Mortimer Zuckerman

Mortimer Benjamin "Mort" Zuckerman (born June 4, 1937, Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a Jewish American magazine editor, publisher, and real estate billionaire. He is a naturalized citizen of the United States.

As of 2007, Mort Zuckerman was the 188th wealthiest American as per Forbes. In 2006, he was ranked 382. The increase was related to the sale in 2007 of 5 Times Square and 280 Park Avenue in New York, which together realized US$2.5 billion for his company, Boston Properties, Inc..

He has been the publisher/owner of the New York Daily News since 1993 and, as of 2007, is the current Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News & World Report. He co-founded Boston Properties, Inc. in 1970. He is chairman of the board, and director.

Education

Zuckerman entered McGill University at the age of sixteen. He graduated from McGill with a B.A. in 1957 and a LL.B. in 1961, though he never took a bar exam. He next went to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School where he earned an M.B.A. and distinction of honor, also in 1961. The next year, he attended Harvard University's Law School where he earned a LL.M..

Professional life

After graduating, Zuckerman stayed on at Harvard Business School where he was an associate professor for nine years. He also taught at Yale University. He later spent seven years at the real estate firm Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, where he rose to the position of Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

In 1980, he purchased the literary magazine The Atlantic Monthly, where he was Chairman from 1980 to 1999. In 1999 he sold the magazine to David G. Bradley for US$12 million. Commenting on this sale and that of Fast Company magazine, which he sold for $365 million at the height of the tech boom in 2000, he quipped, "I averaged out."

While he still owned Atlantic Monthly, in 1984, Mortimer Zuckerman bought U.S. News & World Report, where he remains its Editor-in-Chief.

Conservative commentator

In addition to his publishing and real-estate interests, Zuckerman is also a frequent commentator on world affairs, both as an editorialist and on television. He occasionally appears on The McLaughlin Group and writes columns for U.S. News & World Report and the New York Daily News, usually taking British-called "liberal" or American-called "conservative" positions on political matters. In the U.S., Mr. Zuckerman has many times stated proudly that he is a "conservative." He supports mainstream Republicans such as Senator John Warner (to whose campaign he contributed $1,000 in 1995), and conservative Democrats such as Senator Joe Lieberman (to whose campaign he contributed $10,000 in 2006, when this conservative Democrat Lieberman was being strongly challenged by an anti-Iraq-War liberal Democrat, Ned Lamont). Mr. Zuckerman's political views are unabashedly free-market, and pro-Israel.

Jewish causes

Zuckerman is also an active supporter of Israeli and international Jewish causes. Between 2001 and 2003, Zuckerman was the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Typically, the nominating committee attempts to choose a person who is both respected and uncontroversial. However, Zuckerman was widely opposed by liberal Jewish factions. Nonetheless, Zuckerman was eventually elected and served a full term.

In 2005, before the Jewish settlers' pullout from Gaza, at James Wolfensohn's request, Zuckerman made a private plea to his friends, including Bill Gates, and Leonard Stern, and raised $14 million within two days for a private advocacy group, the Aspen Institute, which bought greenhouses in Gaza and transferred them to Palestinians as a gift. About 30% of the greenhouses were then looted and damaged by Palestinians.

In their 2006 paper The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, John Mearsheimer, political science professor at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, academic dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, named Zuckerman as a member of the media wing of the "Israeli lobby" in the United States. Zuckerman replied: "I would just say this: The allegations of this disproportionate influence of the Jewish community reminds me of the 92-year-old man sued in a paternity suit. He said he was so proud, he pleaded guilty."

Appointments and associations

Zuckerman serves on the Board of Trustees of several educational and private institutions such as New York University, the Aspen Institute, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Hole in the Wall Gang Fund, the Center for Communications. He is a member of the JPMorgan's National Advisory Board, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and the International Institute of Strategic Studies. He worked as a president of the Board of Trustees of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Zuckerman is known to be a mentor to and close associate of Daniel M. Snyder, owner of the NFL football team Washington Redskins. He has been a financial backer to Snyder's business ventures (CampusUSA magazine), and was a shareholder and director in Snyder Communications Inc., a marketing services business which was taken over in 2000 (by Havas Advertising).

Honors

Zuckerman was awarded the Commandeur De L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.