Established in 1996, The Larry L. Hillblom Foundation (“LLHF”) is a California non-profit public benefit corporation funded through a bequest from Larry L. Hillblom, a respected international businessman who was one of the three founders of DHL Worldwide Express.
By virtue of Mr. Hillblom’s will, substantially all of the Foundation’s funding supports medical research within the State of California, with particular attention to research programs conducted by the University of California. The Foundation supports basic scientific research, clinical research, and research related to patient self-care and management.
The Board of the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation has assigned its initial medical research priorities in efforts toward curing, treating and managing diabetes mellitus, and chronic and degenerative diseases associated with aging, with a primary focus on brain and vision disorders.
150
LLHF has awarded approximately $150 million in grants.
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Total medical research grants awarded to major universities & institutions
132
Grants awarded for research efforts toward curing, treating and managing diabetes mellitus
185
Grants awarded to study chronic and degenerative diseases associated with aging.
About Larry L. Hillblom
Larry L. Hillblom, the co-founder of DHL Worldwide Express, who became a respected international businessman, grew up on his family’s farm in Kingsburg, California.
After high school he went on to graduate from Reedley College, attend California State University, Fresno, and then earn a law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Hillblom put himself through law school by working at numerous jobs; one of them was delivering packages for law firms in the San Francisco area.
Thus it was, while still a law student at Berkeley, that Mr. Hillblom co-founded DHL with two other men, Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn. (The initials of their last names created the business name, “DHL.”) Mr. Hillblom’s success in building this company into the world’s largest global air courier service later allowed him to help rescue Continental Airlines from bankruptcy.
Eventually he established a home in Saipan, of the Northern Mariana Islands, in the South Pacific. Until his death in a plane crash near Saipan in 1995, Mr. Hillblom had either founded or invested in numerous other business ventures and had acquired real estate holdings worldwide.
He also served with distinction as a Justice on the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. At the same time, moved by the widespread suffering he encountered on his travels, Mr. Hillblom often donated substantially to the underprivileged, such as bringing medical personnel to Saipan and Vietnam to address the needs of cranially damaged children.
Board, Executive Team, and Advisors
CHAIRMAN
Joseph W. Waechter
CHAIRMAN EMERITUS
Peter J. Donnici
DIRECTORS
Grant A. Anderson
Ingrid Hermreck
DIRECTORS
Ida O’Brien
Janice E. Quistad
DIRECTORS
E. Lewis Reid
Stephen J. Schwartz
PRESIDENT
Joseph W. Waechter
VICE PRESIDENT
Grant A. Anderson
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dave Pier
Diabetes Advisory Board
Alberto Hayek, M.D.
University of California, San Diego
- Scientific Director, Scripps Whittier Institute for Diabetes
- Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics
John (Jack) Leahy, M.D.
University of Vermont Medical Center
- Professor Emeritus of Medicine
Nora Sarvetnick, Ph.D.
University of Nebraska Medical Center
- Professor, Surgery-Transplant
- Director of the Mary and Dick Holland Regenerative Medicine Program
Aging Advisory Board
Ana Maria Cuervo M.D., Ph.D.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
- The Robert and Renee Belfer Chair for the Study of Neurodegenerative Diseases
- Professor, Department of Developmental and Molecular Biology
- Co-Director Institute for Aging Research
Daniel H. Geschwind, M.D., Ph.D.
University of California, Los Angeles
- Gordon & Virginia MacDonald Distinguished Professor
- Departments of Neurology, Psychiatry and Human Genetics
- Director, Center for Autism Research and Treatment
- Senior Associate Dean and Associate Vice Chancellor, Precision Health
- Director, Institute for Precision Health
Bruce Miller, M.D.
University of California, San Francisco
- A.W. and Mary Clausen Distinguished Professor of Neurology
- Director, Memory and Aging Center
- Co-Director, Global Brain Health Institute
