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FORTUNE.COM // MAY.1.1 9
PARKINSON’S DISEASE TYPICALLY AFFECTS people when they’re around 60
years old. For star actor Michael J. Fox, it hit at 29. Fox was diagnosed
in 1991 but didn’t publicly reveal his disease until seven years later.
That decision was fueled in part by a desire to raise awareness about
Parkinson’s and fund research to fight the degenerative disorder of
the nervous system. Two decades later, Fox has become one of the
most respected advocates in medicine. His Michael J. Fox Foundation
for Parkinson’s Research, founded in 2000, has raised and invested
some $900 million in the quest for a cure. Fox carries a deep belief that
Parkinson’s patients themselves must play a central role in curing the
malady. “We’re the experts on what we have,” he said in a recent Fortune
interview. “We have a responsibility as patients—if we expect [medi-
cal researchers] to do what we need them to do, they need to be fully
informed on our experience, what works with us, what we respond to,
what we can contribute.”
“Green” architecture
arguably went main-
stream thanks to Mc-
Donough, whose firms
designed eco-friendly
campuses for such
giants as Nike and Ford.
Today he’s a leading
proponent of a “circular
economy” in which
sustainability drives all
product design; he’s
steering an effort to
redesign plastics using
materials that won’t
pile up in our oceans
and bloodstreams.
As CEO of personal
styling service Stitch
Fix, Lake has quietly
changed the game for
women in corporate
America. In 2017,
at 34, she became
the youngest female
founder ever to take
a company public.
Stitch Fix’s board and
workforce are majority
female. And Lake last
year set a trailblazing
example by taking a
substantial parental
leave—16 weeks—
while serving as a
public-company CEO.
ACTOR
Hopefully,
this is a
window
into the
future.Ó
KATIE BETHELL,
PAID LEAVE U.S.
On Katrina Lake’s
taking parental
leave while
serving as CEO
william mcdonough
Founder, William
McDonough + Partners
katrina lake
CEO, Stitch Fix
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US
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AT
RI
CK
T.
FA
LL
ON
—B
LO
OM
BE
RG
VI
A^ G
ET
TY
IM
AG
ES
;^2
4 :^
GA
RY
GE
RS
HO
FF
—W
IRE
IM
AG
E
PHOTOGRAPH BY WESLEY MANN
