Tom Stern

Tom Stern, M.D. leads a life of paradox.

A Bay area physician honored for his boundless humanitarian work, his travels to Asia began in volunteering his surgical skills to repair facial deformities for poverty-stricken children in the most remote regions of the Philippines. But his longtime ties to the island nation also opened up a door of unparalleled adventure and danger as he followed in the footsteps of his goldmining granddad, searching for the legendary lost Yamashita treasure. This real-world escapade spawned the writing of his first book, Gold Fever, which eerily presaged high profile terrorist activities in the region in the year following the book's release.

Over the years, his contact with senior Philippine governmental and military leaders provided him unprecedented access in compiling the authorized biography of Nur Misuari, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) politician and feared rebel leader, who brandished both sword and rhetoric in his multi-decade quest for Muslim autonomy.

Tom Stern's alter ego adventures have continued in an array of fast-paced sagas set in various locales abroad and most recently expanded to tales of modern day piracy on the high seas in his latest thriller, King Pirate (February 2014).

So the duality in his life ensues - even as his day job duties include seeing patients in his private practice, as well as serving as a Fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, where he both studied and taught.

In 2007, Dr. Stern was crowned Prince of Sulu and North Borneo by Sultan Esmail Kiram II, and he is also the founder of a nonprofit which provides free wheelchairs and free educational programs, the One World Institute.