Ira Drukier is an American hotelier and philanthropist. He co-owns BD Hotels, a hotel chain in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Biography

Early life

Ira Drukier grew up in

Rego Park Rego Park is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City. Rego Park is bordered to the north by Elmhurst and Corona, to the east and south by Forest Hills, and to the west by Middle Village. Rego Park's boundaries include Queens ...

, a neighborhood of

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

.Alex Williams
Lords of the Chambers
''

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'', ...

'' His father, Charles Drukier, was a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States in 1948.Real-Estate Daughters in the Wings: BD Hotels May Someday Be Led by the Founders' Daughters
''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', July 21, 2013
''The New York Times'', February 20, 1988 He became a real estate investor on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

with another Holocaust survivor, Robert Born; they also purchased the Greystone Hotel at West 91st and Broadway. His mother was Toby Drukier. Drukier graduated from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

in 1966, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering.Cornell and Iowa State Receive $20-Million-Plus Donations
''

The Chronicle of Philanthropy ''The Chronicle of Philanthropy'' is a magazine that covers the nonprofit world of philanthropy. Based in Washington, DC, it is aimed at charity leaders, foundation executives, fund raisers, and other people involved in philanthropy. ''The Chroni ...

'', December 5, 2014$25 Million Gift from Gale and Ira Drukier Creates the Drukier Institute for Children's Health at Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College: Press Release, December 4, 2014 He then received a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the

Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...

in 1973.

Career

He started his career at the David Sarnoff Research Center of the

RCA Corporation The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

in 1973, where he conducted research on microwave semiconductors. Three years later, in 1976, he started working at the Microwave Semiconductor Corporation (MSC), where he conducted research on high-power microwave transistors. After the merger of SMC with

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

in 1981, he was appointed as corporate vice president. He served in this capacity for two years, until 1983. In 1985, he co-founded BD Hotels, a hotel chain in

, with Richard Born, the son of his father's business partner Robert.John Holusha
SQUARE FEET/Manhattan; For 2 Hoteliers, A Freewheeling Business Style
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', July 4, 2004Ben Fischer
Ira and Gale Drukier give $25M to Weill Cornell
''New York Business Journal'', December 4, 2014 The company owns and operates about twenty-five hotels. They include

The Mercer Hotel The Mercer Hotel, located at the corner of Mercer and Prince Streets in SoHo, Manhattan, New York City, was the second acquisition in the luxury collection of André Balazs hotels. It offers 75 guest rooms on six floors of a Romanesque revival bui ...

, the

Hotel Elysée The Hotel Elysée is a New York City hotel on 60 East 54th Street between Madison and Park Avenues in Midtown Manhattan. The hotel was founded in 1926 as a European-style hotel for the carriage trade by Swiss-born Max Haering. History Hotel Elys ...

, the

Maritime Hotel __FORCETOC__ The Maritime Hotel is a luxury boutique hotel located at 363 West 16th Street at Ninth Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, close to the Meatpacking District. It has 121 rooms and 5 suites, all decorated ...

and

The Jane The Jane is a boutique hotel located at 505–507 West Street (Manhattan), West Street, with its main entrance at 113 Jane Street in the West Village section of the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The building was or ...

as well as more affordable hotels like the Skyline and the Belvedere in New York City, and a Ramada Inn at the Newark airport. They have also developed the

Greenwich Hotel Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

located at North Moore and Greenwich Streets in TriBeCa with actor Robert DeNiro, who owned the land upon which it was built. Moreover, they developed Townhouse in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Philanthropy

Much of his philanthropy has been centered on his commitment to his alma mater, Cornell University. He served on its board of trustees for eight years. He also served on the Cornell Tech Taskforce, which led to the establishment of the Cornell Tech campus on

Roosevelt Island Roosevelt Island is an island in New York City's East River, within the borough of Manhattan. It lies between Manhattan Island to the west, and the borough of Queens, on Long Island, to the east. Running from the equivalent of East 46th to 85 ...

. Additionally, he serves as the chair of the council of the

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art ("The Johnson Museum") is an art museum located on the northwest corner of the Arts Quad on the main campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its collection includes two windows from Frank Lloyd W ...

on the Cornell campus. He has also served on the board of overseers of the

Weill Cornell Medical College The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school located in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York. Weill Cornell Medicine is affiliated with NewY ...

, which is located in New York City, since 2012. With his wife, he donated US$25 million to Cornell University in December 2014. The charitable gift will be used to establish the Drukier Institute for Children's Health at the Weill Cornell Medical College as well as an annual lectureship and faculty prize. Beyond Cornell, he is a patron of the arts. For example, he serves on the President's Council of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York City. He also serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees Building Committee of the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York. Drukier has supported Jewish causes. He serves as vice chair of the American Society for

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

. He also serves on the board of overseers of the

Museum of Jewish Heritage A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

Personal life

He is married to Gale Drukier, a retired college professor and current philanthropist. Gale serves on the board of numerous charities. They have one adult daughter, Jennifer Drukier. She has 4 children. They reside in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drukier, Ira Living people People from Rego Park, Queens People from New Jersey Cornell University College of Engineering alumni Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni American hoteliers Jewish American philanthropists Philanthropists from New York (state) Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American Jews