The University of Pennsylvania has long served as a pipeline to the upper echelons of finance, law and real estate. It’s no surprise, then, that its Wharton School has produced a steady stream of dealmakers who now help shape New York City’s skyline.
Penn appears as a common denominator among more than a dozen of The Real Deal’s list of the top 100 real estate titans. Alumni include hedge fund billionaire-turned-casino developer Steve Cohen, Blackstone executive Jon Gray, Two Trees’ Jed Walentas, Innovo Property Group’s Andrew Chung, L&L Holding’s Rob Lapidus, Savanna’s Christopher Schlank, Brodsky Organization’s Daniel Brodsky, BKREA founder Bob Knakal and Corcoran broker Lisa Lippman.
Alumni Jeff Sutton of Wharton Properties and Related Companies CEO Jeff Blau serve on Wharton’s Board of Advisors. And the Trump family’s connection to Penn is well documented. President Donald J. Trump graduated from Penn’s Wharton School in 1968, and Donald Jr., Ivanka and Tiffany Trump followed.
Trump family friend and Witkoff group CEO Alex Witkoff also attended Penn. And CBRE’s Doug Middleton played free safety on the football team and helped win an Ivy League title in 2003.
The other Ivies
Penn is not the only Ivy League launching pad for New York’s power players.
At Brown University, Newmark’s Doug Harmon and Sotheby’s Serena Boardman followed a liberal-arts-to-real estate track. Cushman & Wakefield’s Ethan Silverstein was a pitcher on the school’s baseball team and Compass agent Alexa Lambert rowed on the crew team for four years.
Cornell counts A&E’s Douglas Eisenberg, Fisher Brothers’ Winston Fisher, and Building and Construction Trades Council president Gary LaBarbera as alumni, while Columbia cranked out Jasper Wu of ZD Jasper, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin and Council Member Julie Menin.
Savanna founder Nicholas Bienstock and ESRT’s Anthony Malkin and Carlyle’s Bob Stuckey walked the hallowed halls of Harvard. Vornado CEO Steve Roth is a Dartmouth graduate; he and his wife Daryl recently donated $25 million to the school. TF Cornerstone’s Tom Elghanayan attended Yale and competed on the tennis and squash teams before earning an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Alternative pipelines
Outside of the ivy league, several elite institutions dominate our list of dealmakers.
At the top is New York University, which has produced a steady pipeline of New York real estate players, including Corcoran broker Steve Gold and Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities. Father-daughter alumni duos include Charles Kushner and his daughter Nicole Kushner Meyer, William Rudin and his daughter Samantha Rudin Earls, and Larry and Lisa Silverstein. Menin also holds an MBA from NYU.
Tufts University produced its own cluster of power brokers, such as JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Cohen Brothers Realty’s Charles Cohen and Eastdil Secured’s Will Silverman. A few members of family-run real estate dynasties are also alumni, including Jody Durst of Durst Organization and Zeckendorf Development’s Arthur Zeckendorf.
City University of New York, meanwhile, has served as a scrappier counterweight to the Ivies, producing distinguished alumni like Extell’s Gary Barnett, Time Equities’ Francis Greenburger, and the Modlin Group’s Adam Modlin.
The dropouts
Of course, not all of our dealmakers have college degrees. Ben Ashkenazy took classes at Adelphi University but ended up six credits shy of graduating. Harry Macklowe attended the University of Alabama, New York University and the School of Visual Arts before leaving to pursue a career in real estate.
Soloviev Group chairman Stefan Soloviev attended the University of Rhode Island then spent a brief stint playing football at St. John’s University before dropping out to work full time for his father.