Honoree-
Gary Winnick

Gary Winnick is an international financier and philanthropist with a global investment career spanning nearly three decades. A native of Roslyn, New York, he worked his way through C.W. Post holding three jobs, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1969. He began his ascent in business as an investment banker on Wall Street. In 1978, he and his family moved to California where he established Pacific Capital Group, a merchant bank that is a principal investor in such fields as telecommunications, media, real estate, financial services, health care and biotechnology. In 1997, he founded Global Crossing, Ltd., pioneering the use of high-capacity fiber optic cables to connect an increasingly digital world. Global Crossing installed the first undersea cable linking the United States and Europe. Today, the network reaches more than 100,000 route miles, connecting five continents, 27 countries and more than 200 major cities. Mr. Winnick is also the founder and chairman of the board of Asia Global Crossing, which has built one of the first truly pan-Asian networks that in combination with the Global Crossing Network, will provide the Asia Pacific region with seamless network access to major business centers worldwide.

Mr. Winnick and his wife, Karen, an author and illustrator of children’s books, are patrons of universities, libraries, hospitals, the arts and literacy and humanitarian projects around the globe. In 1999, they pledged $1 million to transform the main cafeteria at C.W. Post into the restored Arnold S. Winnick Student Center, named in memory of Mr. Winnick’s late father. In 2000, they made a $10 million donation to restore the Post mansion and to fund student scholarships. Mr. Winnick was awarded an honorary doctorate by the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in 2000. He recently received the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s prestigious Humanitarian Laureate Award. The Winnicks live in Los Angeles and New York with their three sons, Adam, Alexander and Matthew.

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