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Peterson Award Dinner

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NYC DEPUTY MAYOR ROBERT K. STEEL HONORED WITH PETERSON BUSINESS AWARD, PRESENTED BY WALTER ISAACSON, BEST-SELLING AUTHOR

Robert K. Steel, New York City Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, was honored as the eighth recipient of Greenwich Library's Peterson Business Award at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Greenwich, CT on March 7. Walter Isaacson, author of the New York Times best-seller Steve Jobs, and President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, presented Robert K. Steel with this prestigious award.

The award was presented at the 2012 Peterson Business Award Dinner, which benefits the Greenwich Library. Over 300 prominent business and community leaders attended the Peterson Business Award Dinner. The dinner is held every other year and is the Library's only major fundraiser. The event netted $709,000 to support the Library's current services and programs, as well as fund new initiatives. Library Trustees Susan Bevan and Annette Wilson served as co-chairs of the event.

When presenting the award to Mr. Steel, Mr. Isaacson said, "The heart of America is civic engagement and no one is more involved than Bob Steel. Bob is one of the wise men of American life." In his acceptance speech, Mr. Steel shared his excitement at discovering the joy of reading through the summer reading program while growing up. "There is a clear correlation between people who read and people who have success later in life. Libraries and what they do are critically important," Mr. Steel said.

Walter Isaacson While serving as the New York City Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, Steel is responsible for the Bloomberg Administration's five-borough economic development strategy and job-creation efforts, as well as its efforts to expand job training, strengthen small business assistance, promote new industries, diversify the economy, and achieve the goals of the New Housing Marketplace Plan, which is designed to build or preserve enough affordable housing for 500,000 New Yorkers by 2014. He spearheads the Administration's major redevelopment projects, including those in Lower Manhattan, Flushing, Hunters Point South, Coney Island, Stapleton, the South Bronx, and Hudson Yards. Deputy Mayor Steel oversees such agencies as the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Department of City Planning, NYC Housing Authority, NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, Department of Small Business Services, NYC Economic Development Corporation and NYC & Company, and he serves as Chair of Brooklyn Bridge Park board.

Prior to his 2010 appointment as Deputy Mayor, Steel was the President and CEO of Wachovia. From 2006 to 2008, he was the Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Prior to entering government service, Steel spent nearly 30 years at Goldman Sachs, ultimately rising to become co-head of the U.S. Equities Division and Vice Chairman of the firm. He is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, and has distinguished himself as Chairman of Duke's Board of Trustees, Chairman of the Aspen Institute's Board of Trustees, Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, a member of the FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion, Chairman of The After-School Corporation, and Co-Founder of SeaChange Capital Partners, an organization dedicated to helping nonprofits grow. In his free time, Mr. Steel enjoys golfing, skiing, hiking and spending time with his family, including his wife Gillian and their three daughters.

Walter Isaacson is the CEO of the Aspen Institute, a non-partisan education and policy studies institute based in Washington, DC. Isaacson is also the author of Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992), and coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986).

Isaacson was born in New Orleans and is a graduate of Harvard College and of Pembroke College of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He began his career at The Sunday Times of London and then the New Orleans Times-Picayune/ States-Item. He joined Time in 1978 and served as a political correspondent, national editor and editor of new media before becoming the magazine's 14th editor in 1996. He became chairman and CEO of CNN in 2001, and president and CEO of the Aspen Institute in 2003. Isaacson lives with his wife and daughter in Washington, DC.

The Peterson Business Award was established by the Greenwich Library and the Peterson Foundation to "recognize and honor an individual whose innovative thinking, leadership, and sustained record of achievement has had a profound impact on the national and global economy, and whose words and deeds have demonstrated a commitment to intellectual freedom and open access to information."

The Peterson Business Award is named in honor of Clementine Lockwood Peterson, whose 1992 bequest of $25 million made possible a new 32,000 square-foot wing at the Greenwich Library. Designed by renowned architect Cesar Pelli, this wing contains expanded business and music collections. Mrs. Peterson's gift was made in memory of her son, Jonathan, and her husband, J. Whitney Peterson. The Peterson Business Award was conceived in order to celebrate Mrs. Peterson's extraordinary generosity and to recognize outstanding business leadership.

For additional information about the Peterson Dinner or tickets to this event, please contact Sharlene Cameron, Greenwich Library Development Director, at (203) 622-7957, or send an e-mail