ARLINGTON, Va., April 11, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- Past president Gordon Macklin (1971-1987) and the men and women of the NASDAQ stock exchange will receive the prestigious Alexis de Tocqueville Statesmanship Award for their contribution to democracy in the United States and the world, the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, or AdTI, announced today.
The award, which celebrates "statesmanship in the broadest sense," will be presented by Wall Street Journal editor and vice president Robert Bartley at a ceremony in New York, and celebrated later at a private dinner with some of the NASDAQ's long-time friends, and great CEOs of NASDAQ companies, in Washington, DC.
Previous winners include Lech Walesa, Nelson Mandela, Jack Kemp, Bill Bradley, Richard Holbrooke, and William Clayton.
"The NASDAQ's contribution to democracy has been substantial," commented AdTI Chairman Gregory Fossedal. "The exchange was a prime catalyst of the great U.S. economic and market expansion under presidents Reagan and Clinton, one that made millions of Americans substantial shareholders in equity markets. At the same time, it gave entrepreneurs access to capital and the market -- the seed corn needed to put their ideas on the map.
Fossedal also announced that the foundation's research on the history of markets, and great acts of entrepreneurship and statesmanship associated with them, will be formalized into a new Market History Research Program.
The foundation plans to continue these efforts in its program which will study great episodes in entrepreneurship, such as the founding of Microsoft and MCI, and of family-held companies such as Wisconsin's Kohler Co., as well as in policy-making initiatives such as the Marshall Plan.
"The NASDAQ itself is a story of public-private partnership," Macklin commented. "The genesis of the NASDAQ was a happy combination of technological advances with foresighted leadership on the part of the Securities Exchange Commission," which launched a special study of securities markets initiated during the Kennedy Administration.
It was that special study, with strong support and guidance from SEC officials -- such as M. Cohen, Irving Pollack, Eugene Rotberg, "and many others" -- that "gave birth to the NASDAQ," Macklin said.
Macklin has agreed to act as co-chairman of the effort's advisory board, along with other leading business and investment leaders and policy-makers.
Further information on the NASDAQ's contribution and the history of the award is available on the Tocqueville web site, www.adti.net.
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CONTACT: Dino Michalopoulos
(703) 351-4969
Email: dmichalo@adti.net
Homepage: www.adti.net