Charles Bronfman, of the Seagram’s corporate family, started devoting himself to philanthropic causes at age seventeen. For much of his adult life, he has worked for Seagram’s, rising to serve as Co-Chairman. He was also the founding owner of the Montreal Expos and has been Chairman of Koor Industries Ltd., one of Israel’s leading investment holding companies. In 1986, he and his late wife decided to concentrate their philanthropic efforts and founded the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies in Montreal. The Foundation moved to the United States in 1996 and now engages in $220 million worth of programmatic activities, and has been hailed as a model foundation by the Philanthropy Roundtable. Among his many other philanthropic duties, Charles sits on the boards of Mount Sinai Medical Center and Brandeis University.
Jeffrey Solomon is the president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies. A widely recognized expert on philanthropy, he has written more than eighty articles on the subject for professional and popular audiences, and has taught it at New York University. He has served on numerous nonprofit boards, including the Council on Foundations, where he chaired the Committee on Ethics and Practice; been Chief Operating Officer of the United Jewish Appeal Federation in New York; and he is a founding trustee of the World Faiths Development Dialogue. At ACBP, he coordinated the Gift of New York, an effort to ease the suffering of the families of those killed in the attack on the World Trade Center by offering them free access to the city’s cultural, sports and entertainment resources.