RICHARD KESSLER 

AMDP '03

As Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Investment Committee, Mr. Kessler is the Senior Officer responsible for developing the Company’s strategic direction and overseeing its day-to-day operations. In addition to his executive management responsibilities, he is a key leader in developing, evaluating and pursuing the Company’s investment, develop, joint ventures, financing and acquisitions. Since joining the company in 1977, he has served in several capacities including development, finance and acquisitions. He was named Chief Financial Officers and Managing Director in 1989 and was appointed Chief Operating Officer in 1998. Throughout his tenure with the Benenson family, he has been responsible for completing $2.5 billion in real estate transactions.

Mr. Kessler was a member of the International Advisory Board of the Harvard Real Estate Academic Initiative (REAI) and was a Co-Chair of the Alumni Advisory of the Advanced Management Development Program (AMDP) at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. As a faculty member of the Master’s Program in Real Estate Development and Investment at New York University, he has Co-Chaired its Capital Markets Conference. Mr. Kessler is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Interlink Group and a Trustee of Phipps House for which he serves on its Real Estate and Finance Committee.

Mr. Kessler is the immediate past chair of the New York District Council of the Urban Land Institute and an active participant in its national leadership. Additional real estate activities include the real estate roundtable, Young Men’s/Women’s Real Estate Association, Real Estate Board of New York and the NYU Real Estate Round Table.

Mr. Kessler complete the AMDP Program at Harvard in 2003 and earned a diploma in Real Estate Finance and Investment Analysis from NYU in 1983 where he was a Mortgage Banker’s Scholarship Award recipient. He holds a BA in Finance and Accounting from Boston University.