ABOUT SABRE  
PROGRAMS  
NEWS/UPDATES  
HOW CAN I HELP?  
LINKS  
ARCHIVE  
CONTACT  
SITE MAP  
HOME  

Archive | 25th Anniversary Program

Sabre Foundation 25th Anniversary Dinner

Knickerbocker Club, New York City

February 14, 1995


Program

On February 14th, 1995, Sabre Foundation celebrated 25 years as a public charity devoted to the philosophy and practice of free institutions. Founded in 1969, it has focused during the past decade on book donation, education, library and research support, and private sector growth mainly in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Welcome and Introductions
Anne D. Neal, Sabre President

Project Introductions
Tania Vitvitsky, Sabre Scientific Assistance Project

"The Independent Sector in Newly Democratizing Countries"
Speaker: Pavol Demes


Discussion

Helena Pavic
Mark C. Frazier
Other Dinner Guests, ad libitum
Josiah Lee Auspitz, Sabre Director, moderator

Presentation to John C. Whitehead
William G. Bowen, President, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Arthur M. Dubow, for Sabre's Board of Directors

Remarks: John C. Whitehead

Response: Ambassador Gyorgy Banlaki, for the President of Hungary

A Final Word
Kenneth G. Bartels, Sabre Vice President and Treasurer

HONOREE: John C. Whitehead Since January 1989, when he completed his service as Deputy Secretary of State, John C. Whitehead has devoted himself mainly to civic and philanthropic activities. He is currently Chairman of the Board of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Asia Society, the International Rescue Committee, and the United Nations Association of the United States, as well as co-chair of the Financial Services Volunteer Corps. He has also served as Chairman of the Board of the Hungarian-American Enterprise Fund and of the Overseers of Harvard University. He is a Director of the International Executive Service Corps, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Rockefeller University and the American University in Bulgaria, and has also been Director of the Foundation for the Development of Polish Agriculture. Once or twice a year he has undertaken unofficial assignments for the State Department or the White House.

Sabre honors Mr. Whitehead tonight for his international philanthropic work, which includes many services to higher learning.

SPEAKER: Pavol Demes After taking his doctorate in biology at Charles University and pursuing post-doctoral work at the University ofAlabama, Pavol Demes emerged as a leader of the democratic movement and of the non-profit sector in his native Slovakia. He is the founding president of the Slovak Academic Information Agency (SAIA), a leading non-profit in the region and Sabre's partner organization in Slovakia for book donation. He served as director for international relations of the Education Ministry and as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic in the initial democratizing period to mid-1992. He is now on leave from SAIA to direct the Foreign Policy Department of the Office of the President of Slovakia.

DISCUSSANT: Helena Pavic Educated in the sciences at the University of Zagreb and University College, London, Helena Pavic is President of Sabre-Zagreb, which has distributed over 150,000 books in Croatia and Slovenia since its founding in 1991. A teacher, researcher, textbook writer and patent consultant, Dr. Pavic managed Sabre's 1994 reduced-cost program for scientific journals, financed entirely in Croatia and involving $250,000 in local library commitments. In 1992, Sabre-Zagreb undertook donation programs in refugee camps for Muslim and Christian children from Bosnia. Just this month, it contributed its warehousing and logistic expertise to assure the delivery of medical books and journals for other organizations active in Bosnian relief.

DISCUSSANT: Mark C. Frazier After graduating from Harvard College, Mark Frazier spent the years 1976-84 as director of public policy projects for the Sabre Foundation, where he became a pioneer in free zone, enterprise zone, teleport, distance learning and neighborhood empowerment programs. Under his direction two Sabre projects were spun off as self-sustaining entities: the American Association of Enterprise Zones and the Services Group, a consulting firm which has worked on free zones and teleport facilities in 70 countries. He now divides his time between the Services Group and Gateway Ventures, a new business involving advanced telecommunications and computer technology.