Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Leadership Award

H. Carl McCall, chairman of the SUNY Board of Trustees, receives SUNY Downstate Medical Center's first Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Leadership Award January 12, 2012.

The award, sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, recognizes individuals who have an exemplary record of service in government, business, and education, and who have a distinguished record in molding consensus to shape solutions to important societal challenges.

Mr. McCall was appointed chairman of the State University of New York Board of Trustees October 17, 2011. He first joined the Board as a member on October 22, 2007.

Earlier, Mr. McCall served as comptroller of the State of New York from May 1993 to December 2002. As chief fiscal officer of the State, he was responsible for governmental and financial oversight and pension fund management. As sole trustee of the 880,000-member State and Local Retirement Systems, Mr. McCall was responsible for investing a pension fund valued at $120 billion.

Mr. McCall has had a distinguished career as a public servant. He served three terms as a New York State senator representing the upper Manhattan district of New York City; as an ambassador to the United Nations; as a commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; and as the commissioner of the New York State Division of Human Rights.

Mr. McCall has been a passionate advocate for public education. He served as president of the New York City Board of Education from 1991 – 1993, where he set policy for the largest school system in the nation, and as the chairman of the Public Higher Education Conference Board, a coalition of 14 organizations that supports a strong and vibrant public higher education system in New York State.

He has also been active in the private sector; he served as a vice president of Citibank and as a corporate director of the New York Stock Exchange, Tyco International, New Plan Realty Corporation, and, presently, Ariel Investment.