The Honorable Earle I. Mack
Drexel Class of 1959
Doctor of Business Administration, honoris causa, 2006

Distinguished as a businessman, diplomat and arts advocate, Earle Mack was a senior partner of The Mack Company, a prominent real estate development, investment and management firm established a century ago. After the Mack Company merged its office portfolio with Cali Realty in 1997, he became a founding board member of Mack-Cali Realty Corporation (NYSE).

His commitment to public services includes his appointment by Gov. George Pataki as chairman and CEO of the New York State Council on the Arts, succeeding Kitty Carlisle Hart. He eventually became chairman emeritus, and he was recognized by Gov. Pataki in 2000 with the New York State governor’s Arts Award for outstanding leadership in the arts. He advised three governors on New York’s thoroughbred racing industry and was appointed chairman of the New York State Racing Commission in 1983. His public service career culminated in his appointment in 2004 as United States Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotientiary to the
Republic of Finland.

Ambassador Mack served on the board of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University from 1980 through 2004, including chairing the executive committee and 12 years as chairman of the board, and was elected chairman emeritus upon his retirement.

He has produced a number of notable plays and films and co-directed and produced 1977’s Academy Award-nominated "The Children of Theatre Street," a feature documentary on Russia’s Vaganova Choreographic Institute (Kirov Ballet School) narrated by Princess Grace of Monaco. Ambassador Mack graduated from Drexel University in 1959. Upon graduation, he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. military and then attended Fordham Law School. In 1992, he was a centennial inductee to The Drexel 100, the university’s most prestigious alumni society, and in 2006, he received an honorary Drexel doctorate.