Jerry I. Speyer, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Germaine M. Speyer (Swiss origin) and Ernst A. Speyer (from a historic Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany, with distant ties to the Speyer banking family), was raised in a cultured German-Jewish household on Riverside Drive in Manhattan after his family relocated from Milwaukee when he was three months old. His father fled Nazi Germany in 1939 and established a shoe manufacturing business in the U.S. Speyer graduated from Horace Mann School, earned a Bachelor's degree in German literature from Columbia College in 1962, and an MBA from Columbia Business School in 1964. During college, he was roommates with Art Garfunkel and Sanford Greenberg, friends with Michael Mukasey, and a member of the Zeta Beta Tau Jewish fraternity. He began his career in 1964 as Assistant to the Vice President at Madison Square Garden. In 1978, he co-founded Tishman Speyer with his then-father-in-law Robert Tishman, serving as President and CEO of the major global real estate development firm, which manages nearly 100 million square feet of portfolio and has redeveloped landmarks like Rockefeller Center and holds interests in properties such as the Chrysler Building. Speyer has expanded the firm into global markets and served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, with leadership roles in real estate organizations. A prominent philanthropist and art collector, he chaired the Museum of Modern Art's board for 11 years (now Chairman emeritus), became Chairman of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in 2018 (President of the Board since 2019), and holds or has held positions including Chair of Columbia University's Executive Committee (Chairman emeritus), Chair emeritus of the Real Estate Board of New York, past President of the Dalton School Board, board member of Carnegie Hall (with Sanford Weill), Vice Chair of the Rand Corporation Board of Trustees, board member of Siemens AG and the Real Estate Roundtable, former board member of Yankee Global Enterprises and the Urban Land Institute, Chair emeritus of the Partnership for New York City (founded by David Rockefeller), and member of the Economic Club of New York and Council on Foreign Relations. Awards include the Golden Plate Award (1997), election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2014), and induction into Crain's New York Hall of Fame (2020). In personal life, Speyer married Lynn Tishman in 1964 (divorced 1987), with whom he had three children: Valerie Hope Speyer Peltier (b. 1967, Tishman Speyer executive, married Jeffrey Richard Peltier in 1993), Rob Speyer (b. 1969, President & CEO of Tishman Speyer, married Anne-Cecilie Engell in 2008), and Holly Ann Speyer Lipton (b. 1973, TV producer, married Jonathan Lipton in 1999). In 1991, he married Katherine G. Farley (senior managing director at Tishman Speyer, Brown University BA 1971, Harvard M.Arch 1976), with whom he has one daughter, Laura Speyer (b. 1992); Farley chairs the Lincoln Center redevelopment and holds multiple nonprofit roles. Politically active as a donor, Speyer and family supported Joe Biden's 2020 campaign, contributed $150,000 to Fix the City PAC opposing Zohran Mamdani in the 2025 NYC mayoral race, and donated to New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Forbes estimates his family's net worth at $2.2 billion (as of March 24, 2026), down from $3.6 billion in 2021 and $3.1 billion in 2023, primarily from Tishman Speyer holdings. Controversies include the 2006-2010 Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village deal with BlackRock ($5.4 billion acquisition, rent hikes leading to tenant lawsuits and protests, default and foreclosure amid the 2008 crisis) and a 2025 property tax dispute over his Upper East Side mansion; no major legal convictions or ongoing investigations.