Johnnetta B. Cole, Ph.D., a member of the Merck board since 1994, is recognized nationally as an advocate for diversity in corporate America. She said: "We are a long way from the point where all American businesses see and accept the reality that promoting diversity in the workforce is both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. And yet I find it of great interest that some of the most successful and admired companies in America are the very ones that see a diverse workforce not simply as a moral issue, but as an economic imperative. Progressive corporations realize that diverse people bring new and different perspectives to a workplace."

Dr. Cole is a retired presidential distinguished professor of Emory University and former president of Spelman College.

William Bowen, Ph.D., a member of the Merck board since 1986, co-authored the book The Shape of the River, which delves into the long-term consequences of considering race in college and university admissions. On the value of diversity, he wrote: "In bringing together people of different races and backgrounds, educators have recognized that much can be learned from one's peers beyond learning how to solve differential equations and how to interpret Michelangelo sculpture; it also can mean learning what it is like to grow up in a home with divorced parents, or to be looked at with suspicion because of the color of your skin... There is something to be learned from new surroundings, with new people, some of whom may be quite different from those you knew before."

Dr. Bowen is president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and former president of Princeton University.