AIAC TO CO-SPONSOR THE 121ST EXPLORERS CLUB ANNUAL DINNER GALA
For Immediate Release
New York, NY – March 1, 2025 - AIAC and its affiliates, Bradford Space, Arnprior Aerospace, SuperAlloy Manufacturing Solutions, Canadian Kraft Paper Industries, Champlain Cable, and Umbilicals International, shall co-sponsor the 121st Explorers Club Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony on April 26, 2025. Held at the Glass House, a sleek, modern, and expansive, ballroom overlooking the Hudson River, the gala attracts Explorers Club members and guests from six continents, including leaders of academia, business, finance, media, entertainment, and government. Attendees’ attire shall be formal black or white tie, evening gowns, full military dress, kilts, or royal ceremonial dress, with civilian and military orders and medals. The Explorers Club Annual Dinner is widely recognized as the most coveted invitation in the world.
This year’s gala is entitled “Paradise Found,” and shall include a formal reception featuring exotic appetizers, the Explorers Club Awards ceremony, a live auction, musical entertainment, and dancing, followed by after-parties throughout Manhattan. Earlier that day, AIAC shall also co-sponsor a reception and luncheon in the Ballroom of the Asia Society, located one block from the Explorers Club headquarters.
AIAC Chairman, L. M. Levie, a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Explorers Club and its Legacy Society, also serves as a Member of the Explorers Club Annual Dinner Committee.
At last year’s gala, Dr. Frederik D. A. Paulsen, Jr., Chairman of Ferring Pharmaceuticals and a Trustee of the Explorers Club, hosted a rooftop terrace champagne reception for fellow Trustees and invited dignitaries in honor of his guest, Her Majesty Queen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck of the Kingdom of Bhutan. A dedicated humanitarian and conservationist, Queen Jetsun serves as the President of the Bhutan Red Cross Society and as Ambassador of the United Nations Environment Program. The Queen was accompanied by Her Royal Highness, Princess Ashi Euphelma Choden Wangchuck. His Royal Highness Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck, Prince of Bhutan, is a member of the Explorers Club and an Honorary Director.
The 2024 reception featured wine, champagne and exotic hors d’oeuvres, including roasted ant, cricket, and bamboo worm canapes. Skewered Madagascar cockroaches and Tarantula Tempura were reserved for particularly adventurous gourmands. Guests boarded a lunar roving vehicle set up in the reception hall.
Last year, Bertrand Piccard, the celebrated Swiss explorer and environmentalist, was the keynote speaker for the evening, inspirationally reflecting on the indominable drive of explorers, who, against all odds, carry out their mission to pierce the frontiers of science. Mr. Piccard was met with a prolonged standing ovation from the assembled members and guests.
AIAC Chairman L. M. Levie commented, “AIAC and its corporate affiliates are deeply honored to again co-sponsor the Explorers Club Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony. I eagerly anticipate welcoming my fellow Trustees and dear friends, clients and colleagues at the legendary festivities.” Mr. Levie continued, “This year’s Annual Dinner, Paradise Found, will truly embody its exalted theme. It promises to be a splendid celebration of nature’s boundless beauty, a tribute to the wonders that captivate explorers, and a poignant evocation of the Garden of Eden.”
Last year, Mr. Levie hosted the following distinguished guests at his tables at the Explorers Club Annual Luncheon and Dinner:
Bertrand Piccard, Award winning explorer, psychiatrist and clean technology pioneer, balloon and solar powered plane circumnavigator.
Hon. Philip Lader, former US Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Senior Advisor to Morgan Stanley, former Chairman of WPP plc.
Hon. Asa Hutchinson, Former Governor of Arkansas and U.S. presidential candidate.
Olivia Troye, Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor to Vice President Mike Pence, Member, White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Dr. Joel Myers, Founder and CEO of AccuWeather.
Grover Norquist, Founder and Chairman, Americans for Tax Reform.
Justin Rockefeller, Trustee, Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Dennis Flannery, Chairman, Stone Hill Advisor, Former Senior Advisor, The World Bank, US Treasury, Inter-American Development Bank.
Brian C. McK. Henderson, Founder, Henderson International Advisors, Senior Advisor, Rockefeller Capital Management, Former Vice Chairman, Merrill Lynch Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Gordon Winston, Managing Partner, Inventive Capital.
Phillip Palumbo, Managing Director of The Walbrook Club.
Abe Wellington, Founder and CEO, the Opal Financial Group.
About the Explorers Club
The Explorers Club is an American-based, international, multidisciplinary professional society with the mission of promoting and supporting scientific exploration and field study on land, sea, and space. The club was founded in New York City in 1904 and has served as a meeting point for explorers and scientists worldwide. Members of the club have been the first to explore the North Pole, South Pole, Mount Everest, the Mariana Trench, and to walk on the Moon.
The club's notable current members or honorees include Buzz Aldrin, Jeff Bezos, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Richard Branson, James Cameron, Ray Dalio, Wendy Schmidt, and Jane Goodall. In years past, prominent members have included President Theodore Roosevelt, Sir Edmund Hillary, Amelia Earhart, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Thor Heyerdahl, Walter Cronkite, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
The Explorers Club’s historic clubhouse, at 46 East 70th Street in New York City, is a museum and monument to the “Famous Firsts,” the greatest explorers and expeditions of all time.
About the Explorers Club Annual Dinner
Held annually since the club’s inception in 1904, the Explorers Club Annual Dinner has served as a celebration of the world’s greatest achievements in exploration. Known as the most coveted invitation in the world, the formal, black tie event traditionally was held at New York’s Waldorf Astoria, and in recent years has migrated to the Glasshouse, a sleek, modern ballroom astride the Hudson River in Manhattan.
The Explorers Club Annual Dinner’s original menu at the Waldorf Astoria was famous for serving exotic animals, but the Club has long since departed from this tradition, and now embraces conventional cuisine, as the club’s conservationist credentials have taken precedence. Nevertheless, tempting insect hors d’oeuvres are still available for adventurous connoisseurs during the cocktail reception prior to the formal dinner.
Attendees of the iconic Explorers Club Annual Dinner have included the most prominent figures from the worlds of exploration, business, finance, government, media, and entertainment.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, SEE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/the_explorers_club
https://www.explorers.org/ecad-photos/
For videos of the events please click the following links:
Video One
About American Industrial Acquisition Corporation
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC) is a diversified industrial group with manufacturing and distribution sites in 24 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia-New Zealand. AIAC has acquired and grown non-core subsidiaries and divisions of Boeing, Siemens, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Johnson Controls, Merck, Pfizer, Astellas, Visteon, Carlyle, Ahlstrom, Tolko, Groupe Suez, Groupe Rexel, and many other leading multinational corporations.
AIAC companies serve companies and governmental entities worldwide in all major sectors, including aviation, space, defense, automotive, truck, rail, marine, petrochemical, solar, nuclear, food, confectionary, beverage, civil engineering and infrastructure, commercial construction, mining, dredging, disaster relief, education, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. In addition, AIAC companies are exclusive, authorized distributors of leading branded industrial and consumer products and serve as critical suppliers for the construction of major airports, schools, hospitals, performing arts and sports centers, offices and hotels throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. AIAC is a leading manufacturer of building, street, and highway signage in Europe, signage and illumination structures in North America, and a distributor of electrical products throughout France.
Of note, AIAC purchased Boeing Canada in 2005 and has produced over 10,000 unique components for every Boeing jet plane ever since, reliably serving Boeing from manufacturing facilities in North America. A leader in ultra-high precision jet engine component manufacturing, AIAC companies produce 2,200 fan blades for each jet engine produced by GE, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, and Honeywell.
AIAC companies actively support exploration into outer space, manufacturing critical components for launching and propelling spacecraft and satellites. AIAC customers in this sector include NASA, the European Space Agency, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Boeing. AIAC companies also lead in the design and manufacture of undersea umbilical cables for worldwide oceanographic research.
AIAC companies produce the critical automotive wire and cable for Tesla, GM, Ford, Chrysler-Fiat, Toyota, and Nissan. In connection with its kraft paper manufacturing interests in Canada and the US, AIAC controls and sustainably manages 22 million acres of Manitoba, Canada forestland, an area equivalent in size to the nation of Hungary. AIAC affiliate, Metallwarenfabrik Gemmingen GmbH, located in Germany, designs, manufactures and distributes high performance, emergency portable power generators utilized in global conflict zones and during natural disasters.
About AIAC Philanthropy
AIAC and the AIAC Foundation support a wide range of nonprofit, nonsectarian, bipartisan organizations which promote international conflict resolution, disaster relief, economic development, environmental sustainability, exploration, and the performing arts. The exploration-focused nonprofit organizations which they actively support include the Explorers Club, the National Geographic Society, the Royal Geographical Society, the American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Space Society, and the United States Space Foundation.
AIAC’s other beneficiaries include the Appeal of the Nobel Peace Laureates Foundation Inc., the Asia Society, the Atlantic Council, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - Gates Philanthropy Partners, the Bretton Woods Committee, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Carter Center, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of New York, the Foreign Policy Association, the Institut Française des Relations Internationales, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Crisis Group, the International Rescue Committee, the Japan Society, the JFK School of Government of Harvard University, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), the Sierra Club, the Trilateral Commission, and the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: HTTPS://WWW.AIAC.COM, HTTPS://WWW.AIAC.COM/OUR-VALUES
Media Contact:
Isabel Carro-Toro, Vice President
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation
+34 689 295 827 (Spain)
+ 1 787 244 3175 (USA)
icarro-toro@aiac.com