Author of California Proposition 71

Receives ASBMT Public Service Award

The man most responsible for passage of the $3 billion ballot initiative in California to fund embryonic stem cell research has received the 2007 ASBMT Public Service Award. 

Robert H. Klein chaired the California Proposition 71 Committee that achieved passage of the “California Stem Cell Research and Cures” ballot initiative.  The 10-year research program, largest in the world directed primarily at human embryonic stem cells, was approved in November 2004 by 59 percent of the California voters. 

The Public Service Award was conferred at the ASBMT President’s Dinner during the BMT Tandem Meetings in Keystone.  Mr. Klein, however, could not attend in person and accepted the award by video because of his preparations for an Appeals Court decision on the legality of the research program.  On Monday this week, the court ruled that the research program is legal.

To organize for Proposition 71, Mr. Klein enlisted the help of a number of Stanford University scientists, including Dr. Irving Weissman, director of the Institute for Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine, Dr. Paul Berg, professor emeritus of biochemistry, and Dr. Philip Pizzo, dean of the School of Medicine, all of whom were members of the campaign's scientific advisory board.

Seventeen months and two lawsuits after Californians voted approval of the program and its funding, a state judge ruled that lawsuits challenging the program had no merit.  It was this ruling that was upheld on appeal this week.

Although the research program has been stymied by lawsuits, a special appropriation announced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in April last year allowed for the awarding of 169 research fellowships at 16 California research institutions.  

Mr. Klein’s commitment to advancing medical research originated in his youngest son, Jordan, who was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes in 2001.  The next year Mr. Klein was principal negotiator in the passage of $1.5 billion in federal funding over five years for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes research by the National Institutes of Health.

Mr. Klein is president of Klein Financial Corporation, a real estate investment banking consulting company focused on affordable housing.  In other civic activities, he was a State of California Housing Finance Agency board member for six years, continues to serve on the board of the Global Security Institute which is dedicated to reducing the global risks from nuclear weapons, helped develop California’s first tax credit National Historic Site Restoration Project and helped develop California’s first local governmental, tax-exempt, bond-financed, affordable apartment project.