Yale Names Urban Revitalization Leader to Head University's New Haven and State Affairs

President Richard C. Levin announced today the appointment of Bruce Alexander, a national leader in urban revitalization, as Vice President and Director of New Haven and State Affairs.

President Richard C. Levin announced today the appointment of Bruce Alexander, a national leader in urban revitalization, as Vice President and Director of New Haven and State Affairs.

Mr. Alexander has been responsible for developing some of the country’s leading urban revitalization projects during his last twenty years as a senior officer of the Rouse Corporation. Mr. Alexander retired in January 1996 as Senior Vice President and Director of New Business for the Rouse Corporation, having served for fifteen years as the Director of the Company’s Commercial Development Division where he was responsible for the development of all of Rouse’s retail and mixed-use properties throughout the United States. Among the projects developed under Mr. Alexander’s direction were the South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan, the Harborplace in Baltimore, Milwaukee’s Grand Avenue, Portland’s Pioneer Place, and the Riverwalk in New Orleans. His projects have spanned the nation from Seattle to Miami and represent over $1 billion of development in urban centers. Mr. Alexander is a Yale graduate, the founding Chair of the University’s New Haven Urban Advisory Committee, and a member of the Yale Corporation’s Buildings and Grounds Committee,

In announcing the appointment, President Levin stated, “Bruce Alexander has a unique combination of talents: national expertise in the revitalization of urban centers, a deep understanding of Yale and the ways in which we can contribute to our City, and a distinguished track record of selfless service to the communities of which he has been a part. This appointment reinforces this administration’s commitment to the economic and human development of the City and region.”

Vice President and Secretary Linda Lorimer declared, “This is a home run for New Haven and for Yale. With Bruce’s appointment, the New Haven Initiative has truly come of age.” Ms. Lorimer will hand over responsibility for overseeing Yale’s involvement in the City and State next May when Mr. Alexander assumes his position. Ms. Lorimer will continue as Vice President and Secretary of the University where she serves as one of the President’s chief advisors and directs a number of administrative departments, serves as principle liaison to the Yale trustees, and oversees the expanded public affairs of the University.

Yale’s New Haven Initiative represents an expanded commitment by the University to promote economic development, human development, and neighborhood revitalization with the City and citizens of New Haven. The New Haven Initiative is coordinated by the Office of New Haven Affairs in conjunction with Yale’s academic and administrative departments. It also includes the Office of University Properties, which oversees Yale’s non-academic commercial and residential properties in the City. Among the signature projects undertaken through the Initiative are the Yale Homebuyer Program, which has assisted 273 Yale employees to buy homes in New Haven since 1994 representing over $30 million of home purchases in New Haven; a comprehensive partnership with the Dwight neighborhood; and expanded efforts with the New Haven Public Schools.

In accepting the appointment, Mr. Alexander said, “New Haven has important advantages not present in many cities its size. It is the region’s center for culture, entertainment, and medical services. It is a college town with strong residential neighborhoods, and it has excellent opportunities for economic development as one of the nation’s pre-eminent centers of research in the life sciences. I look forward to serving my alma mater and the New Haven community at a time when Yale is especially dedicated to helping the City, region and State realize their full potential.”

Mr. Alexander will become the seventh Officer of the University. As such, he will work with the other Officers and with the Yale Corporation, which is the University’s governing board.

Mr. Alexander has been one of the civic leaders in the Baltimore area, where he has resided for 28 years. He has served on the United Way Cabinet, was a Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, was Board President and Trustee of the Columbia Foundation, and a Trustee of the Baltimore Education Scholarship Trust. For fifteen years, he served as a member of the Board of Trustees for Goucher College and was Chairman of its Board from 1991 to 1996.

Last year, Mayor Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore, who is a Yale trustee, appointed Mr. Alexander a Director of the Baltimore Development Corporation and Chair of its Policy and Planning Committee. In commenting on this appointment by Yale, Mayor Schmoke stated “Bruce Alexander’s appointment is a coup for New Haven and Yale – and a real loss for Baltimore. For twenty years, Bruce Alexander has given cities around the country a vision of what their renewal could entail, and he has had the tenacity and the talent to get major programs accomplished.”

Bruce Alexander has been one of Yale’s leading volunteers since graduating from Yale College in 1965. Currently he serves as a member of the trustees’ Buildings and Grounds Committee and has been the mid-Atlantic Chair of the recently-completed Yale Development Campaign. He was the founding Chair of the University’s Urban Advisory Committee which was created under President Benno Schmidt; he is one of the key individuals who galvanized the trustees and the Yale administration to devote greater University attention to New Haven, and he helped particularly to help shape the University’s involvement in the Park-Howe-Dwight area. Since January 1996, Mr. Alexander has given approximately four days a month of service, on a volunteer basis, to the Office of New Haven Affairs to assist Yale in pursuing a number of downtown revitalization projects, including the development of the Broadway retail area.

Mr. Alexander’s two sons graduated from Yale and his father lives in the eastern part of the State. Mr. Alexander, who will report directly to the President, will assume his duties from Ms. Lorimer on May 1, 1998.

PRESS CONTACTS

Richard C. Levin

President of Yale

432-2551

Linda Koch Lorimer

Vice President & Secretary

432-2321 or430-4540 (cellular)

Bruce Alexander (for August 28)

432-2321 or 432-5758

Mayor John DeStefano

946-8200

Business Leaders

Ron Shaw, CEO

Pilot Pen International

(203) 381-4702

Pat McFadden, President

Bank of New Haven

498 -3502

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Media Contact

Tom Conroy: tom.conroy@yale.edu, 203-432-1345