Albert B. Ratner, RMS Corporations

Albert Ratner has a long history of involvement in the commercial and residential real estate industry as well as lumber commercial industry at Forest City. Forest City was a diversified real estate company that was founded by his family in 1920 and was acquired in 2018. He served as the Company’s chief executive officer from 1975 to 1995, when he, along with Samuel H. Miller, became co-chairman of the board.

During his tenure with Forest City, the company was involved in shopping center development, residential development, senior housing, land development, and military housing in US and Hawaii. Among the projects developed by the company were Metro Tech, Brooklyn, NY, 8 million square feet of office; Pacific Park, including Barclays Center, which included ownership of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, NY Times building; and 19 retail projects in and around New York city.

During his time at Forest City, they developed a partnership with MIT, creating University Park, a 2.5 million square feet Biotech building, worked with the University of PA on a medical facility, partnered with Johns Hopkins developing a Science + Technology Park at 1812 Ashland Avenue, centered around Eager Park, and created partnerships with Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, and Denver among other cities.

Mr. Ratner’s other business involvement includes serving as director of American Greetings company and RPM, both listed on the NYSE. He is currently a director of QED and several startup companies.

Ratner is well-known as a long-time community booster for Cleveland and nationally. He is a leader in its Jewish community. He is a past Board Chairman and Lifetime Trustee of Jewish Federation of Cleveland and a member of the International Council of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

Mr. Ratner is the founder and an honorary trustee of Shoes & Clothes for Kids, founder and life trustee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Foundation, founder and board member of Global Cleveland, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Ginn Academy.

Nationally, he is on the board of governors of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation and is an honorary trustee of the Enterprise Foundation.

Over the past thirty years, Mr. Ratner has been engaged in philanthropic and social engineering efforts. These efforts have included: working in education with the Cleveland Schools, the co-founding of Global Cleveland, an immigrant encouragement organization and is working with Appalachian Ohio improvement opportunities and on poverty around the State of Ohio.

Ratner is a graduate of Michigan State University, with a degree in forestry. He also holds an Honorary Doctor of Laws (1990) Long Island University, Brooklyn, N.Y.; Honorary Doctor of Engineering (1992) Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, N.Y.; Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (2012) Cleveland State University; Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (2016) Case Western Reserve University; and Honorary Degree (2018) Cuyahoga Community College.

Interview with a Legend and Leader