Jerry I. Speyer (born June 23, 1940) is an American real estate developer. He is one of two founding partners of the New York real estate company Tishman Speyer, which controls Rockefeller Center. Speyer was featured in the Forbes 400 list in 2021.[1]
Speyer began his career in 1964 as Assistant to the Vice President of Madison Square Garden. Speyer was President & CEO of Tishman Speyer since he formed the company together with his father-in-law Robert Tishman in 1978.[6]
Speyer was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,[6] chairman of the Museum of Modern Art,[7] and vice chair on the Board of Trustees of the Rand Corporation.[6] Speyer is chair of the Executive Committee and chairman emeritus of Columbia University, chair emeritus of the Real Estate Board of New York, and past president of the Board of Trustees of the Dalton School.[8]
Speyer is also chair emeritus of the Partnership for New York City, founded by David Rockefeller.[10]
Speyer has sat on the Board of Trustees of NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital since 2000, and has served as President of the Board since 2019, including during the COVID-19 crisis.[11]
Personal life
In 1964, Speyer married Lynn Tishman,[12] whose great-grandfather Julius Tishman founded Tishman Realty and Construction, of which Tishman Speyer is a spinoff. In 1987, they divorced (Lynn later married Harold R. Handler, who is retired as a senior partner in the New York law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett).[13] They had three children:
Valerie Hope Speyer Peltier (born 1967) works at Tishman Speyer[12] as part of the Acquisitions and Development group.[14] In 1993, she married Jeffrey Richard Peltier of Tipp City, Ohio.[15] The wedding was officiated by Rabbi Peter Rubinstein at the Rainbow Room in New York.[16]
Rob Speyer (born 1969) previously worked as a reporter at The New York Daily News[12] but is now a chief executive and president of Tishman Speyer.[13] In 2008, he married Anne-Cecilie Engell (who is Danish) in a nondenominational ceremony in Copenhagen.[13]
Holly Ann Speyer Lipton (born 1973) works as a television producer.[12] In 1999, she married Jonathan Lipton. The wedding was officiated by Rabbi Peter Rubinstein at the Pierre in New York.[17]
In 1991, Speyer married Katherine G. Farley, whom he had hired in 1984 to oversee international development.[12] They have a daughter, Laura Speyer (born 1992).[12] Farley graduated from Brown University in 1971, and with a Masters of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1976. She served as manager of new business development for East Asia and the Pacific for Turner International Industries before joining Tishman Speyer in 1984. She is a senior managing director at Tishman Speyer, responsible for the company's real estate activities in Latin America and for the company's expansion into other emerging markets, chairs the company's Compensation Committee, and is a member of the Management, Investment, and Executive Committees. She is chair of Lincoln Center's redevelopment and is on the executive committee of the International Rescue Committee, a refugee relief and resettlement organization, and is chair emeritus of Women in Need, which helps homeless women and children in New York City. She is a vice president of the Brearley School, and a member of the Board and Executive Committee of the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation. Farley has served on the boards of Lincoln Center Theater and the New York Philharmonic.
New York's Cultural Power BrokersNew York Times article on Jerry Speyer of Tishman Speyer Properties and his many connections to Sanford Weill of Citigroup, as well as to David Rockefeller through the Museum of Modern Art and Rockefeller Center.
