The rockefeller university

Patricia Rosenwald and Peter Grauer join Board of Trustees

by TALLEY HENNING BROWN

Patricia P. Rosenwald and Peter T. Grauer, familiar faces in New York philanthropy and business circles respectively, are the two newest faces of The Rockefeller University. Mrs. Rosenwald, alumna and former longtime trustee of Vassar College, was elected to the Rockefeller Board of Trustees in March. Mr. Grauer, chairman and president of Bloomberg LP, joined the Board in June.

Patricia Rosenwald has experience in various fields, including child psychology, which she pursued at Vassar College in the 1950s when the field was in its infancy, and publishing — she cofounded the book publisher City and Company in 1987. But it is as a philanthropist and fundraiser that she found her real career.

Mrs. Rosenwald and her husband, E. John Rosenwald, are highly regarded by the philanthropic community. Mrs. Rosenwald served as a trustee of Vassar College for 12 years, and is currently an advisory board member of the Columbia University ophthalmology department. She has also been a trustee of the United Jewish Appeal; an advisory board member of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation; a founding vice chairman of the Committee for 100, created to formally recognize the 100th anniversary of the consolidation of New York City; chairman of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League; and chairman of the Big Apple Circus. “My first board meeting was in a trailer, with elephants in attendance,” she says. Her time as a member of the New York City Mental Health Commission, from 1989 to 1997, was “a very important part of how I became interested in Rockefeller,” she says.

Mrs. Rosenwald was first introduced to Rockefeller University when a mutual friend brought her interest in neuroscience to the attention of Nobel laureate and then-Rockefeller professor Gerald Edelman. “I’ve always been interested in the brain; I’m actually quite knowledgeable for a lay person, and speaking with Gerry was exhilarating,” she says. She has enjoyed long friendships with several current Rockefeller trustees and has attended numerous lectures and university fundraising events. She was nominated to the Board last year and was officially elected during the March 14 Board meeting.

Her vast experience in fundraising is one strength Mrs. Rosenwald brings to the Rockefeller board. “I’m a networking person, and that is much better done in a smaller place like Rockefeller where people can make real, lasting connections,” she says. She also plans to be closely involved in upgrades to Rockefeller’s infrastructure, including the new Collaborative Research Center. “Collaborative science is so much more important now that globalization is changing the way things get done, and Rockefeller is one of few highly successful models of collaboration,” she says.

Peter Grauer is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, where he received a degree in English, and the Harvard University Graduate School of Business. An alumnus of the investment banks Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette and Credit Suisse First Boston, he cofounded DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and DLJ Investment Partners, which collectively manage over $12 billion of private equity funds. He took over leadership of Bloomberg in 2002, having been on the company’s board of directors since 1996 and its chairman since 2001, succeeding company founder Michael R. Bloomberg. Mr. Grauer is also lead director of healthcare services company DaVita.

Mr. Grauer has served on the boards of over 25 public and private companies, including the Inner City Scholarship Fund in New York City, the Big Apple Circus, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the Irvington Institute for Immunological Research. His integral involvement with research concerns like the Irvington Institute and the Prostate Cancer Foundation — for which he has helped raise funds — have strengthened and further informed his interest in medical research.

Late last year, Russell Carson, chair of the Rockefeller board, who has known Mr. Grauer personally and professionally since the 1960s, urged him to become involved at the university. He was elected at the June 6 Board meeting. “Peter brings a knowledge and experience of the media industry that is absolutely essential to the university moving forward. We’re thrilled to have him on our side,” Mr. Carson says.

Mr. Grauer also brings a keen interest in the development of the Collaborative Research Center. His years in the Bloomberg offices — all of which are laid out open-plan style, with no enclosed offices and centrally located common areas — have confirmed for Mr. Grauer the effectiveness of an environment that fosters collaboration. “One should not underestimate the power of what can be achieved when you leverage that kind of human exchange and interaction,” he says. “The net result will be a more powerful way to do scientific research, and hopefully that will lead to some significant scientific discoveries that will really have an impact.”