September 29, 2021—DKMS, the international non-profit organization dedicated to the fight against blood cancer, will mark its 30th anniversary of saving lives with a black-tie Gala at New York’s Cipriani Wall Street on Thursday, October 28th. The event includes a magical moment when a patient meets her lifesaving donor for the first time. A live auction hosted by Sotheby’s Michael Macaulay will raise funds to support DKMS’s mission. The gala’s musical performers are multi-platinum and GRAMMY Award-winning artists, Black Eyed Peas.

“It’s an honor for Black Eyed Peas to be a part of DKMS’ 30th anniversary celebration,” commented the band's frontman will.i.am. “DKMS' longtime effort to assist those fighting serious illness is vital work that we admire and respect."   

The 30th anniversary DKMS Gala will raise critical funds for the organization’s global work in life-saving stem cell transplants for patients. It will enable DKMS to expand its stem cell donor database—currently at 11 million—to include a more diverse donor pool worldwide, creating more second chances at life for patients in need.

Vice Chairman of Global Board, DKMS, Katharina Harf states: “My father, Peter Harf, founded DKMS after my mother lost her battle to leukemia. My mother continues to inspire me to fight for other patients and their families, so they don’t have to feel the same pain we had to. In the last 30 years, we have given second chances at life to over 95,000 patients. DKMS has registered over 11 million donors in 7 countries on 5 continents. I am grateful to our donors and everyone who continues to support our worldwide mission. Only together we can save more lives.”

Gala leadership includes Katharina Harf, Vice Chairman of Global Board DKMS; Elke Neujahr, Global Chief Executive Officer, DKMS; and event chairs Olivier and Valérie Goudet, JAB.

Honorary chairs include Robert Gamgort, Chairman & CEO, Keurig Dr Pepper Inc.; Peter Harf, Chairman, JAB; Sue Y. Nabi, CEO, Coty; and Charlotte and Alejandro Santo Domingo, Quadrant Capital Advisors.

Honorary chair Sue Y. Nabi, CEO of Coty, has created a special Coty 30th anniversary gift set for the gala. Her special relationship with the organization is built on 30 years of support for its mission. Nabi, as both one of few female CEOs among beauty companies and also a proud transgender woman, has effectively championed diversity in her industry. She will be one of the gala’s featured speakers.

The black-tie event marks the organization’s 15th annual gala. Its most recent, held virtually in 2020, raised over $3.5MM. To purchase tickets visit: www.DKMS.org/gala

About Sue Nabi

Sue Y. Nabi is the Chief Executive Officer of Coty Inc and has been in the role since September 2020. Nabi is a true veteran in the beauty space, with roughly 30 years of experience across key strategic focus areas for Coty. This includes a track record of success across the mass and luxury channels, and across the core fragrances, color cosmetics, and skincare categories, as well as successful brand building across key international markets. Born in Algeria, Nabi has an Advanced Master's degree in Marketing Management from ESSEC (Paris Business School) and an engineering degree in Agronomy and Environment. She began her career at L’Oréal in 1993, where her passion, ambition and talent for bringing brands alive established her reputation for exceptional leadership and innovation. In 2004, Nabi was promoted to General Manager of L’Oréal France, managing a business of more than 400 million euros in turnover with a team of over 400 people. In mid-2005, she was named the youngest ever president of L’Oréal worldwide. 

About Michael Macaulay

Auction host Michael Macaulay is a senior vice president and auctioneer at Sotheby’s. A specialist in Modern and Contemporary Art and formerly head of New York Evening Auctions, he has been involved in landmark sales since he joined the company in 2007. Having transferred from London to New York in 2012, today he advises international private collectors, museums and institutions. He was also recently appointed director of Client Coverage, Global Fine Arts, to spearhead new strategic initiatives. He frequently conducts major sales at Sotheby’s and non-profit benefits across the country. Before joining Sotheby’s Michael worked in Investment Banking Executive Search and was an English teacher in Beijing. He holds a first-class History of Art degree from the Courtauld Institute in London. 

About Black Eyed Peas

Over the past 25 years, the Los Angeles trio—will.i.am., apl.de.ap, and Taboo—earned six GRAMMY® Awards and achieved sales of 35 million albums and 120 million singles across seminal releases such as Elephunk, The E.N.D., and more. One of the era’s biggest acts, they emerged as “the second best-selling artist/group of all-time for downloaded tracks,” (Nielsen) and landed on Billboard’s “Hot 100 Artists of the Decade.” In 2011, they dazzled the world with a landmark performance at the Super Bowl XLV Halftime Show. Their eighth studio album, TRANSLATION, featured major collaborations with artists such as J Balvin, Ozuna, Maluma, Shakira, Nicky Jam, and Tyga. The album garnered eight nominations at the Billboard Latin Music Awards, including ‘Crossover Artist of the Year” and “Hot Latin Song of the Year” for “RITMO” and a nomination at the 2021 Latin American Music Awards for ‘“Favourite Artists - Crossover”. The album resulted in a series of chart-topping singles, including the massively successful “RITMO (Bad Boys For Life)” [feat. J Balvin] and “MAMACITA” [feat. Ozuna and J.Rey Soul], both of which achieved #1 status on three Billboard Charts each. Still not done, a fresh new single “HIT IT” with Saweetie and Lele Pons, racked up 5.8M global audio streams, 1.1M US audio streams and almost 10M YouTube views in its first week alone. The trio recently picked up three wins at the 2021 Billboard Latin Awards for Latin Pop Song (MAMACITA), Crossover Artist of the Year, and Best Sales Song (RITMO). 

About DKMS

DKMS is an international non-profit organization dedicated to the fight against blood cancer. Founded in Germany in 1991 by Dr. Peter Harf, DKMS and the organization’s over 1,000 employees have since relentlessly pursued the aim of giving as many patients as possible a second chance at life. With 11 million registered donors, DKMS has succeeded in doing this 95,000 times to date by providing blood stem cell donations to those in need. This accomplishment has led to DKMS becoming the global leader in the facilitation of unrelated blood stem cell transplants. The organization has offices in Germany, the US, Poland, the UK, Chile, and South Africa. In India, DKMS has founded the joint venture DKMS-BMST together with the Bangalore Medical Services Trust. International expansion and collaboration is key to helping patients worldwide because like the organization itself, blood cancer knows no borders. DKMS is also heavily involved in the fields of medicine and science, with its own research unit focused on continually improving the survival and recovery rate of patients. In its high-performance laboratory, the DKMS Life Science Lab, the organization sets worldwide standards in the typing of potential blood stem cell donors.

DKMS ON THE WEB 

https://shorefire.com/roster/dkms

https://www.dkms.org/

https://www.instagram.com/dkms_us/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/DKMS_us

https://www.facebook.com/DKMS.us/

For more information, please contact:

Rebecca Shapiro • rshapiro@shorefire.com

Brian Giglio • bgiglio@shorefire.com

Taylor Apel • tapel@shorefire.com