Tech Giants to Spearhead Animal Center

With planning for an ultra-progressive animal center underway, a humane society in Northern California’s Silicon Valley has enlisted the help of some local luminaries to help draw attention to – and raise money for – its plan.

The board of directors for the Humane Society Silicon Valley, a Milpitas-based animal adoption, medical care and education agency, has chosen an eight-person honorary board to help spread the word about the HSSV’s planned animal community center.

“Each honorary board member offers unique expertise in either technology, arts, education, government or business that will be invaluable to our organization,” Humane Society Silicon Valley Board Chair Kate Mulligan said in a prepared statement.

Mulligan said HSSV’s Animal Community Center will celebrate animals through a wide range of programs that bring people and pets together, including comfortable, room-like habitats for the animals, a community dog park, an interactive learning center and an affordable spay-neuter clinic.

The eight charter members of HSSV’s honorary board are:

• John D. Diekman, Ph.D., founder and managing partner of 5AM Ventures, and director of Affymetrix.
• Sue Diekman, retired director of the AirTouch Foundation and an active community volunteer.
• Judy Kleinberg, mayor of Palo Alto, executive director of the American Electronics Association, and vice president of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network.
• Judy Marcus, emeritus member of the HSSV Board of Directors and community volunteer.
• Gordon E. Moore, co-founder and chairman emeritus of Intel Corp., and co-founder and trustee of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
• Betty Moore, co-founder and trustee of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
• Nathan Olivera. artist and professor emeritus of art at Stanford University.
• Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer Inc.

“Each of these illustrious community leaders has supported the humane society’s work in a variety of ways,” Mulligan said. “Their role on the honorary board will provide visibility for the work we do, and in particular, help highlight our plans to build a new animal community center in Milpitas.”

A community-wide campaign to help raise the funds for the center is expected to be launched in the spring or summer of 2007, according to the HSSV.