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New Trustees Are Michael DeMarco, Chirag Patel, and Rebecca Symes
Jersey City, NJ – November 15, 2016 – Liberty Science Center announced today that Michael DeMarco, President of Mack-Cali Realty Corporation, Chirag Patel, Co-CEO & Chairman of Amneal Pharmaceuticals, and Rebecca Symes, General Counsel of Dixon Advisory USA, have been elected to the Center’s Board of Trustees. DeMarco and Patel have been named Managing Trustees, and Symes will be a new Advisory Trustee.
“We’re excited to welcome these new trustees to our board,” said Paul Hoffman, President and CEO of Liberty Science Center. “They will be instrumental in amplifying our mission of getting learners of all ages excited about the power, promise, and pure fun of science and technology.”
DeMarco is a veteran real estate professional with more than 30 years of industry experience. He is responsible for the strategic direction and transformation of Mack-Cali.
DeMarco graduated from the University of Chicago with an MBA in finance, as well as Pace University with a bachelor’s in business administration and accounting and a minor in history. He is also a certified public accountant. His current affiliations include serving on the boards of NAIO NJ and Saint Peter’s Preparatory School, as well as being a member of Urban Land Institute and the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).
Patel’s lifelong drive and constant desire to discover what’s next is propelling Amneal from humble beginnings to an emerging global presence as the fastest growing generic drug supplier and seventh largest generic pharmaceutical manufacturer in the U.S., with revenues exceeding $1 billion.
Patel is the recipient of several industry honors, including the 2011 Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur of the Year Life Sciences Award®. He supports various philanthropic and charitable causes both in the U.S. and abroad. He and his wife, Priti Patel, established the Niswarth Children Foundation in 2013, with the goal of bringing fresh water, sanitation, sustenance and education to one million underprivileged children.
Patel received his bachelor’s degree in commerce from H.A. College of Commerce, India and his B.S. in business administration from New Jersey City University. He also received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from New Jersey City University in recognition of his efforts to serve others and help them transform their lives.
He serves on the boards of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, the Art of Living Foundation, the New Jersey City University Foundation and the Family Reach Foundation.
As General Counsel for Dixon Advisory USA, a $900 million residential Real Estate Investment Trust operating in the New York metropolitan area, Symes advises senior management on corporate governance, risk management, and transactional matters. She is also responsible for developing and maintaining the company’s relationships with community stakeholders and directing the company’s charitable giving and employee volunteer initiatives.
Symes serves on the board of the Jersey City Free Public Library, New Leaders Council New Jersey, and The Waterfront Project – Hudson County’s only community-based legal services nonprofit. She received her Bachelors of Arts from Ithaca College and her Juris Doctor from the Catholic University of America, where she was the Dulin Haynes Memorial Fellow.
Liberty Science Center is led by a veritable “Who’s Who” of area and national business leaders and philanthropists. Its other Managing Trustees are David Barry, Co-Chair, President and CEO, Ironstate Development Company; Frederick A. Bertoldo, EVP, Regional President of Northern New Jersey, Wells Fargo Bank; Benjamin Z. Bronfman, Co-Founder, Bronfman Investment Group; Jennifer A. Chalsty, Director, Advisory Council, James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Johns Hopkins University; Kevin Cummings, President and CEO, Investors Bank; Alma DeMetropolis, Vice Chair, Managing Director, JPMorgan Private Bank; Robert J. Hariri, MD, Co-Founder and Vice Chairman, Human Longevity, Inc.; Chairman, Founder and CEO, Celularity, Inc.; Richard M. Hodosh, MD, Medical Director, Atlantic Brain and Spine Institute; Gregory J. Khost, Managing Director, US Trust, Bank of America; Barbara G. Koster, SVP and CIO, Prudential Financial; Ralph LaRossa, President and COO, Public Service Electric & Gas Company; Bruce L. Levy, Treasurer, President and CEO, BMR Energy; W. Nevins McCann, JD, Partner, Connell Foley; Laura Bilodeau Overdeck, Vice Chair, Founder and President, Bedtime Math; Minalkumar (Minal) Patel, MD, SVP and Chief Strategy Officer, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey; Amit Rakhit, MD, Chief Medical & Portfolio Management Officer, Ovid Therapeutics; Anthony T. Skiadas, SVP and Controller, Verizon Communications; Carolyn J. Slaski, Americas Vice Chair—Talent, EY; Thomas J. Stanton, III, Managing Director, Jones Lang LaSalle Americas; Vijay Swarup, VP, ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company; Tony Tramontin, Partner, McKinsey & Company, Inc.; Marcus Weldon, President, Bell Labs; Corporate CTO, Nokia; Josh S. Weston, Co-Chair, Honorary Chairman, Automatic Data Processing, Inc..
Advisory Trustees are Susan Mustokoff Akselrad, Former Chief Employment Counsel for Solvay S.A.’s North American Companies; Christopher S. Boerner, President and Head of US Commercial, Bristol-Myers Squibb; Michele Holcomb, Teva R&D COO and SVP of R&D Strategy, Portfolio, Search, and Partnerships; Glenn Pomerantz, MD, JD. Honorary Chair Emeritus is William A. Tansey, III, MD, Cardiologist, Summit Medical Group. Honorary Trustees are Governor Thomas H. Kean, Mayor Steven Fulop, and Susan A. Cole.
About Liberty Science Center
Liberty Science Center (LSC.org) is a 300,000-square-foot not-for-profit learning center located in Liberty State Park on the Jersey City bank of the Hudson near the Statue of Liberty. Dedicated to bringing the power, promise, and pure fun of science and technology to people of all ages, Liberty Science Center houses 12 museum exhibition halls, a live animal collection with 110 species, giant aquariums, a 3D theater, the world’s largest IMAX Dome Theater, live simulcast surgeries, a tornado-force wind simulator, K-12 classrooms and labs, and teacher-development programs. More than 250,000 students visit the Science Center each year, and tens of thousands more participate in the Center’s offsite and online programs. LSC is the most visited cultural institution in New Jersey with 650,000 visitors annually and the largest interactive science center in the NYC-NJ metropolitan area.