Thursday, February 28, 2008
Revlon cosmetics mogul donates $50 million to New York hospital and medical college
NEW YORK (AP) -- Revlon Inc. cosmetics magnate Ronald O. Perelman has donated $50 million to enhance heart care and reproductive medicine research at a Manhattan hospital and affiliated medical college.
The gift to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College will establish the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Care Institute. It also will support research and clinical care at the newly named Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine.
The gift was announced Thursday.
Perelman is chairman and chief executive officer of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc., the majority shareholder of Revlon cosmetics. He is on the hospital's board of trustees and the college's Board of Overseers.
Cohen, Perelman's ex-wife, was a newspaper gossip columnist and television entertainment correspondent. After her death from ovarian cancer last summer, Perelman called Cohen "a remarkable, dynamic woman, a terrific mother and my best friend."
It was the second big gift announcement in the New York metro area this week. On Wednesday, Stony Brook University received $60 million from its former math chairman, Jim Simons, president of the investment firm Renaissance Technologies LLC, and his wife, Marilyn Simons, president of the Simons Foundation. Their gift will create a new research center in geometry and physics.
The new Perelman heart institute is billed as a "medical town square," with a resource center focusing on heart disease, especially in women.
"The cardiac institute will not only treat patients, but also educate and advocate -- particularly to women, who still falsely believe they are at less risk -- about preventive measures to reduce heart disease," Perelman said.
Hospital board chairman John J. Mack said the gift "will have an enormously positive effect on our ability to provide the best cardiac care possible to our patients."
Sanford I. Weill, chairman of the college's Board of Overseers, praised Perelman's support for the burgeoning field of reproductive medicine. He said the gift "will advance an already outstanding department that conducts cutting-edge research and translates research results into life-changing advances for patients here in New York and around the world."
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
