Michael Recanati (1957–2015) was an American businessman and philanthropist.

Early life

Michael Recanati was born in 1957. His father, Raphael Recanati was an Israeli-American businessman and philanthropist. Recanati was educated at

Ramaz School The Ramaz School is an elite American coeducational Jewish Modern Orthodox day school which offers a dual curriculum of general studies taught in English and Judaic studies taught in Hebrew. The school is located on the Upper East Side of Manha ...

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 ...

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 ...

Career

Recanati started his career at his family business, the

Overseas Shipholding Group Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. (OSG - Overseas Shipping Group) () is the operator of a fleet of twenty-four oil tankers and oil tug-barges. It is based in Tampa, Florida, United States, and was founded in 1948. In 1969, under the leadership o ...

, in 1978. He was forced to leave OSG in 1995 after a dispute about the company's investments in cruise ships. Recanati founded Orama, a

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

firm based in New York City and

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, Israel, in 1999. It closed down in 2001. In 2008, Recanati founded Really Cool Foods, an

organic food Organic food, ecological food or biological food are food and drinks produced by methods complying with the standards of organic farming. Standards vary worldwide, but organic farming features practices that cycle resources, promote ecological ...

company. It closed down in 2011. Recanati served as the chairman of 511 Equities.

Philanthropy

Recanati endowed the Dina and Raphael Recanati Professorship in Immunology at the

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

in honor of his parents in 1992. Dr

Jerome Groopman Jerome E. Groopman has been a staff writer in medicine and biology for ''The New Yorker'' since 1998. He is also the Dina and Raphael Recanati Chair of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of Experimental Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Me ...

is the current chair. He also endowed the Recanati Family Professor of Science and professor of Microbiology and Medicine at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

In 2002, Recanati and his partner Ira Statfeld made a $5 million donation to the then Hampton Day School, taking control of the board of trustees and changing the name of the school to the Morriss Center in honor of Statfeld's father, however the school merged with the Ross School in 2006. In 2007, it was reported that Recanati and his partner had donated $30 million to the Child Study Center at

to establish an

Asperger's Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's, is a former neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavio ...

Institute.

Personal life

Recanati and his partner Ira Statfeld had one son. They resided in Manhattan and East Hampton, New York. His partner at time of death was Tom Schalk.The IDC Herzliyan Winter 2016 Update
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Recanati, Michael 1957 births 2015 deaths American people of Greek-Jewish descent Businesspeople from Manhattan American company founders American LGBT businesspeople American gay men Gay businessmen Ramaz School alumni Recanati family 20th-century American businesspeople