United Hospital Fund Honors Three Health Care Leaders at Its Gala

Frank A. Bennack, Jr., Edgar Mandeville, MD, and Richard Ravitch Receive Awards

Release Date: 10.11.2011
Contact: rdeluna@uhfnyc.org
Contact Phone: 212 494 0733

From left: Jim Tallon, Edgar Mandeville, MD, Richard Ravitch, Frank A. Bennack, Jr., TIAA-CREF President and CEO Roger Ferguson, and Barclay Collins II

The United Hospital Fund paid tribute to Frank A. Bennack, Jr., Dr. Edgar Mandeville, and Richard Ravitch at its annual gala, held this evening at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.  They each received an award for their respective contributions to improving health care in New York.

Drawing a crowd of nearly 550, the event marks the opening of the Fund’s 133rd fund-raising campaign for its work to shape positive change in health care in New York.

Frank A. Bennack, Jr., received the Health Care Leadership Award for his extraordinary personal leadership to improve health and health care in New York City for more than three decades. He was one of the key architects of the 1997 merger of The New York Hospital and The Presbyterian Hospital—creating NewYork-Presbyterian, the world-renowned academic medical complex and the city’s largest private employer. He was also a driving force behind the creation of the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. As chair of NewYork-Presbyterian’s budget and finance committee and an active member of several other committees, he has guided the hospital and its finances during a particularly tumultuous time. For more than 35 years, he has also served as a leader on the boards of the Hearst Foundations, which support a wide array of health care, social services, and educational and cultural programs throughout the country. In the greater New York area, the Foundations’ grants to health care and social services providers have been a steady and generous source of support, last year alone totaling approximately $3 million.

The Health Care Leadership Award was established by the United Hospital Fund in 1998 to recognize strong and sustained leadership aimed at improving health care in New York City.  Previous recipients of the award include Kenneth Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association; James and Merryl Tisch, longtime leaders in New York; Anthony Watson, chairman and CEO of EmblemHealth, Inc.; Andrea Jung, chairman and chief executive officer of Avon Products; Martin D. Payson, chairman of Maimonides Medical Center; John K. Castle, chairman and CEO of Castle Harlan, Inc.; Mathilde Krim, PhD, founding chairman of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR); John J. Mack, chairman of Morgan Stanley; Morton P. Hyman, principal of MPH Enterprises, LLC; William C. Steere, Jr., chairman emeritus of Pfizer Inc; Sanford I. Weill, chairman emeritus of Citi, Inc.; Jack Rudin and the late Lewis Rudin, co-chairmen of Rudin Management Company; and Maurice R. Greenberg, chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr & Co. Inc.

Edgar Mandeville, MD, received the Fund’s Distinguished Community Service Award for his pivotal role in shaping the Arthur Ashe Institute’s work to alleviate health disparities. Since 1993, the Institute, focusing on low- to moderate-income multiethnic communities, has grown from an exciting idea—formulated by tennis star and humanitarian Arthur Ashe just months before his death—to a dynamic organization reaching more than 3,000 Brooklynites each year. Combining his years of urban health care experience—both in private practice in Queens and now as chair of Harlem Hospital’s ob-gyn department—with his network of professional and personal connections, Dr. Mandeville has tirelessly promoted the Institute’s mission and helped establish critical relationships with SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Long Island College Hospital’s Healthy Families Brooklyn program, the Brooklyn Borough President’s office, 11 schools, and more than 250 neighborhood businesses.

Established by the Fund in 1987, the Distinguished Community Service Award recognizes volunteer leadership that significantly improves health care in New York City. For a sixth year, the Distinguished Community Service Award has been generously underwritten by TIAA-CREF, the leading provider of retirement services in the medical, academic, research, and cultural fields. 

Richard Ravitch was recognized with a Special Tribute for his impressive and long-standing service to New York and its health care community. He has been there whenever New York has needed him and continues to be a model hospital trustee and civic leader. He may be best recognized for the 18 months he served as New York’s Lieutenant Governor, during which he focused attention on the State’s serious budget shortfall and the urgent need to dramatically reform our Medicaid program. Often challenging the status quo and proposing innovative ideas, Mr. Ravitch has paved the way to a better health care system and a better New York.

The benefit chairman was J. Barclay Collins II, chairman of the United Hospital Fund.

“We at the United Hospital Fund feel fortunate to have the opportunity to pay tribute to three special honorees this evening,” said James R. Tallon, Jr., president of the United Hospital Fund.  “While they have chosen to tackle different health care challenges, what they share is a vision for change, a commitment to bringing about that change, and the know-how to make change happen. These individuals are leaders who make a difference, and New York’s health care system and the people of New York are better for their respective contributions. For these reasons, the United Hospital Fund is pleased to recognize Frank Bennack, Dr. Edgar Mandeville, and Richard Ravitch—dynamic, thoughtful, caring leaders who richly deserve recognition.”

The United Hospital Fund is a health services research and philanthropic organization whose primary mission is to shape positive change in health care for the people of New York.

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