Reynold Levy

Reynold Levy is the president of the Robin Hood Foundation,^[1] an innovative philanthropic organization founded in 1988 to alleviate poverty in New York City. Levy was previously the president of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where he served from 2002 and 2014,^[2] leading an unprecedented $1.2 billion transformation of the campus and its programs.^[3]

Levy’s leadership at Robin Hood continues a distinguished career of public service. Levy has been President of the International Rescue Committee, the senior officer of AT&T in charge of government relations, President of the AT&T Foundation, Executive Director of the 92nd Street Y, and Staff Director of the Task Force on the New York City Fiscal Crisis.^[4] In addition to his work at Robin Hood, Levy is a senior advisor to the private equity firm, General Atlantic,^[5] Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International Affairs,^[6] a consultant to nonprofit institutions and foundations and a Director of First Republic Bank.^[7] His fourth book, They Told Me Not To Take That Job: Tumult, Betrayal, Heroics and the Transformation of Lincoln Center, was recently published by PublicAffairs.

Levy is the chairman of the board of the Charles H. Revson Foundation,^[8] a member of the board of overseers of the International Rescue Committee,^[9] a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a trustee of the National Book Foundation and a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2014, he was elected to serve a three-year term as a member of the Tony Awards Nominating Committee.

Education

A graduate of Hobart College, Levy holds a law degree from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in government and foreign affairs from the University of Virginia.^[10]

Lincoln Center

During Levy's tenure, the Lincoln Center’s facilities, public spaces and physical infrastructure expanded.^[3] Recent performances have included the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Mariinsky Ballet, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Mark Morris Dance Company, the Paris Opera Ballet, Heisei Nakamura-za and Theatre du Soleil.

Lincoln Center has altered its economic model under Levy to reduce historic dependence on ticket revenue and contributed income. Among other measures, Lincoln Center’s endowment has grown, Fashion Week and Channel 13 have been attracted as tenants, restaurant and catering revenue has greatly expanded and, most recently, Lincoln Center has established an institutional consulting practice with its first client being the construction authority in the New Bin Hai district of Tianjin where work on conceiving and constructing a new performing arts center is well underway.

Books

Levy has authored four books, Nearing the Crossroads: Contending Approaches to American Foreign Policy (1975, Free Press of MacMillan), Give and Take: A Candid Account of Corporate Philanthropy (1999, Harvard Business School Press), Yours for the Asking: An Indispensable Guide To Fundraising and Management (2008, John Wiley and Sons), and They Told Me Not To Take That Job: Tumult, Betrayal, Heroics, and the Transformation of Lincoln Center(2014, Public Affairs). He has written extensively and spoken widely about philanthropy, the performing arts, humanitarian causes and issues, and the leadership and management of nonprofit institutions. Levy has held the post of Senior Lecturer at The Harvard Business School. He has also taught law, political science and nonprofit administration at Columbia and New York Universities and at the City University of New York.

Awards

Levy’s alma mater, Hobart College, honored him with its Alumni Medal of Excellence, given to only twenty graduates in the 125-year history of the school. The International Rescue Committee bestowed on him its coveted Freedom Award. Columbia University awarded Levy the highly regarded Lawrence A. Wien Prize for Social Responsibility. Lincoln Center granted him its Laureate Award. Levy has received the 2009 Design Patron Award granted by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Museum for his stewardship of Lincoln Center’s massive physical transformation, a $1.2 billion building project for the high quality improvement and expansion of public spaces, infrastructure and artistic facilities. In recognition of Lincoln Center’s successful modernization and rejuvenation, the Board of Directors decided to name a sculpturally expressive bridge designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro as “The President’s Bridge: In Honor of Reynold Levy, October 1, 2012.” In 2009, Levy was granted the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding’s Corporate Bridge Builder Award, and was honored by Sing for Hope for his contributions to the arts, humanitarian causes and the City of New York. In 2012, Levy was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Levy has received honorary degrees from Dickinson College, Macaulay Honors College of The City University of New York, and Fordham University.

Media appearances

Levy has been a guest on Gilbert Kaplan’s syndicated public radio program “Mad About Music.” His professional life has been profiled on CNN’s Pinnacle and Budd Mishkin’s One On 1 on New York One. Levy was interviewed three times on Richard Heffner’s Open Mind on Channel 13, his role as moderator of The Lincoln Center Dialogue was featured on public television, and he has appeared as a guest on Morning Joe and on the Charlie Rose Show. Levy and the institutions and causes with which he is actively identified have been the subject of frequent news and feature stories in The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, New York Magazine and others.

Family

Levy is married to Elizabeth Cooke, formerly Executive Director of the Parks Council of New York/New Yorkers for Parks and President of The Bronx Museum of the Arts, and currently a trustee of the Graduate Center, CUNY Foundation and of news non-profit City Limits.

References