AIAC CHAIRMAN TO CELEBRATE ELLIS ISLAND HONORS SOCIETY 2026 CLASS OF MEDALISTS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 9, 2026 – New York, NY — The Ellis Island Honors Society has announced the recipients of the 2026 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, to be conferred at a black-tie reception, dinner, and awards ceremony in the Great Hall of historic Ellis Island in New York Harbor on May 15–16, 2026. L. M. Levie, Chairman of American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC), a 2024 Ellis Island Honor Society Medalist and Member of its Advisory Committee, which is responsible for nominations, shall greet and congratulate the 2026 Medalists.
The Ellis Island Medal of Honor ranks among the nation’s most distinguished honors. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have officially recognized the Medal, and each year recipients are memorialized in the Congressional Record. The Medal of Honor itself is conferred upon Americans — both native-born and naturalized — whose extraordinary professional and civic contributions exemplify the values of the American immigrant experience. The Society also confers a separate Global Humanitarian Medal upon internationally distinguished figures whose lives have advanced peace, freedom, and human dignity worldwide.
A Year of Special Significance
This year’s ceremony carries particular poignancy. The 2026 gala falls in a year that marks both the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States and the 140th anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor — twin milestones that anchor the very meaning of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. The Honorable Rosie Rios, 43rd Treasurer of the United States and Chair of America 250 — the federal commission charged with planning the United States Semiquincentennial — serves on the Board of Directors of the Ellis Island Honors Society and was herself a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2025.
The 2026 Class
This year’s class includes 76 recipients of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, together with the recipient of the 2026 Global Humanitarian Medal. The class reflects the Society’s tradition of recognizing exceptional achievement across the worlds of statecraft, science, business, the military, the arts, philanthropy, and civic service. Among the most prominent of the 2026 honorees are:
President Lech Wałęsa (recipient of the 2026 Global Humanitarian Medal, presented earlier this year), the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of Solidarity, the Polish trade-union movement that helped bring down communism in Eastern Europe. He served as the first democratically elected President of Poland from 1990 to 1995.
Secretary Mike Pompeo, the 70th U.S. Secretary of State (2018–2021) and former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. A West Point graduate and former U.S. Representative from Kansas, he played a leading role in American foreign policy across the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East.
Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (2021–2025). Cuban-born, he previously served as Deputy Secretary of DHS and as U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California.
Her Royal Highness Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States since 2019 and the first woman ever to hold the post. She is a leading voice for women’s empowerment and reform within the Kingdom and a member of the Board of Trustees of The Explorers Club.
The Honorable Douglas H. Ginsburg, Senior Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and a former Chief Judge of that court. He was nominated to the United States Supreme Court by President Reagan in 1987.
Susan Ford Bales, daughter of President Gerald R. Ford and First Lady Betty Ford. She is Chair Emerita of the Betty Ford Center and a longtime national advocate for addiction recovery.
Lee Greenwood, country music singer-songwriter and composer of “God Bless the U.S.A.,” one of the most enduring American patriotic anthems of the past four decades.
Googoosh, the legendary Iranian singer and actress and one of the most beloved figures in Persian popular music.
Sarah Friar, Chief Financial Officer of OpenAI. The Northern Irish-born technology executive previously served as CEO of Nextdoor and Chief Financial Officer of Square (Block).
Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG. The Swedish-born executive has led one of the world’s most storied automotive companies through its transformation toward electric mobility.
Gerald Chan, co-founder of the Morningside Group. His landmark gift to Harvard University endowed and named the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Dominic Ng, Chairman and CEO of East West Bank. The Hong Kong–born banker is a leading figure in U.S.–China business and a prominent civic and philanthropic leader.
Charles Zhang, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Sohu.com, one of China’s pioneering internet companies. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from MIT.
Herbert Wertheim, optometrist, inventor, and philanthropist. Founder of Brain Power Incorporated, he is the donor behind the Wertheim colleges and schools at the University of Florida and Florida International University.
Bruce Mosler, Chairman of Global Brokerage at Cushman & Wakefield and one of New York City’s most active civic and philanthropic leaders.
Roman Martinez IV, the Cuban-born former Managing Director of Lehman Brothers and the 25th Chairman of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors (2022–2024). He is a director of Bacardi Limited and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Board of Overseers of the International Rescue Committee.
Ebs Burnough, documentary filmmaker (The Capote Tapes), former White House Deputy Social Secretary under President Obama, and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Sundance Institute.
General David Allvin, USAF, the 23rd Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. A career command pilot, he previously served as Vice Chief of Staff.
General Michael Guetlein, USSF, Vice Chief of Space Operations of the United States Space Force; previously Commander of Space Systems Command.
General John Nicholson, USA (Ret.), former Commander of U.S. and NATO Forces in Afghanistan (Resolute Support / U.S. Forces–Afghanistan).
Vice Admiral Sara Joyner, USN, a pioneering naval aviator and former commander of carrier-based strike fighter units.
Professor Omar Yaghi, the UC Berkeley chemist and 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recipient, pioneer of reticular chemistry, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and covalent organic frameworks (COFs); Jordanian-born.
Dr. Xuedong Huang, Chief Technology Officer of Zoom and a pioneer of speech recognition. He was previously a long-time Microsoft Technical Fellow leading speech and AI research.
Maria Teresa Kumar, founding President and CEO of Voto Latino, an Emmy-nominated MSNBC contributor, and a leading civic-engagement advocate.
The complete list of 2026 recipients is published by the Ellis Island Honors Society at eihonors.org/2026release.
Mr. Levie’s Role on the Advisory Committee
In 2025, Mr. Levie was appointed to the Ellis Island Honors Society Advisory Committee by Society Chairman Nasser Kaziminy. The Advisory Committee is the body responsible for identifying and nominating exceptional Americans whose lives reflect the Medal’s enduring values of integrity, humanitarian service, and devotion to both their ethnic heritage and American ideals. Advisory Committee members participate in biannual meetings and are invited as honored guests to the Society’s Annual Chairman’s Dinner and Awards Ceremony.
Mr. Levie, who received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2024, will join fellow Medalists at the May 15–16 ceremony. Among this year’s honorees with whom he has long-standing personal and professional ties are Patricia Duff, founder of The Common Good — the nation’s leading nonpartisan civic-engagement organization, which has, for more than two decades, convened presidents, heads of state, cabinet members, and global thought leaders in candid dialogue across the political spectrum; Richard A. Salomon, Harvard-trained lawyer, former partner of Mayer Brown, founder and CEO of Vantage Point Consultants, and co-founder and trustee of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center; Barbara Van Allen, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Economic Club of New York, the nation’s foremost nonpartisan forum for the discussion of social, economic, and political issues; the Honorable Douglas H. Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; and Her Royal Highness Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud, a fellow member with Mr. Levie of The Explorers Club.
Mr. Levie issued the following statement:
“It is a profound privilege to serve on the Advisory Committee of the Ellis Island Honors Society — the body responsible for identifying and nominating exceptional Americans whose lives reflect the Medal’s enduring values of integrity, humanitarian service, and devotion to both their heritage and to American ideals.
I wish to extend my warmest congratulations to my dear friends Patricia Duff, Richard Salomon, Barbara Van Allen, and the Honorable Douglas H. Ginsburg, as well as to my dear friend and fellow member of The Explorers Club, Her Royal Highness Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States. Each of them brings to this year’s class a distinguished record of achievement and a quiet, tireless dedication to the public good.
To stand alongside them, and alongside such an extraordinary global class of honorees — including President Lech Wałęsa, whose courage helped change the course of history — is a moment of deep gratitude. The Ellis Island Medal of Honor reminds us that America’s greatness has always been renewed by those who arrive on her shores, and by those born here who carry forward the immigrant ideals of liberty, opportunity, and contribution. I look forward to celebrating that legacy with my fellow Medalists.”
The May 15–16 evening gala will feature a formal champagne reception, military color guard procession, dinner, awards ceremony, and musical entertainment, followed by a fireworks display in New York Harbor above the Statue of Liberty.
Musical Tributes to the Statue of Liberty and to Ellis Island
In commemoration of the 140th anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, AIAC Chairman L. M. Levie has composed and presented to the Ellis Island Honor Society an original orchestral work and video, United by Her Torch, an homage to Lady Liberty and to her enduring promise as the gateway to American freedom. Mr. Levie composed the lyrics, the music, and the orchestration and Malcolm Wengel arranged the videography. Mr. Levie presented the tribute to His Excellency Laurent Bili, Ambassador of the Republic of France to the US, on April 7, 2026.
To honor the millions of immigrants who passed beneath Liberty’s gaze and through the Great Hall of Ellis Island — the very setting in which the 2026 Medals will be conferred — Mr. Levie has also composed A Tribute to Ellis Island, which he is presenting to Ellis Island Honors Society Chairman Nasser J. Kazeminy and to each of the 2026 Medalists in framed copies of the lyrics.
Mr. Levie composed these original works in his capacity as Poet Laureate of The Explorers Club, where he also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees and its Legacy Society. His compositions include stirring orchestral tributes to Jane Goodall, Apollo XIII Commander Jim Lovell, Will Rogers, Sylvia Earle, Hubert Sagnieres, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Mike Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Lloyd Blankfein, Mike Milken, and Pope Leo, among others. His musical works have also commemorated the Naval Academy at 180 years, the United Nations at 80, the Battle of the Bulge at 80, the Liberation of Auschwitz at 80, the Royal Observatory Greenwich at 350, , the Royal Thames Yacht Club at 250, the Bronx Zoo at 125, the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, the Eiffel Tower, and the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris.
For further information, please see:
About the Ellis Island Honors Society
The Ellis Island Honors Society (EIHS) is dedicated to recognizing and celebrating the vital role of immigration in American prosperity and culture. Established in 1986, the Society commemorates the enduring spirit of those who immigrated to the United States during the Ellis Island era. The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Society’s annual award, has been officially recognized by both Houses of the United States Congress and is memorialized each year in the Congressional Record.
The Society honors Americans — both native-born and naturalized — who exemplify outstanding qualities in their personal and professional lives while preserving the richness of their heritage. Candidates are introduced to the organization through recommendations from members of the Advisory Committee and from past honorees, and the Medal is presented each spring at a gala on historic Ellis Island in New York Harbor.
In addition to the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Society confers a separate Global Humanitarian Medal upon internationally distinguished figures — leaders born and active beyond America’s shores — whose lives have advanced peace, freedom, and human dignity. Past recipients of the Global Humanitarian Medal have included world leaders, Nobel laureates, and members of foreign royal houses. The 2026 Global Humanitarian Medal was conferred earlier this year upon President Lech Wałęsa.
Past recipients of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor include eight U.S. Presidents — Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden; four Nobel Laureates — Elie Wiesel, Malala Yousafzai, Steven Chu, and Henry Kissinger; three Justices of the United States Supreme Court — Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, and William Rehnquist; and Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, and Hillary Clinton.
Distinguished military leaders honored with the Medal include Generals Norman Schwarzkopf, Colin Powell, Martin Dempsey, and George Joulwan. Among honored business leaders are Apple CEO John Sculley, former Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, World Bank President Ajay Banga, Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca, Yankees Chairman George Steinbrenner III, and Disney Chairman Michael Eisner. World leaders and royalty among the medalists include HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, and Queen Silvia of Sweden. Recipients from the worlds of entertainment and sport include Muhammad Ali, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Joe DiMaggio, Rita Moreno, Mike Wallace, Yogi Berra, and Mickey Mantle.
Notable medalists from the most recent classes (2024 and 2025) include Academy Award–winning actors Adrien Brody and Whoopi Goldberg, journalist Christiane Amanpour, Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla, Moderna co-founder Dr. Robert Langer, financier and philanthropist Michael Milken, Priscilla Presley, and David Rockefeller, Jr. and Susan Rockefeller.
For further information, please see:
www.eihonors.org and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island_Medal_of_Honor.
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, civil engineering and infrastructure, commercial construction, mining, 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, 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 affiliate, Champlain Cable Corporation, supported the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space missions with high performance wire and cable. 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 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.
For further information, please see www.aiac.com.
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 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, please see:
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
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