Peter W Davidson

Peter Davidson is focused on creating jobs and stimulating economic development in New York State by finding ways to execute new transactions or clear bottlenecks for existing ventures and projects. He oversees the management of Empire State Development’s statewide subsidiaries and all large-scale urban development projects, as well as the Agency’s Division of Marketing, Advertising and Tourism. Mr. Davidson was appointed Chairman of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation (BBPDC) in December 2009. Mr. Davidson is a businessman who has founded and managed six media companies in New York; these companies were in the newspaper, radio, television, advertising and market research businesses, many of them centered in the Hispanic business community. From 1989 to 1999, he was owner and publisher of El Diario La Prensa, the leading Spanish-language newspaper in New York. Prior to 1989 he was an executive at Morgan Stanley & Co. Known as a creative business leader, he has piloted complex deals, structured numerous equity and debt-raising transactions, handled labor negotiations and acted as lead negotiator in multiple financings, acquisitions and asset sales. Since 2001, Mr. Davidson has also been Chairman of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, a leading NY based grant-making institution. Under his leadership, grant making has focused on improving the environment of New York City with more parkland, alternative transportation, and waterfront access. Funding also supports immigration policies in the United States and environmental and archeological conservation worldwide. Mr. Davidson is a graduate of Stanford University and the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration. He is an active member of the Brooklyn community, where he lives with his wife and three children.