My father was born in Warsaw, Poland and my mother was born near Kiev, in what is now the Ukraine. They came to America at the very beginning of the 20th Century and had to go to work while they were still children. I grew up in an old tenement in Brownsville, Brooklyn. It was and still is one of the poorest and toughest neighborhoods in America. But that was all we knew. I played stick ball in the busy streets and against the “stoops” (the steps) in front of the buildings. Pushcarts lined Pitkin Avenue where we bought food. It wasn’t easy sleeping with the lights and noise, as the elevated subway trains kept going past our bedroom window. I was one of five children, and none of us ever got a birthday present or any other gift because my parents couldn’t afford it.
Years later, I married a wonderful girl named Kira, who had immigrated to America from the Soviet Union. She was from the same part of the world as my mother and father. From my parents and my wife I learned how terrible the oppression of tyranny can be and how much freedom and liberty add to our lives.
I was very lucky that someone asked me to I take the entrance IQ test for Stuyvesant High School. It was and still is a very highly-rated, math/science public high school in Manhattan. Years later when I was a senior executive in my first pharmaceutical company in California, nine of the twelve members of the Board of Directors and Senior Management had also gone to Stuyvesant High School. It was and is quite a school, and it got me going in the right direction.
I was accepted to Harvard College and received one of their early scholarships. I graduated from it magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. I then went on to Harvard Law School from which I also graduated magna cum laude.
Following law school, I began practicing law on Wall Street. I was always more interested in business, and I became a senior executive of a growing pharmaceutical company in California. Years later when we sold that Company, I joined several Boards of Directors of pharmaceutical/biotech companies. One of those was located in Miami. A short time later I was asked to become its Vice Chairman and President.
Today, I’m the Chairman and CEO of a privately-owned biotech company, and I also serve on the Boards of Directors of two non-pharmaceutical, public companies. I’ve learned a tremendous amount from working with brilliant physicians and scientists over the years. I’ve also learned that the most important asset any business has is its people. It’s amazing what you can do with the right people.
My parents were profound influences on my life, and they made sure that all their children understood the importance of love of family, hard work, honesty, integrity, living up to commitments, courage, and giving back to the community. Those values continue with me to this day, and are the bedrock of everything I have done in my life.
Geniuses, a series 