Bruce Ratner

Bruce Ratner was the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies. Credited with reviving Downtown Brooklyn, he led more than 40 ground-up real estate development projects over 30 years, including Barclays Center, among many other initiatives. Mr. Ratner not only helped restore Times Square but also built the New York Times Building, The ‘New York by Frank Gehry” skyscraper at 8 Spruce Street, the Barclays Arena and the Metrotech Center in Brooklyn. He bought and brought the Nets NBA franchise to Brooklyn, the first major professional sports team to make Brooklyn home since the Dodgers left in 1957. 

He was the New York City Commissioner of Consumer Affairs under Mayor Ed Koch and was responsible for the restoration of entire neighborhoods throughout the Metropolitan area. Prior to his real estate development years, Bruce taught at the NYU Law School, after having studied sciences as an undergraduate at Harvard and receiving a law degree from Columbia University.

Recently, Mr. Ratner has applied his science background to cancer detection and dedicated an increased portion of his time to philanthropy in this area. In addition to serving on the boards of Weill Cornell Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, he founded the Michael D. Ratner Center For Early Detection of Cancer (CEDC) in memory of his brother. Through the CEDC, he has promoted early lung cancer detection (the number one cancer killer), particularly in underserved populations. CEDC brought a medically equipped mobile unit to Downtown Brooklyn to screen patients free of charge. Following this grassroots outreach, all patients were offered treatment at Weill Cornell. 

Mr. Ratner is also Chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Focused on helping people learn about mass murder and the dangers of unchecked hate and bigotry, the Museum’s mission is to deepen understanding of these events to ensure that this history is not repeated. He was founding Chairman of the New York City Parks Foundation and served as Chairman of the board at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for a decade.