With Wall Street Support, a Charity Grows Up

It was a “real wake-up call,” recalled the billionaire financier Leon D. Black, when his wife, Debra, received a diagnosis of melanoma in 2007.

After the skin cancer was successfully treated, the experience led the Blacks to form the Melanoma Research Alliance, a group that has attracted the support of several prominent Wall Street figures. Later this month, the organization is holding its second annual benefit geared toward the leveraged finance industry.

The Blacks recalled their brush with melanoma in a new video produced by Privcap. In learning more about the disease, they were struck by how little was known.

“This was a field, as we learned, that really did not have a lot of momentum six years ago,” said Mr. Black, head of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management. “Our hope is to be out of business in the next five years.”

The Melanoma Research Alliance was created with support from Michael Milken, the onetime junk bond king who has turned his focus in recent years to medical research.

“Would you like to do in melanoma what I’ve been able to do with prostate cancer?” Mr. Milken proposed, according to Mr. Black.

“We said, ‘Sure, but what do we know about running a cancer foundation?’” Mr. Black said.

It turned out that Mr. Milken had connections in the field. Today, the organization has grown into a favorite charity among the Wall Street set, raising $925,000 last year.

In addition to the video of the Blacks, Privcap has a video with Brendan Dillon, an executive at UBS, and Jeff Rowbottom, a K.K.R. executive, both of whom describe how they developed melanoma and were ultimately treated.

This year’s benefit, Leveraged Finance Fights Melanoma, to be held May 21 at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, is expected to attract big names, including Henry Kravis, a co-founder of K.K.R.; Glenn R. August, founder of Oak Hill Advisors; and the lawyer Richard I. Beattie, senior chairman of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.