Gary M. Cohen and Andrew R. Klepchick Join CDC Foundation Board of Directors

Gary M. Cohen, president of BD Medical, a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), and Andrew R. Klepchick, executive vice president of Synovus and president and CEO of Synovus, Financial Management Services, have each been elected to serve a five-year term on the board of directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation.

Cohen began his career with BD, a leading global medical technology company that makes and sells medical devices, instrumented systems and reagents, in 1983 as a marketing research analyst. In 1994 he was named president of BD’s injection systems business, and in 1997 he was appointed president of BD in Europe. He has held his current position of president, BD Medical since 1999.

Cohen and the BD team work in cooperation with international agencies on public health policy issues and making available devices and technologies that help in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases in developing countries. Cohen has been a speaker and panelist in policy and advocacy forums involving HIV/AIDS and at international conferences on safe immunization of children. Cohen is a board director of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and national chair of its HIV/AIDS campaign for children. He is also a board director of the Perrigo Company and the Academic Alliance Foundation and a member of the private sector delegation to the Global Fund. Cohen earned his B.A. and M.B.A. from Rutgers University and is a member of its Board of Trustees.

Klepchick is one of the founding partners of Creative Financial Group (CFG), a financial advisory firm. Since 1988, Creative has provided financial planning and investment advice to over 2000 affluent individuals and currently manages $1 billion in investment assets. Klepchick also was co-founder and president of Robert Andrews Securities, a full-service broker dealer established in 1998. In February 2001, CFG and Robert Andrew Securities were acquired by and became wholly owned subsidiaries of Synovus, a diversified financial services holding company with more than $29 billion in assets.

Klepchick is a certified financial planner and has been recognized by Worth magazine and Mutual Funds magazine as one of the top 200 Financial Advisors in the United States. He is a graduate of Furman University.

“We are delighted to have these two individuals join our board,” says Phil Jacobs, CDC Foundation board chair and BellSouth Community Technologies president. “Their business expertise and interest in improving public health will be great assets to the CDC Foundation in achieving its goal of helping the CDC do more, faster.”