Beyond the Crisis: Rebuilding with Jeff Blau, Richard Mack and Simon Ziff

Jeff T. Blau is Chief Executive Officer and a partner of Related Companies. For the past 25+ years he has been responsible for directing and overseeing new developments worth over $60 billion in virtually every sector of the real estate industry. In his position as CEO, he is responsible for the strategic direction of the company, overall management of the firm, the pursuit of new development opportunities and corporate acquisitions and financing activities across all business platforms. Mr. Blau serves on the Board of Directors of Equinox Holdings, Inc., the Central Park Conservancy, the New York City Partnership Fund, Robin Hood, Urban Land Institute, Association for a Better New York, Union Square Partnership, Real Estate Roundtable, The Wharton Graduate School, The University of Michigan, Trinity School, and The Mount Sinai Medical Center. Over the years, Mr. Blau has received numerous honors for his business, civic and philanthropic activities and was named to Crain’s New York’s New Influentials list of 25 leaders reshaping New York. Mr. Blau completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan and received a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Mack is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of MREG. Before founding MREG in 2013, Mr. Mack was one of the founding principals of AREA Property Partners (founded in 1993 as Apollo Real Estate Advisors) and served as the Chief Executive Officer of AREA’s North American business and a member of that firm’s U.S. and European Investment Committees. Over 20 years at AREA, Mr. Mack was involved in the investment of billions of equity capital in debt and equity real estate transactions on behalf of AREA’s primarily institutional investors, and was personally responsible for creating new business lines to capitalize on evolving market trends, including an in-house development business and a subordinate debt business. Before AREA, Mr. Mack was a member of the Real Estate Investment Banking Department at Shearson Lehman Hutton. Mr. Mack serves on the Wharton School of Business Undergraduate Advisory Board and created a course on Real Estate Disruption, which he co-taught with Professor Gilles Duranton at Wharton in the Fall 2019 semester. Mr. Mack serves on the Board of Trustees of both the Randall’s Island Sports Foundation and the Child Mind Institute, and on the Board of Directors of the 92nd Street Y. He is president emeritus of the HES Community Center in Canarsie, Brooklyn and a member of the Robin Hood Foundation’s Housing & Homelessness Committee. Most recently, Mr. Mack was elected as Chairman of the Board of the Metropolitan Council on Poverty. Mr. Mack earned a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law.

Simon Ziff serves as president of Ackman-Ziff, a position he assumed in 1995. Since joining the firm as an analyst in 1989, Simon has overseen the arrangement of $50+ billion of debt, mezzanine, and equity financings for some of the nation’s foremost real estate developers and owners while simultaneously solidifying the firm’s relationships with key capital sources. He engineered the firm’s collaborative culture – a magnet for financial talent – and directed Ackman-Ziff’s evolution as an industry thought-leader with over 60 professionals on the team. Simon received a B.S. in Finance from The Pennsylvania State University and an M.S. in Real Estate Finance from New York University. He has been recognized on multiple occasions by Penn State, NYU, and the Real Estate Board of New York, including being awarded REBNY’s first “Most Promising Commercial Salesperson of the Year” Award”, receiving the “Most Ingenious Deal of the Year” award six times, and winning the prestigious Louis Smadbeck award. Simon has also been active in leadership roles of many not-for-profit organizations.