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Morton Olshan


Morton L. Olshan is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Olshan Properties and its related entities.  He remains one of the leaders in the Commercial Real Estate industry and has maintained a long history of creative property developments and successful operating businesses.

Mr. Olshan’s real estate career began as an accountant in the late-1950’s, when he joined the New York City real estate firm of Duff and Brown. He later founded Janoff & Olshan, Inc., as well as Volt Information Sciences (NASDQ: VOLT  http://www.volt.com), a publicly traded technical information company where he served as Director and Treasurer. In 1967, he founded Mall Properties, Inc. (MPI) and began a notable career developing regional malls and suburban retail community centers. In 2000, he became a principal owner of YankeeNets LLC and continues to serve on the Board of Directors of the New York Yankees.

One of Mr. Olshan’s proudest accomplishments was the conversion of the B. Altman building on Fifth Avenue into a nonprofit education and research facility. The building now houses the New York Public Library, Oxford University Press, and the City University of New York’s Graduate Center. For this effort, Mr. Olshan and his partners received the Municipal Art Society Award.

In addition to his distinguished real estate career, Mr. Olshan has been actively involved in numerous civic and social service organizations. He is a Trustee Emeritus of the Horace Mann School, where he served on the Executive Board and was Chair of the Physical Facilities Committee. He also served as a Board member of the New York Urban Coalition, the Community Preservation Corporation, and represented the New York City Comptroller’s Office on the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He currently serves as a member of The President’s Council of the New York Public Library.

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