Suni founder donates 6 million shares of stock to ADA Foundation
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Posted Jan. 28, 2008 |
By Jennifer Garvin San Jose, Calif.—The ADA Foundation closed out 2007 on a high note when it received one of the largest donations in Foundation history: 6 million shares of Suni Medical Imaging Inc. stock from Suni founder Paul Suni.
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Paul Suni
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The Foundation will use the stock to provide scholarships under the ADA Foundation's student dental scholarship program. Unlike traditional scholarships, the Suni scholarships will require that applicants demonstrate an enduring dedication to the arts. Mr. Suni said this was because people who have both artistic and scientific passions have always been of great value to society.
"Giving back to dentistry in the form of an American Dental Association Foundation scholarship fund makes sense to me. I don't have kids and I thoroughly value young people who are prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to become trained as dentists and to face the challenges of establishing dental practices," said Mr. Suni, adding that he personally relates with dentists "as entrepreneurial folk who often start with virtually nothing and succeed just because they consistently create value for their customers."
Mr. Suni, 51, stepped down as chief executive officer and chief technology officer of Suni in December. The company is credited with developing the world's first intraoral film-sized digital X-ray sensors, and Mr. Suni developed the first robotic charge-coupled device image sensor chip for the first commercial application of CEREC.
"For the past 15 years it has been the dental profession that has supported my family and the families of Suni employees by purchasing products developed and manufactured by the Suni team," Mr. Suni said. "My emotional impetus for making a charitable contribution was to give back to the dental profession after a personally meaningful 20-year experience in developing enabling technologies for dentistry."
Mr. Suni, who also is a classical pianist, said that he wants the scholarships to support students beyond who has the highest grade-point average.
"For the first time in history, humanity has the power to alter planetary climate and humanity has the know-how to modify its genome," he said. "Science and art can be a powerful visionary mix and the world needs visionaries with scientific understanding to help with formidable ethical questions such as these."
"As one of the partners in Our Legacy—Our Future, the Foundation is glad to see that another member of the dental industry recognized the importance of giving back to dentistry," said Dr. James Bramson, ADAF secretary and ADA executive director.
Our Legacy—Our Future, an initiative spearheaded by the ADA Foundation and other partners, is designed to raise awareness of the importance of dental education and to promote a culture of philanthropy within the dental profession and solicit a call to action to address these issues.
According to a company press release, Mr. Suni will continue to be involved with the dental profession as a consultant, speaker, seminar leader and mentor to individuals and teams.
"I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to apply myself for 23 years as physicist, engineer, inventor and entrepreneur to turn my ideas into profitable realities," he said. "It is time for me to help other people succeed with their own ideas and desires to make meaningful contributions to the world. That is what I plan to do as soon as I get a couple of other projects under way."
Said Dr. Arthur A. Dugoni, ADAF Board president, "One of the greatest challenges for dental education is the escalating indebtedness of our students. Paul Suni's generous donation for student scholarships will ultimately reduce the debt burden for many students and will inspire others to emulate his generosity."
The ADA Foundation is pleased to accept donations of stock and other assets. For more information, contact Dwight Edwards by phone at 1-312-440-4717 or contact the ADA Foundation by e-mail.
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