Wyeth Chairman & CEO, Robert Essner, to Present Durland Memorial Lecture on September 19

Leader to Present "Permanent Whitewater: Leading Through Challenging Times"

August 28, 2006, Ithaca, NY The Johnson School at Cornell University is pleased to announce that Robert Essner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Wyeth, will present the 2006 Durland Memorial Lecture on September 19 at 5:00 pm in room B09 Sage Hall on the Cornell campus. Essner will speak about "Permanent Whitewater: Leading Through Challenging Times" and Dean Robert Swieringa will moderate the question and answer session. The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will follow beginning at 6:15 pm in Sage Hall's Dyson Atrium.

Essner was appointed Chief Executive Officer for Wyeth in 2001 and Chairman in 2003. He has negotiated the whitewater rapids of change for Wyeth since 1989 when he joined as Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, for Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories. Since then he has helped steer the company through rapid developments in science and technology and weathered the political, economic, technological, and social factors that impact the pharmaceutical industry. He has brought the company to leadership positions for a number of products including Enbrel ®, Effexor ®, Prevnar ®, and Protonix ®. Wyeth (www.wyeth.com) is also manufacturer of many well-known over-the-counter products including Advil®, Caltrate®, Centrum®, ChapStick®, Dimetapp®, and Robitussin®, among many others.

The Durland Lecture Series is the most prestigious speaking event at the Johnson School. Initiated in 1983, its purpose is to bring distinguished executives from the fields of business, finance and investment management to the Johnson School for a presentation to the students. It was established in memory of Lew Durland, treasurer emeritus of Cornell who served as the university's Chief Financial Officer for more than twenty-five years. Past speakers include Kenneth Chenault, Chairman and CEO of American Express; Craig Barrett, Chairman and CEO of Intel; Abby Joseph Cohen of Goldman Sachs, and Ann Fudge, CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands.

About the Johnson School
Founded in 1946, the Johnson School is Cornell University's graduate school of management. Consistently ranked as one of the top graduate schools of business, the Johnson School builds upon Cornell's depth and breadth of distinguished research and teaching, and its vast, worldwide network of alumni, faculty, and colleagues. The school's "performance learning" approach offers students defined frameworks and analytical tools, combined with expert feedback to solve real problems in real organizations. Deliberately small and extremely selective, the Johnson School maintains an intense, collaborative community, where students develop teamwork and networking skills that foster innovation and deliver results. Programs include one- and two-year MBA degrees, an Executive MBA and the Cornell-Queen's Executive MBA, which offers interactive videoconferencing sessions across the U.S. and Canada. For more about the Johnson School please visit: www.johnson.cornell.edu.

For More Information
Deirdre G. Snyder
PR Officer
The Johnson School at Cornell University
607-255-3494
dgs37@cornell.edu