In December, 73-year-old Deloris Gillespie was burned alive in the elevator of her Brooklyn, New York, apartment building, allegedly by a disgruntled former employee. The horrific murder, partially captured on video, flooded New York City airwaves. One viewer in Manhattan, Darren Weingrow of hedge fund Bull and Bear Partners, decided to do something about the tragedy: He pledged $10,000 with a friend to the Gillespie family to help them pay for the funeral. “I’m not a philanthropist; I’m an investment guy. But it was devastating,” Weingrow said, according to Prospect Heights Patch, a local news web site. “The last thing you should have to worry about is where you’re going to stay or funeral expenses.”
SAC Capital Advisors founder Steven Cohen considered buying a stake in the New York Mets last year, but his plan didn’t pan out. Now he’s one of the potential buyers of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who will likely be sold by the end of April following severe financial problems. Cohen faces plenty of competition in his bid. According to media reports, interested parties include groups led by former basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, the Disney family, former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, News Corp., and even retired octogenarian talk show host Larry King.
James Simons gave new meaning to the term “big man on campus.” The billionaire founder of Renaissance Technologies and his wife, Marilyn, gave $150 million to Stony Brook University in December, among the largest gifts ever given to a public college or university in America. Simons led Stony Brook’s mathematics department before founding his hugely successful quantitative firm in 1982. The gift will be used for three purposes, according to the school: “Research excellence” in the medical school, faculty hires through newly endowed professorships, and recruitment of high-achieving undergraduate and graduate students.
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The Pershing Square Signature Center
is in New York's MiMa development.
Photo: Bloomberg |
The Pershing Square Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bill Ackman’s $10.4 billion Pershing Square Capital Management, led in part by his wife Karen, recently announced a $25 million donation to New York’s Signature Theater, set to open off-Broadway this week. The Frank Gehry-designed venue, to be named “The Pershing Square Signature Center,” boasts three small theaters, rehearsal space, a café, bar and bookstore. It is located on far west 42nd St, inside the ritzy, new MiMa residential development.
"Signature has made a remarkable contribution to the cultural life of New York. With the opening of their new home, their impact on the city will increase significantly. We are especially pleased to support their groundbreaking program to provide access to great theatre, which we see as an investment in New York and the theatre community that will pay dividends for generations to come,” Bill Ackman said in a statement.
In particular, the donation would extend to 20 years an initiative that allows the theater to offer
$25 ticket prices to all productions.
"Theater has to engage with the diversity of who we are, both in terms of what we see on the stage AND who is in the audience, or else it ceases to be vital,” Signature board member Edward Norton said. "That's what's so special about what Bill and Karen have done here because they've said 'Let's not just build a great new theatre, let's commit to making sure that it's truly for everybody.' That's just magic."
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Just a few months after retiring, Bruce Kovner has made his way back into the spotlight with a $20 million donation to the Juilliard School, the famed New York City musical academy.
Kovner, an accomplished pianist who once attended the school and now serves as chairman of the board, shelled out the cash to fully endow Juilliard’s graduate-level program in historical performance. “The program provides specialized study in informed performance practice of music composed from 1600 to roughly the early 19th century, with full scholarships to all Historical Performance students,” according to a Juilliard press release.
The New York Times first reported the donation. As the newspaper put it, “the sheer size of the gift is enough to make heads snap in the early music world, whose practitioners typically struggle to stay a step ahead of poverty.”
“This extraordinary gift exemplifies the vision and generosity of spirit that has been the foundation upon which Bruce Kovner has embraced his leadership of The Juilliard School,” said the school’s president, Joseph W. Polisi, in the release. “With a strong financial base, our Historical Performance program can now look toward the future with confidence that we can create an educational experience of excellence that addresses the best practices of this important field in today's musical environment.”
The 66-year-old Kovner has made annual donation of between $500,000 and $1 million to the historical performance program since 2009. Six years ago he donated a collection of rare manuscripts to Juilliard, including first editions and autographed scores from Beethoven, Bach, Brahams, Chopin and Mozart, among many others.
Kovner also serves on the board of the Metropolitan Opera. In his farewell letter to investors, he noted that, in retirement, “I look forward to spending more time on the simple pleasures of life with family and friends. I may even be able to have a little more time at the piano!”
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