Susan G. Komen for the Cure Adds Eric Brinker to Its Board (Abstract Only)

ABSTRACT ONLY

Title: Susan G. Komen for the Cure Adds Eric Brinker to Its Board

Author: Unknown

Publication: Health & Beauty Close-Up

Publication Date: January 21, 2010

Eric Brinker, a longtime breast cancer volunteer, co-survivor and activist, has been elected to the board of directors of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast cancer organization.

Eric Brinker is the son of Komen for the Cure founder and CEO Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, and the nephew of Susan G. Komen, for whom the organization is named. He is filling the board seat left vacant by the 2009 death of his father, Norman Brinker, who had served on Komen’s board since it formed in 1982. Although Norman Brinker held a lifetime board appointment, Eric was elected to serve the typical two-year term.

Brinker is often described as Komen’s first volunteer, growing up helping to fulfill the promise that Nancy Brinker made to her sister, Susan G. Komen, to end breast cancer forever. Susan G. Komen died of breast cancer in 1980.

Several years later, at the age of eight, Brinker lived through his mother’s own battle with breast cancer, learning first-hand what it means to be a co-survivor.

“We are so fortunate on the board to have Eric’s business acumen, his long association with our organization, and his first-hand experience with this disease — an experience that fuels his untiring energy and passion for our cause,” said Alexine Clement Jackson, chairperson of Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s board of directors.

ABSTRACT ONLY

Brinker’s influence all around (Abstract Only)

ABSTRACT ONLY

Title: Brinker’s influence all around

Author/Byline: Paul Gordon

Publication: Journal Star (Peoria, Illinois)

Publication Date: June 21, 2009

Jun. 21–The next time you sit down in a restaurant and somebody walks up and says, “Hi, my name is so-and-so, and I will be your server tonight,” you probably won’t think of Norman Brinker.

He won’t come to mind even when that restaurant is the Chili’s at University and Glen.

When you discuss the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure or when you go to the Metro Centre, it will be different Brinkers — Nancy and Eric — who will likely come to mind.

Norman Brinker, considered a titan in the restaurant industry and the pioneer of the casual dining experience, never lived in Peoria, so not many here know him. But his influence is felt here, almost on a daily basis.

“He couldn’t even boil water or turn on a stove, but he did an awful lot to make the restaurant industry what it is today simply because it interested him. That’s how he was,” Eric Brinker said the other day while talking about his father. “And I was very fortunate to have him as a mentor.”

Norman Brinker died June 9 at the age of 78. The chairman and founder of Brinker International Inc. who took Chili’s from a hamburger stand to the casual dining success it is today (among other successful ventures), his death brought national coverage, including a tribute on NBC Nightly News. His memorial service in Dallas, where he lived, brought famous people who were his friends, such as Ross Perot, T. Boone Pickens and Roger Staubach.

Also among the famous was Peoria native Nancy Goodman Brinker, who formerly served as the United States Ambassador to Hungary and Chief of Protocol to President George W. Bush.

She was still married to Norman Brinker when, with his urging and help, she founded the Komen Foundation in 1982. They divorced in 2003.

ABSTRACT ONLY