Roland Betts Named Senior Fellow of Yale Corporation

Roland W. Betts, chairman and chief executive officer of Chelsea Piers, L.P., has been chosen senior fellow of the Yale Corporation, the University’s governing board, by his fellow Yale trustees.

Betts, a 1968 graduate of Yale College, succeeds John Pepper, the former chairman of Procter & Gamble, who resigned from the Corporation to become Yale’s vice president for finance and administration.

“Roland Betts has served with distinction on the Yale Corporation, and has a long record of loyal service to Yale and effective involvement in civic life,” said President Richard C. Levin. “The other members of the Corporation and I look forward to drawing on his wisdom and guidance as senior fellow.”

Elected an alumni fellow of the Corporation in 1999, Betts developed and operates the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex in New York City. The 1.7 million-square-foot complex on the Hudson River is among the most visited sites in the city. It has facilities for ice hockey, gymnastics, basketball and other sports, a comprehensive health club, sound stages for television and film production, and restaurants.

Betts is founder and president of Silver Screen Management, Inc., which has financed and produced more than 75 films with the Walt Disney Company, including “Pretty Woman,” “Three Men and a Baby,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid.” He is also president of International Film Investors, Inc., which produced and financed “Ghandi” and “The Killing Fields,” among other films.

Betts is a director of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is charged with rebuilding Lower Manhattan. In that capacity, Betts has assumed primary responsibility for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site.

After graduating from Yale, Betts taught public school in Harlem and trained teachers as part of The Teachers Corporation, a not-for-profit organization. His 1978 book, “Acting Out: Coping with Big City Schools,” is based on his work as a teacher and assistant principal.

He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1978 and practiced law for several years in the entertainment department at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

From 1989 to 1998 Betts was the lead owner of major league baseball’s Texas Rangers. He is a member of the United States Olympic Committee and a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the National Park Foundation, and Columbia Law School.

Betts and his wife, Lois, who taught in the New York City public school system for many years, have two daughters Margaret and Jessica, a 1998 graduate of Yale College.