Michael P. Fishman

Michael Fishman, President of 32BJ Service Employees International Union (SEIU), leads New York’s largest private sector union and the country’s largest property services union. The union represents more than 110,000 property service workers—including cleaners in offices, schools, stadiums, and institutions; superintendents, doormen and maintenance workers in residential buildings; security officers, food service workers and other service workers—in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC and Florida.

The grandson of a union carpenter who taught him the trade, Mr. Fishman’s career as a labor activist began when he joined the carpenters’ union. After nearly 20 years at the carpenters’ union, during which time he served as Director of Organizing, he joined SEIU in 1996 as Chief of Staff to the President. Today, he serves as Vice President of the New York State AFL-CIO Executive Council; Vice President of the New York City Central Labor Council; Chair of the 32BJ Benefit Fund; and Vice President of SEIU.

Mr. Fishman was reelected President of 32BJ in September 2006 for a third three-year term. He is widely credited with revitalizing the union and is dedicated to a member driven agenda that prioritizes higher industry standards and membership growth. Under his leadership, the union has doubled its membership and increased its power at the bargaining table through large-scale organizing drives. For example, 8,000 commercial office cleaners in New Jersey have joined 32BJ since 2001, and in the process have doubled their wages and secured health care for their families. In 2007, Mr. Fishman led a multi-billion dollar contract negotiation for 50,000 commercial building service workers across six states and Washington, DC. The successful campaign led to multi-year contracts and job security, steady raises, increased pension contributions and continued or improved health care coverage at a time when millions of workers have seen such benefits disappear for themselves.

In 2006, New York Magazine named Mr. Fishman one of the most infl uential New Yorkers in politics. As the sole labor leader appointed by Mayor Bloomberg to the Commission for Economic Development, he has been an outspoken advocate for the working poor. In 2008, he was honored by Asociación Tepeyac for the union’s defense of immigrant workers and commitment to immigration reform.

Mr. Fishman was raised in Queens and Connecticut, where he attended public schools. He is married, has a daughter, and lives in New York City.

David R. Jones

David R. Jones is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that promotes economic advancement and full civic participation for low-income New Yorkers. Mr. Jones has led CSS since 1986, tirelessly advocating with government officials and the public on issues of importance to minority and poor communities.

A highly respected expert on urban poverty and economic advancement, Mr. Jones served as Executive Director of the New York City Youth Bureau from 1983 to 1986, and as Special Advisor to Mayor Koch from 1979 to 1983, with responsibilities in race relations, urban development, immigration reform, and education. He was appointed by Mayor Bloomberg to several commissions. He is also Vice Chair of the Advisory Board of New York City’s Independent Budget Office and a member of the Advisory Council of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Mr. Jones served on the board of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and was Vice Chairman of the Primary Care Development Corporation, which finances health care programs and facilities in medically underserved communities.

From 1996 to 2000, Mr. Jones was Chairman of the Board of Carver Federal Savings Bank, the largest African-American managed bank in the nation. He was a founding member of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, and for seven years was President of Black Agency Executives, a group of black leaders of major New York City human service agencies. For over 10 years, he also served as a member of the board of directors of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

While receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University, Mr. Jones interned for the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy in Washington, DC. He received a Juris Doctor degree from the Yale Law School in 1974, and has been a recipient of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Prior to his nonprofit and public service careers, he specialized in corporate antitrust cases and contract litigation at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Mr. Jones is married to Dr. Valerie King; they have two children.

Richard Ravitch

Richard Ravitch, principal partner at Ravitch Rice & Company LLC, is a highly respected civic leader, who has spent years working in various capacities to help address major urban challenges facing New York. He began his career as an attorney for the Government Operations Committee of the House of Representatives in Washington, DC, from 1959 to 1960. He then entered the construction business as a principal of the HRH Construction Corporation, where he was responsible, among other things, for supervising the development, financing, and construction of over 45,000 units of affordable housing in New York, Washington DC, Puerto Rico and other locations. In 1999, Mr. Ravitch was appointed Co-Chair of the Millennial Housing Commission, created by Congress to examine the federal government’s role in meeting the nation’s growing affordable housing challenges. He led a diverse group of 22 housing experts in producing a seminal report, submitted to Congress in May 2002, which recommended a series of initiatives to create new housing tools, and reform or streamline existing programs.

In 1975, Governor Hugh Carey appointed Mr. Ravitch as Chairman of the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC), a ‘moral obligation’ financing and development agency with 30,000 dwelling units under construction, which had become insolvent and faced the first municipal bankruptcy since the 1930s. Mr. Ravitch designed the first municipal bailout plan, creating the New York State Project Finance Agency (PFA) as a new special purpose financing agency, which was instrumental in putting UDC back on track and restoring the State’s fiscal credibility.

Mr. Ravitch was appointed Chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in 1979. He completely restructured the MTA, taking innovative actions such as recruiting operating officials from the private sector with experience in marketing as well as management and operations, and pushing for changes in State laws to enable more efficient procurement. He also developed a long-term capital plan and budget for a systemwide upgrading of operating equipment, roadbed and signal capabilities, and he designed the financing plan for such improvements. For his work at the MTA, Mr. Ravitch was awarded the American Public Transit Association’s Individual of the Year Award in 1982. In addition, more recently, Mr. Ravitch headed a Commission appointed by Governor Paterson to make recommendations on how the MTA should be financed.