remarks, MassBio President and CEO Robert K. Coughlin said that “Mike is truly committed to supporting each and every aspect of the biotechnology ecosystem here in Massachusetts, and Cubist`s success under his leadership has been a shining example for biotech startups around the world. From his work in STEM education and workforce development, to his passion for policy and advocacy, Mike is a shining example of the values behind the biotechnology industry.”

Bates College announced the public phase of the most ambitious fund-raising effort in its history Oct. 9 – a $120 million campaign focused on endowment for greater student financial aid, academic programs and facilities improvements.

About 500 students, parents, faculty and staff members gathered by Lake Andrews on the Bates campus for the official campus launching of the campaign, called: The Campaign for Bates: Endowing Our Values.
The fund-raising effort includes endowment, annual giving and capital improvements, and focuses on five objectives:

• Increased endowment for financial aid ($45 million)
• Increased endowment for academic programs and more equitable faculty compensation to keep Bates competitive with its college peers ($20 million)
• Increased unrestricted endowment to provide steady annual revenue for all college operations ($10 million)
• Increased annual giving for the college operating budget through the Bates Fund ($25 million)
• Increasing funding to support improved campus facilities ($20 million)

The campaign will end in 2006 – at the conclusion of the 150th anniversary celebration of the College’s founding in 1855 – and the college is already more than 60 percent toward its goal. Through Oct. 1, leadership gifts, including commitments from all 40 members of the College’s Board of Trustees, each of its senior administrators, and from a select group of alumni, parents and friends, have pushed the total to $73.5 million.  Included in the current tally are 15 gifts and pledges of $1 million or more.

The endowment-focused effort reflects the steps Bates is taking to bring its level of financial resources in line with its national reputation for excellence.
In her address at the launch ceremony, Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen said that the college’s “culture of academic rigor, independence, open exchange, and service must be matched with an equal culture of philanthropy.”

Hansen noted a growing gap “between the super-rich colleges and the more moderately endowed, like Bates. Bates came later than most of the other colleges that we compete with to the realization that frugality was not enough, that fund-raising was critical; along with our New England values went pride in our independence, self-reliance, and polite reluctance to talk about money. But pride of another sort—pride in our extraordinary level of accomplishment—now motivates us to mount a campaign for the support that an institution of this caliber requires and deserves.”

At a tent filled with tables next to Lake Andrews, guests were asked to write on cards their hopes for Bates’ future. Those cards were placed in a racing shell, and from a dock on Lake Andrews the Bates rowing team symbolically launched the campaign with these aspirations in the shell, rowing across the lake.

The master of ceremonies at the launching was College Trustee Michael Bonney of Sudbury, Mass., president and CEO of Cubist Pharmaceuticals and a 1980 Bates graduate.

“Bates is powerful and necessary today,” Bonney said. Bonney told the audience of his own wish for Bates’ future: “As a member of the Board of Trustees, I have learned that the only way to ensure our continued strength is to raise much more money for the college than we’ve ever raised before.  A former parent told Elaine two years ago: ‘Bates has everything—great faculty, wonderful students, the perfect environment for learning, attention to the individual, a set of values that make everyone who touches the college better.  It has everything except money.’

“This is true, and we are now at a very important point in Bates’ history,” he said. “In order to continue achieving at the level we all expect, we must raise significant funds.  We’re all going to need to stretch.  We provide the same quality education as our NESCAC peers, yet our yearly operating budgets are much smaller.

“While we can applaud the College for doing ‘so much with so little,’” Bonney said, “we all know that this is not good for the long term, because it cannot be sustained.”

Bonney noted that the Bates community includes more than 170 faculty members, 500 staff, 1,700 students, 20,000 alumni and 4,000 parents of students. The campaign announcement was made as part of this year’s Parents and Family Weekend on the campus.

Bates has had three fund-raising campaigns in its recent history, raising $59.3 million in a campaign that ended in 1996; $21 million in a campaign that ended in 1984; and $6.8 million in a campaign that ended in 1974.