by Mort Zuckerman Biography
The world is most familiar with businessman and media mogul Mortimer Benjamin “Mort” Zuckerman as the co-founder and executive chairman of the real estate investment trust Boston Properties. Zuckerman was born on June 4, 1937, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Additionally, he owns the publications USNews & World Report and the New York Daily News.
According to reliable sources, Zuckerman’s net worth has been reported to be as high as $2.5 billion, acquired from his prosperous business career, which he began in 1962.
Mort Zuckerman’s Net Worth
As of February 7th, 2007, Mortimer B. Zuckerman’s estimated net worth was at least $172 million. Over the past 19 years, Mr. Zuckerman has sold BXP stock for over $75,205,696 while owning over 19,540 units of Boston Properties stock valued at over $96,313,086.
Insiders at Boston Properties have sold stock for more than $276,557,574 and purchased 62,002 units worth $5,090,492 during the past 20 years. Matthew J. Lustig, Edward H. Linde, and Mortimer B. Zuckerman are some of the insiders who trade the most frequently. Executives and independent directors of Boston Properties transact in stock on average once every 27 days for a total value of $1,657,403. Peter V. Otteni traded 10,463 units of BXP stock, which is currently valued at $571,280, in the most recent stock transaction on June 7, 2023.
Mort Zuckerman’s Educational Life/Family
Mortimer’s grandfather was an orthodox rabbi, hence he has Jewish lineage. His mother Esther and father Abraham ran a confectionery and tobacco shop, respectively. Mortimer enrolled at McGill University when he was 16 years old. He graduated from there in 1957 with a BA degree and four years later with a BCL degree.
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After that, he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he graduated with an MBA. After completing his studies at Harvard Law School and earning an LLM in 1962, Mortimer remained at Harvard for nearly ten years, serving as an associate professor while also serving as a professor at Yale University.
He then made the decision to stop teaching and joined the real estate company Cabot, Cabot & Forbes. He spent the next seven years there and eventually rose to the rank of senior vice president while simultaneously serving as chief financial officer.
Mort Zuckerman Business Career
Following graduation, Zuckerman spent nine years working as an associate professor at Harvard Business School. He was a Yale University professor as well. At Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, a real estate company, Zuckerman worked for seven years before becoming senior vice president and chief financial officer.
He bought The Atlantic Monthly in 1980 and served as its chairman from that year until 1999. He paid David G. Bradley $12 million in 1999 to purchase the magazine. He joked, “I averaged out” while commenting on this transaction and the one of Fast Company magazine, which he sold for $365 million in 2000 during the height of the IT boom.
In 1984, while still the owner of Atlantic Monthly, Zuckerman purchased U.S. News & World Report, where he continues to serve as editor-in-chief. He acquired the New York Daily News in 1993, and he ran it until 2017 when he sold it to Tronc.
Political Career About Mort Zuckerman
In addition to his activities in publishing and real estate, Zuckerman frequently discusses international politics as an editorialist and on television. He frequently contributed columns to U.S. News & World Report and the New York Daily News and appeared on MSNBC and The McLaughlin Group.
Since the late 1970s, Zuckerman’s party affiliations have changed over time.
In an interview on July 12, 2010, Zuckerman claimed to have contributed to one of President Barack Obama’s political addresses. Longtime Obama speechwriters Ben Rhodes and Jon Favreau rejected that, saying they had never spoken to or met Mort Zuckerman.
Barack Obama received criticism from Zuckerman, a longtime member of the Democratic party who voted for him in the 2008 presidential election, on a number of occasions. I hope for a triple-A president to lead a triple-A country, Zuckerman wrote in The Wall Street Journal in response to Standard & Poor’s downgrading of US treasury debt in 2011. Zuckerman initially backed Obama’s call for significant infrastructure spending to boost the economy, but later criticized the plan’s breakdown, saying that “if you look at the make-up of the stimulus program, roughly half of it went to state and local municipalities, which is in effect to the municipal unions that are at the core of the Democratic party.
Mort Zuckerman Personal Career
The Atlantic Monthly nearly went out of business in the 1970s due to rising printing and delivery costs that vastly outweighed subscription revenues and scant advertising sales. In spite of Mortimer Zuckerman’s best efforts, the magazine struggled after he purchased it in 1980. He transferred ownership to David G. Bradley, proprietor of the National Journal Group, in 1999.
Bradley made significant financial investments in The Atlantic Monthly and oversaw a number of improvements. 11 issues were published in 2001 and 10 in 2003. The masthead of the publication was changed to The Atlantic in 2004, replacing the one that had been in use from 1981 to 1993. A similar change to its corporate name was done three years later. Additionally, in 2006, the publication relocated its headquarters from Boston to Washington, D.C. The move was a reflection of The Atlantic’s growing interest in politics.
The Atlantic expanded significantly during Bradley’s leadership, with its digital operations playing a significant role. The Emerson Collective, created and led by Laurene Powell Jobs, a well-known philanthropist and the widow of Steve Jobs, acquired a majority share in the journal in 2017, it was reported. The Emerson Collective primarily focused on immigration and education reform.
Zuckerman’s participation in Israeli and Jewish organizations
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations was presided over by Zuckerman from 2001 to 2003. Usually, the nomination committee tries to pick a candidate who is regarded as uncontentious. Liberal Jewish groups, however, strongly condemned Zuckerman. However, Zuckerman eventually won the election and was re-elected for a full term.
Zuckerman was identified as a member of the media wing of the American “Israeli lobby” by Harvard Kennedy School academic dean Stephen Walt and University of Chicago political science professor John Mearsheimer in their 2006 paper The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. “I would only say this,” Zuckerman responded, “the 92-year-old man who was sued in a paternity action comes to me when I hear the charges of this disproportionate influence of the Jewish community. He admitted guilt because he felt so pleased with himself.
Zuckerman’s Organizations and appointments
Zuckerman sits on the boards of trustees for a number of public and private organizations, including New York University, the Aspen Institute, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, the Hole in the Wall Gang Fund, and the Centre for Communications. He belongs to the National Advisory Board of JPMorgan, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He served as the board president of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Daniel M. Snyder, the owner of the NFL team Washington Commanders, is known to regard Zuckerman as a mentor and close friend. Zuckerman has also provided financial support for Snyder’s business endeavors (CampusUSA magazine) and served as a shareholder and director of Snyder Communications Inc., a marketing services company that was acquired in 2000.
