James Edward Hanson Joins USC Board of Trustees
Hanson built his company, originally the Oswald Tillotson Ltd., into an international presence with interests in areas including gas, electricity and vehicle distribution, coal mining and building materials. He retired in 1997.
"We are pleased and honored to have Lord Hanson with us on our board of trustees," said USC President Steven B. Sample. "He’s a remarkable man."
Hanson joined the British Army in 1939 at the age of 17 and left in 1946, holding the rank of acting major. He went to work for the family’s logistics company and managed its Canadian interests in Ontario from 1949 to 1963.
Hanson built Hanson PLC into one of the largest British-owned conglomerates through a partnership with the late Lord Gordon White, who died in 1995.
In 1995, Hanson PLC consolidated 34 of its companies in the United States, and the new company was named U.S. Industries Inc. Together with its subsidiaries, the corporation manufactured and marketed bath and plumbing products in North America under brand names such as Jacuzzi, Sundance Spas and Rainbow.
In 1996, the Hanson conglomerate started to divide its operations and created four separate public companies focused on chemicals (Millennium Chemicals), tobacco (Imperial Tobacco), energy (Energy Group PLC) and building materials and equipment (Hanson PLC).
When Hanson retired the following year, he became a lecturer and frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines.
He is a former director of Lloyds Bank and is currently a director of Hanson Capital Limited. He is also former chairman of Trident Television Limited and founder of the London radio station Melody FM.
Hanson founded the Hanson Fellowship of Surgery at Oxford University and is a member of the Court of Patrons of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Through the Hanson White Foundation he founded with his former business partner, Hanson gave financial support to the Keck School of Medicine of USC in 1995 to support urology research programs and create the Hanson-White Chair in Medical Research.
Hanson’s various memberships cross a range of fields. He is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists; a fellow of the National Cancer Research Campaign; a freeman of the city of London; and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Hanson holds honorary degrees from the University of Leeds and the University of Huddersfield.
He and his wife, Geraldine Kaelin, live in London and have two sons, Robert and Brook.
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USC in the News
for 2/8/2012 »-
The Chronicle of Higher Education mentioned USC’s $6 billion fundraising campaign. The story noted that USC had already raised $1 billion in a “quiet phase,” including the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College.
The Guardian (U.K.) highlighted two major gifts to USC in a list of the 10 biggest philanthropic benefactors in America. The list included the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
The New York Times featured the USC U.S.-China Institute documentary “Assignment: China — The Week that Changed the World.” The documentary, part of a series, examines media coverage of the 1972 Nixon trip that reshaped U.S.-China relations after a quarter century of isolation and hostility. “People look back now and take it for granted that the outcome was preordained,” said the institute’s Mike Chinoy, who produced the documentary. Voice of America also featured the story.
Los Angeles Times featured the Oscar Senti-meter, a tool developed by the USC Annenberg School, Los Angeles Times and IBM that analyzes thousands of tweets about the Academy Awards nominees. The story noted that Mexican actor Demian Bechir received an enormous boost on Twitter the day of the nominations, with a total of 6,893 tweets mentioning him, a 47-fold increase from the day before. The story noted the tool uses language-recognition technology developed in collaboration with USC Viterbi School’s Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab.
The Times of India (India) featured a three-day medical emergency training workshop organized in association with USC. At the workshop, held at GCS Medical College in India, 50 doctors and more than 100 paramedics learned how to improve emergency support systems. William Mallon of the Keck School of USC said that discussion topics included the use of portable ultrasonic devices to scan patients. “The ultrasound applications help physicians make accurate and timely decisions,” he noted. Daily News & Analysis (India) also featured the workshop.
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