Bruce Ratner

In his long career, Bruce Ratner served as New York City’s Commissioner of Consumer Affairs, an NYU law professor and the founder, chairman, and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies, a major property developer. He led the economic revival of Downtown Brooklyn, built the Barclays Center arena, brought the Nets NBA basketball franchise to Brooklyn, and helped restore Times Square, including building The New York Times headquarters. For more than two decades, Mr. Ratner has applied his deep interest and background in the sciences by serving on the boards of Weill Cornell Medicine, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He also founded the Michael D. Ratner Center for Early Detection of Cancer, in memory of his brother, to advance the cause of expanding the adoption of life-saving cancer screening and research into new diagnostic tests. Through the center, Mr. Ratner has promoted early detection testing for lung cancer, particularly in low income and underserved populations. Mr. Ratner is also Chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. He was founding chairman of the New York City Parks Foundation and, for a decade, served as chairman of the board at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.