Peter William May (born 1943/44) is an American businessman and investor.

Biography

May was born to a

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 ...

family and raised in

Hewlett, New York Hewlett is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 6,819 at the 2010 census. Hewlett is usually included as one of the Five Towns in th ...

on Long Island, the son of Isabel and Samuel May. His father was a businessman and his mother a social worker. He has one sister, Linda. He graduated with a B.A. and later an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago after which he worked for the accounting firm '' Peat Marwick''. In 1972, he joined the Flagstaff Corp founded by

Nelson Peltz Nelson Peltz (born June 24, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is a founding partner, together with Peter W. May and Edward P. Garden, of Trian Fund Management, an alternative investment management fund based in New Yor ...

as an accountant and later became its chief financial officer. In the 1980s, May and Peltz partnered together and founded the investment firm Triarc Companies where May served as president and chief operating officer. In April 1983, the Peltz and May bought a stake in vending-machine and wire company Triangle Industries Inc. with the idea of using it to make acquisitions, building it into a Fortune 100 industrial company. Triangle was sold to

Pechiney Pechiney SA was a major aluminium conglomerate based in France. The company was acquired in 2003 by the Alcan Corporation, headquartered in Canada. In 2007, Alcan itself was taken over by mining giant Rio Tinto Alcan. Prior to its acquisition, ...

in 1988. In 1989, May joined the board of directors at

Mount Sinai Medical Center Mount Sinai Hospital, formerly at times known as Mount Sinai Medical Center, is a 319-bed major urban hospital in Chicago, Illinois, with its main campus located adjacent to Douglass Park at 15th Street and California Avenue on the city's West Sid ...

; in 2002, he was named chairman of the board after being asked by former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and then fellow board member

Robert Rubin Robert Edward Rubin (born August 29, 1938) is an American retired banking executive, lawyer, and former government official. He served as the 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton administration. Before his government ...

. He was able to restore Mount Sinai to profitability in three years without utilizing its $180 million in unrestricted funds while also increasing its endowment by $70 million to $500 million.

Personal life

In 1964, May married Leni Ann Finkelstein. They have a son, Jonathan Paul May (married to Juliana Kelly in 1990). The couple lives in Bridgewater, Connecticut.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:May, Peter W. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American business executives 20th-century American Jews American accountants 1940s births University of Chicago alumni People from Hewlett, New York People from Bridgewater, Connecticut 21st-century American Jews