Gale Group

Patrick C. Sommers is president of Gale, part of Cengage Learning, one of the world's leading information publishers. Mr. Sommers has more than 30 years of experience in building and growing successful companies that specialize in electronic information, services, software and other knowledge management solutions. Prior to joining Gale in October 2007, Mr. Sommers, as president and CEO of SirsiDynix from 2001 to 2007, grew a small software company into the world's largest library automation company. He served as president and CEO of the Dialog Corporation from1998 to 2001. Prior to joining Dialog, Mr. Sommers was chairman and CEO of Medicus Systems Corporation, a NASDAQ-listed healthcare technology software company from 1996 to1998. From 1992 to 1996, Mr. Sommers served as president of Ceridian Employer Services, a Fortune 500 human resource and payroll company. He served from 1990 to 1992 as president of GTE Information Services, a technology and information company. From 1969 to 1990, Mr. Sommers was with Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) Corporation, where he gained considerable experience in knowledge management and online information industries. At D&B, he worked in both the international division and in the corporate headquarters until his appointment in 1986 as president of D&B Information Resources Inc.

Tyra Banks was born in Los Angeles December 4, 1973, to Carolyn and Don Banks. Her mother was a medical photographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, while her father is a computer consultant. They divorced when Tyra was six, although the relationship between parents and children including Tyra's older brother Devin remained amicable. Growing up, she would often parade around the family's Inglewood duplex in her mother's high heels and long robes, play-acting at being a model. Her view of the profession came largely from watching the weekly CNN program Style with Elsa Klensch, and later the MTV feature House of Style starring Cindy Crawford. In more serious moments, Banks entertained the idea of going to veterinary school. Yet her unusual looks sometimes made life difficult, as she told GQ writer James Ryan. "People called me Olive Oyl, Lightbulb Head, and Fivehead, because my forehead was so big," Banks recalled. Banks attended Immaculate Heart High School, a rigorous Catholic girls' school in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, where classmates also teased her because of her increasing height (5'11") and weight (around 125 lbs). She told the Chicago Tribune that her most humbling experience in life was losing the prom queen crown to a girl she described as the smartest in her class. After graduating, she decided to try modeling on a lark, thinking it might be a good way to do some traveling. Since her mother was a photographer, putting a portfolio together was not a problem. Banks took her book to agencies, but, as mother Carolyn London-Johnson recalled for People magazine writers Tom Gliatto and Bryan Alexander, "The market for black models was not very good. They would say, 'We have this many black girls already.'" After encountering one too many dead ends, Banks decided to go ahead with her backup plan to start college and study film. Accepted at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Banks was walking down the street two weeks before classes started when a model scout from France spotted her. The scout offered her immediate work for the upcoming fall haute couture shows in Paris, and Banks accepted. "Her sensual lope and sleek, space-age frame gave her instant catwalk charisma," People described the model in its "Fifty Most Beautiful Women" issue. Designer Todd Oldham likened Banks to "an antelope. She was just born with grace."