Bernard Leon Schwartz (born December 13, 1925) is the former

Chairman of the Board The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Loral Space & Communications Loral Space & Communications Inc. is a Delaware-domiciled satellite communications company headed by Michael B. Targoff. The company was formed in 1996 from the remnants of Loral Corporation when Loral divested its defense electronics and syste ...

, a position he held for 34 years. He also served as Chairman and CEO of K&F Industries, Inc., and president and CEO of Globalstar Telecommunications. He retired from Loral and his positions at its various subsidiaries and affiliates as of March 1, 2006. He is currently the Chairman and CEO of BLS Investments, his own investment firm located in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Biography

Schwartz was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. and grew up in the

Bensonhurst Bensonhurst is a residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bordered on the northwest by 14th Avenue, on the northeast by 60th Street, on the southeast by Avenue P and 22nd ...

neighborhood of Brooklyn. He is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. Schwartz graduated from

Townsend Harris High School Townsend Harris High School at Queens College (THHS) is a public magnet high school for the humanities in the borough of Queens in New York City. Students and alumni often refer to themselves as "Harrisites." Townsend Harris consistently ranks a ...

in NYC. He holds a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

in finance and an honorary doctorate of science from

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

. He is a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

veteran, having served in the

US Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

. After school, he worked as an accountant eventually becoming a partner at a Wall Street firm. He then went on to serve as a vice president of

American President Lines APL, formerly called American President Lines Ltd., is an American container shipping company that is a subsidiary of French shipping company CMA CGM. It operates an all-container ship fleet, including 9 U.S. flagged container vessels. In 1938, ...

and then president of Reliance Insurance Co. (formerly Leasco) for four years. In 1972, he bought a 12% stake in

Loral Corporation Loral Corporation was a defense contractor founded in 1948 in New York by William Lorenz and Leon Alpert as Loral Electronics Corporation. The company's name was taken from the first letters of each founder's surname. History Loral Corporation o ...

, a New York Stock Exchange-listed manufacturer of satellites and satellite systems, where he served as its Chairman and CEO for 34 years.

Political activities

Schwartz is a lifelong

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

. According to

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

, he was the largest single contributor to the Democratic Party from 1992 to 1996. In 1996, he celebrated his 71st birthday with

Bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

and

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

. In 1998 Schwartz became embroiled in a campaign donations scandal and an alleged transfer of missile technology to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

that occurred in 1996. He was exonerated of any wrongdoing in the campaign finance matter after a Justice Department investigation. Loral settled the missile transfer matter with the Justice Department in 2002, paying a $14 million fine and admitting no wrongdoing. In 2016, Schwartz donated US$1 million to

Priorities USA Action Priorities USA Action is a progressive political action committee and is the largest Democratic Party super PAC. Founded in 2011, it supported Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. It was the primary super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton' ...

, a Super PAC supporting Democratic presidential candidate

. Schwartz is also in the $5 million - $10 million bracket of donors to the Clinton Foundation.

Foreign Policy

In 2002, the Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellowship in Business and Foreign Policy was established at the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

with a gift from the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Foundation. The fellowship was created to focus on the global integration of financial markets and its implications for U.S. economic and foreign policy. Schwartz did not actually become a member of the Council on Foreign Relations until 2003, the following year.

Personal life

Schwartz was married to the former Irene Zanderer and lives in New York City; she died in 2014. They had two daughters. He remarried to Denise Jansen. Schwartz was a member of the

United Jewish Appeal The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) was a Jewish philanthropic umbrella organization that existed from its creation in 1939 until it was folded into the United Jewish Communities, which was formed from the 1999 merger of United Jewish Appeal (UJA), Cou ...

Federations's real estate committee. In 2002, he and his wife donated $5 million to

Baruch College Baruch College (officially the Bernard M. Baruch College) is a public college in New York City. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the college operates und ...

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, Bernard 1925 births Living people Philanthropists from New York (state) American chief executives 20th-century American Jews People from Brooklyn Loral Space & Communications New York (state) Democrats American real estate businesspeople Townsend Harris High School alumni United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II 21st-century American Jews