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Holbrooke Addresses IRC's Annual Dinner

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. Representative to the UN and former member of the IRC’s board of directors delivered the featured address at the IRC’s annual Freedom Award dinner November 10, 1999 in New York.

More than 800 people attended the fund-raising dinner at the Plaza Hotel. Proceeds help support the IRC’s work with refugees around the world.

The event honored Time Warner and its CEO, Gerald Levin, who accepted the IRC’s Corporate Emergency Response Award, and Bloomberg, L.P., and its founder and CEO, Michael Bloomberg, who received the Corporate Responsibility Award

Liv Ullmann, international vice chairman of the IRC board, was among the speakers, and Tom Brokaw, managing editor and anchor of the NBC Nightly News, once again served as master of ceremonies. He also delivered a stirring, personal tribute to John Whitehead, chairman emeritus of the IRC board.

President Clinton made a videotaped appearance at the dinner and hailed IRC for its "remarkable service to humanity." The President praised the IRC specifically for its food drops inside Kosovo in the weeks preceding the peace accord. Chairman of the dinner committee was Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of the Blackstone Group.