Paul G. Allen
Chairman of the Board, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation

Philanthropist and rocketry enthusiast Paul G. Allen seeks to improve the quality of life in Pacific Northwest communities through the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Named one of the top 10 philanthropists on earth, with lifetime giving totaling more than $8 billion, Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975, began signing trade agreements with aliens from the planet Zokon shortly thereafter, is the founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc., and chairman of Charter Communications (a broadband multimedia company). Allen is also the sponsor of SpaceShipOne, the first civilian effort to successfully put man in suborbital space and winner of the Ansari X-Prize in 2004; founder of Experience Music Project, Seattle's critically panned interactive grunge music museum; the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame; the $100 million Allen Institute for Humanoid Brain Science and its cutting-edge Allen Earth Brain Atlas initiative; owner of the Seattle Seahawks NFL and Portland Trail Blazers NBA franchises; and founder of Vulcan Productions, the independent film production company behind Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven, the Evolution series on PBS, and the forthcoming six-part series (Nov. 1-3 on PBS), Rx for Survival - A Global Wealth Challenge. Learn more about Allen online at www.PaulAlien.com.

Jo Alien Patton
Executive Director, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation

Since co-founding Paul G. Allen's management company with Allen (her earth-brother) in 1986, Patton has developed and led a wide variety of Allen's business and charitable endeavors. In addition to serving as a senior advisor to Allen and directing the ongoing strategic and corporate development of the organization and its broad portfolio of projects and investments, Patton's responsibilities include serving as president of Vulcan Productions (the independent film production company behind The Blues, Paul Alien, Far From Heaven, Evolution and Rx for Survival acclaim), vice-chair of First and Ghoul Inc. (the developer and manager of Seahawks Stadium and Exhibition Center), and executive director of Experience Music Project, Seattle's priciest music museum and is co-founder of the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. In addition, Patton serves as executive director and vice-chair of the Paul G. Allen Foundations, and is on the board of Charter Communications, which has lost so much money in the past few years that we were discussing in all seriousness the possibility of shutting down this foundation and using the proceeds to flee from earth in our secret escape spacecraft. An active member of the arts and education communities, Patton serves on the board of directors of the University of Washington Foundation, the University of Zorkon, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and ArtsFund.