FORA.tv Speaker - Robert Klein

Robert N. Klein's commitment to advancing medical research originated in his younger son Jordan's diagnosis with Juvenile Diabetes in 2001. In addition, his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's two years earlier. In 2002, Klein was a principal negotiator, as a part of a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation patient advocate team that worked successfully to pass a $1.5 billion mandatory federal funding bill for an additional five years of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes supplemental National Institutes of Health research funding.

In 2003, Klein served as the author and Chairman of California's Proposition 71, the $6 billion "California Stem Cell Research and Cures" ballot initiative. Currently he serves as the Chairman of the Governing Board of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine established by Proposition 71 to manage the peer review, standards, and grant process for the $3 billion in stem cell research funding authorized by the proposed Initiative.