Trustee Corner

NYU Medical Center is governed by two boards of trustees: the NYU School of Medicine Foundation Board and the NYU Hospitals Center Board. Together, they play a critical role in charting the course of NYU Medical Center, ensuring the well-being of the institution through philanthropy, participation on board committees, and recruitment of new board members. Each issue of News & Views will introduce several trustees to the Medical Center community.

Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel
Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel, Life Trustees of NYU Medical Center, are among our most steadfast and generous benefactors. Mrs. Kimmel, a Medical Center Trustee since 1984, is also a Life Trustee of New York University. Mr. Kimmel, a Medical Center Trustee since 2000, is Cofounder and Chairman Emeritus of Kimco Realty.

Mr. and Mrs. Kimmel have endowed fellowships in molecular immunology and pharmacology, and support programs in such important areas as epilepsy research, rehabilitation, urology, cancer, and vascular research. In 2005 they made an exceptional gift to establish a world-class Center for Stem Cell Biology to link NYU scientists and laboratory groups working in developmental genetics, structural biology, and cancer biology. The center focuses on the biology of animal stem cells, for the eventual treatment of a wide range of human diseases. Another facility that bears their name is the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for University Life at NYU’s Washington Square campus.

Mr. Kimmel serves as a Trustee of both the United Jewish Federation and the Eaglebrook School. Together the Kimmels serve on the Board of Governors of the Weizmann Institute of Science, where they both received honorary doctorates, and are actively involved in AIPAC and the American Jewish Committee.

For her service to the University, Mrs. Kimmel in 1999 was awarded the Gallatin Medal, the University’s highest honor. Both Helen and Martin Kimmel were honored recently with Presidential Citations for contributions to the School of Medicine at Dean’s Honors Day.

Joel E. Smilow
Joel E. Smilow is Chairman and Co-owner of Dinex Group, LLC, a company he formed in 1992 with renowned chef Daniel Boulud. His national restaurant group owns five celebrated restaurants, including Daniel, Cafe Boulud, and db Bistro Moderne in New York City.

Previously, Mr. Smilow was Chairman and CEO of Playtex Products, Inc., from which he retired in 1995, after having been President and/or Chairman of the company or its predecessors for more than 25 years. A Yale alumnus, he graduated with distinction from Harvard Business School as a George F. Baker Scholar.

A Trustee of both the University and NYU Medical Center since 1997, Mr. Smilow has said that one of the greatest rewards of business success has been that it enabled him to support a variety of not-for-profit causes, with emphasis on the fields of higher education (Yale), youth services, and medicine (basic research).

Nowhere is the Smilow generosity more evident than in the Joan and Joel Smilow Research Center, a world-class multidisciplinary 13-story research building for basic science, scheduled to open in spring 2006. The Smilows have also sponsored the Joan and Joel Smilow Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation Center, the largest program of its kind in the region, and have endowed a Professorship in Cardiology at the School.

For the past 30 years, Mr. Smilow has been a leader in the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club of New York, serving at various times as the organization’s President, Chairman, and Chairman of the Executive Committee. In May 2005 the Harvard Business School Club of New York presented Mr. Smilow with its Leadership Award for “Making a Difference in the World.”