Eric Rasmussen is a physician (MD), trained at Stanford and the University of Texas, with an additional Master's in Disaster Medicine. He spent 25 years in uniform as a US Navy officer, with service in nuclear submarines, on aircraft carriers, on smaller warships, in Stateside hospitals, and in Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He retired from the Navy while Chairman of an academic Department of Medicine in Seattle. 

After three subsequent years leading a TED Prize awarded to Dr. Larry Brilliant of Google.org, he co-founded IHS with Alex Hatoum and they've had a very successful subsequent decade. 

They co-founded this Foundation to provide a channel for the work they each consider of long-term importance.