Hobart and William Smith Colleges

23 October 2015 Levy Named President, Robin Hood Foundation

Reynold Levy 66, L.H.D. 14 has been named president of the Robin Hood Foundation, New York Citys nonprofit organization focused on finding, funding and creating programs and schools for families in New Yorks poorest neighborhoods.

The cause is so compelling and the work is so necessary, the number of strong advocates for the poor are so relatively few and the work that Robin Hood conducts so important, that I just couldnt resist, Levy told the New York Times on his decision to leave retirement to take the position.

Robin Hood Foundation Executive Director David Saltzman told The Times, With 1.8 million of our neighbors living in poverty, we need his fund-raising skills to help us help as many people as possible.

Levy, who retired as president of Lincoln Center in 2014 after more than a decade of service, is credited with transforming the Centers financial model, expanding it in new directions, and building an unprecedented spirit of collaboration across the Centers formidable constituents, including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Ballet. Levy was recognized in 2009 with the Lincoln Centers Design Patron Award for his design stewardship of the Centers campus, a $1.2 billion renovation and transformation project.

Currently, Levy serves as a senior adviser to the private equity firm General Atlantic, adjunct professor at Columbia Universitys School of International Affairs, and a director of First Republic Bank. He is the author of four books on foreign policy, philanthropy and fundraising. His fourth book,They Told Me Not To Take That Job: Tumult, Betrayal, Heroics and the Transformation ofLincoln Center, wasrecentlypublished by Public Affairs.

In addition, Levy serves as chair of the board of the Charles H. Revson Foundation, a member of the board of overseers of the International Rescue Committee, 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 2012, Levy was inducted into the 232nd Class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2014, he was elected to serve a three-year term as a member of the Tony Awards Nominating Committee. Previously, Levy served as executive director of the 92nd Street Y, president of the AT&T Foundation, and president of the International Rescue Committee.

At Hobart, Levy earned a bachelors degree in political science. He went on to receive a law degree from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in government and foreign affairs from the University of Virginia. As an alumnus, he has received the Hobart Alumni Medal of Excellence and served as honorary chair of fundraising efforts for the Hobart and William Smith Performing Arts Center.

The full text from the The New York Times can be found here, http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/reynold-levy-takes-his-fund-raising-skills-to-the-robin-hood-foundation/?_r=0