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McRobbie, McKinney honored by Anti-Defamation League

• Jan. 8, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie and Robert H. McKinney, an Indianapolis business and civic leader as well as a former IU trustee and chair of the board, have each been honored by the Anti-Defamation League with the agency’s “Man of Achievement Award.” The award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to community, justice and equal opportunity for all.

McRobbie and McKinney, founding partner of Bose McKinney & Evans LLP, former chairman and CEO of First Indiana Bank and the namesake behind the IU McKinney School of Law, will be formally honored by the ADL, the nation’s leading civil rights and human rights agency, on April 24 in Indianapolis.

“As it enters its second century, the Anti-Defamation League continues to have a dramatic impact in the effort to eradicate anti-Semitism, hatred, prejudice and bigotry through its powerful words and actions, as well as the growth of advocacy and educational programming that has reached millions of people,” McRobbie said. “The agency has also been an inspiration to universities such as ours that share a commitment to equality and justice and to ensuring that our society tolerates and respects all people.

“I am honored and extremely grateful to receive this wonderful award from a truly pioneering organization that has done so much to make America a better, fairer and safer place,” McRobbie added.

“The inspirational words of the ADL, ‘to imagine a world without hate,’ fits well with my long-term maxim, ‘doing well by doing good,’” McKinney said. “This motto has served as a beacon for my government service, civic and political activity, and corporate leadership. I am excited and honored to receive this award from such a great institution.”

The awards to McRobbie and McKinney will be presented by Michael “Mickey” Maurer, the IU alumnus, Indianapolis community leader and 1997 ADL “Man of Achievement” whose name graces IU’s other law school in Bloomington.

“ADL could not have chosen finer honorees for its most important award,” Maurer said. “Michael McRobbie and Bob McKinney have championed throughout their careers the values held dear by ADL, and they have done so with honor and grace.”

Other past “Man of Achievement” honorees include former Indiana governors Mitch Daniels and Frank O’Bannon; Jerry Bepko, past chancellor of IUPUI and former interim IU president; former Eli Lilly and Co. CFO James Cornelius; Christel DeHaan, founder of Christel House; former Eli Lilly and Co. CEO Sidney Taurel; and former Cummins Inc. CEO Tim Solso.

As president of IU, McRobbie has championed IU’s expanded international engagement in research and education with universities and organizations all over the world. IU is now a national leader in study abroad and has one of the country’s largest international student populations.

IU also has a long legacy of leadership in diversity going back decades, and McRobbie’s presidency has seen an expansion of programs to strengthen racial, ethnic and cultural diversity on all of IU’s campuses. This has led to a significant increase in minority student enrollment at the university.

In 2011, McRobbie gave the opening address at a pioneering international conference at IU to examine the "new anti-Semitism." The conference, which included leading scholarly experts from around the world, was the inaugural conference of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, which was established in 2009 at IU Bloomington.

McKinney has long been recognized as a national leader in the fight against discrimination and hate. Under his leadership in Washington, effective regulations were first enacted in the banking industry to prevent housing discrimination, or redlining as it was commonly known. He led the creation of a $5 billion fund to help remove this discrimination.

McKinney continued this fight as CEO of First Indiana Bank, in his many civic and political activities, and as national chairman of the Sierra Club Foundation, working toward eliminating discrimination throughout the United States.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913 in Chicago, is the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.