Alan Leventhal, a Boston University Board of Trustees member since 1995, was named chairman of the Board Thursday following the announcement of a number of changes to the Board’s structure.
Trustees spokeswoman Nancy Sterling said she believes the 51-year-old real estate tycoon will be an “excellent public face” for the university because of his personal involvement with BU – his mother, sister and daughter attended school on the South bank of the Charles.
“I think Alan Leventhal is a perfect person for the job at this time,” Sterling said. “He’s been involved in the university for a long time and the governance issues are very important to him and he therefore is a great person to move the university forward in that direction.”
Leventhal was one of eight members on the ad hoc committee, which included President ad interim Aram Chobanian and Trustee Robert Knox, the newly appointed vice chairman of the Board. In an interview with The Daily Free Press Thursday, Chobanian said he was happy with the Board’s decision.
“[We have] an outstanding leader coming on as chairman of the Board,” Chobanian said. “He’s committed, he’s dynamic, he’s vigorous. I am particularly pleased, but I know all the Trustees are pleased by Alan as well.”
Leventhal serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Beacon Capital Partners – the company he founded in 1998 and used to purchase the John Hancock Tower for $910 million in 2003.
While Leventhal is also a trustee of Northwestern University, Sterling said she did not believe he would have to resign, nor did she think his membership on the Northwestern Board of Trustees “would be an issue.”
Leventhal is also a member of the Board of Overseers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a board member of the Pension Real Estate Association and a member of the Dartmouth Real Estate Advisory Committee.
The co-chair of Boston 2004, the host committee for the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Leventhal has played a key role in the fundraising campaign for Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s bid for the presidency. According to The Washington Post, Leventhal also contributed to President Bill Clinton’s campaign and was one of many guests who spent the night at the White House during Clinton’s first term in office.
Sterling said Leventhal’s experience with fundraising would bring a key component to the Board.
“He’s had extensive experience with large organizations and running the DNC is quite a challenge and I think that will be a positive that he will bring,” she said.
Leventhal joined The Beacon Companies, his family’s business, in 1976 after receiving a Master of Business Administration degree from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern in 1974.
In 1994, Leventhal built a separate company – Beacon Properties Corporation – which he sold to Equity Office Properties Trust in December, 1997 for $3.9 billion. But in January of 1998, Leventhal had already begun his new company, Beacon Capital Partners.
Leventhal has lectured at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Real Estate and the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College. He was named the Commercial Property News “Office Property Executive of the Year” in 1996 and received the Realty Stock Review’s “Outstanding CEO Award” in 1996 and 1997.