The newest addition to Herbalife’s Nutrition Advisory Board reflects the company’s growing interest in the Asia Pacific region, which accounted for 20 percent of third-quarter revenue.
Herbalife has increased the board’s membership to 30 with the appointment of Dr. Francis Gregory Samonte, an expert in pediatric neurology and the first Filipino member of the board. Currently based in Manila, Philippines, Samonte studied at De La Salle University College of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Medical School. For his past work in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, Samonte was a recipient of the Chairman’s Achievement Award.
The Nutrition Advisory Board helps to educate and train Herbalife independent members on the principles of healthy living. One of the company’s key educational initiatives is the Herbalife Asia Pacific Wellness Tour, which includes stops in 15 countries across the region. Various board members join company executives and researchers at each stop to host sessions, open to the general public, on the components of nutrition and physical activity.
David Heber, M.D., Ph.D., Founding Director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of California, Los Angeles, is Chair of the Nutrition Advisory Board. Among the company’s other third-party advisors are Dr. Lou Ignarro, a 1998 Nobel laureate recognized in the category of Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of nitric oxide’s health benefits; and Dr. Gary Small, a specialist in brain health and aging whose numerous honors include the Senior Investigator Award from the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry.
