1. David Mark Rubenstein was born on August 11,1949 and is an American lawyer, businessman, and philanthropist.
54 Facts About David Rubenstein
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David Rubenstein is the chairman of the National Gallery of Art, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Economic Club of Washington, DC He is a former board of trustees chairman at Duke University and the Smithsonian Institution.
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David Rubenstein served as co-chair of the board at Brookings Institution.
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David Rubenstein was the chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from 2010 until 2025, when he was replaced by Donald Trump.
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David Rubenstein grew up as an only child in a Jewish family in Baltimore.
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David Rubenstein's father was a United States Postal Service file clerk whose family emigrated from Ukraine.
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David Rubenstein's mother was a homemaker and then began working in a dress shop when he was six years old.
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David Rubenstein graduated from the college preparatory high school Baltimore City College in 1966, an all-male school at the time.
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David Rubenstein earned his JD from the University of Chicago Law School in 1973, and was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review.
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In 1987, Rubenstein founded The Carlyle Group with William E Conway Jr.
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David Rubenstein has said that he was once offered the opportunity to meet Mark Zuckerberg before Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard but decided against it, and this is his single greatest investment regret.
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David Rubenstein told Amazon founder Jeff Bezos that if he got lucky and everything worked out he would at most be worth $300 million.
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Rubenstein hosts two shows on Bloomberg Television: The David Rubenstein Show: Peer to Peer Conversations and Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein.
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David Rubenstein, heading an investment group that included Cal Ripken Jr.
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Ellie David Rubenstein co-founded Manna Tree, a private equity firm that invests in health and nutrition companies; she was one of two dozen honorary co-chairs of the Alaskan chapter of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
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In 2024, David Rubenstein delivered the keynote speech at the Indian Institute of Technology Conference.
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David Rubenstein was among the initial 40 individuals who have pledged to donate more than half of their wealth to philanthropic causes or charities as part of The Giving Pledge.
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David Rubenstein is well known for his "patriotic philanthropy" focused on preservation of American history and historic sites.
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In December 2007 David Rubenstein purchased the last privately owned copy of Magna Carta at Sotheby's auction house in New York for $21.3 million.
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David Rubenstein has lent it to the National Archives in Washington, DC In 2011, Rubenstein gave $13.5 million to the National Archives for a new gallery and visitor center.
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David Rubenstein loaned the copy, one of 19 known to exist, to the Newseum in 2016.
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David Rubenstein donated $10 million to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and loaned the museum his copy of the Emancipation Proclamation as well as a rare copy of the Thirteenth Amendment, which was signed by Lincoln.
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David Rubenstein acquired the 1784 Abel Buell map at Christie's in 2011 and loaned it to the Library of Congress for display.
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David Rubenstein was vice chairman of the board of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, and chairman of its fundraising drive.
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David Rubenstein was appointed chairman of the board in 2010 and was reelected.
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David Rubenstein announced his intention to leave the board in January 2025, but agreed to remain chair until September 2026 pending a nationwide search for a successor.
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David Rubenstein was reappointed in 2015, and in 2021 was named chairman of the board of regents.
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David Rubenstein served as chair of the National Book Festival.
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Between 2011 and 2024, David Rubenstein has donated a total of $22 million to support the National Zoo and Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's giant panda conservation program.
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David Rubenstein donated $2 million in 2013 in support of the Zoo's Asian elephant research program.
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David Rubenstein donated $10 million to the National Gallery of Art in support of refurbishment and expansion of the East Building; the project was completed in September 2016.
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David Rubenstein contributed $10 million in 2021 to support the NGA's digital and other operations.
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David Rubenstein donated $5 million to the National Air and Space Museum to support an exhibit on the Wright brothers and the early history of aviation.
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David Rubenstein donated $10 million to the White House Historical Association in 2011.
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In 2015, David Rubenstein donated $5.37 million to the National Park Foundation to fund the restoration of the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.
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In 2014, David Rubenstein donated $10 million to Montpelier, James Madison's plantation house, to support its renovation.
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In 2014, David Rubenstein donated $12 million towards the refurbishment of Arlington House at Arlington National Cemetery.
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David Rubenstein supported legislation to remove Robert E Lee's name from the building.
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In 2012, David Rubenstein donated $7.5 million towards the repair of the Washington Monument, which had been damaged in an earthquake the previous year; he later donated another $3 million to refurbish the Monument's elevator.
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On Presidents' Day 2016, David Rubenstein presented a gift of $18.5 million to the National Park Foundation to expand educational resources, foster public access, and repair and restore the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC The Park Service plans to create 15,000 square feet of visitor space in the undercroft of the memorial.
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In 2019, David Rubenstein donated $10 million for upgrades to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC; the gift funded a new and expanded museum within the memorial, accessibility improvement, and expanded exhibit space.
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In 2024, David Rubenstein contributed $1.5 million to an expansion and modernization of the Jewish Museum of Maryland.
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David Rubenstein has donated over $100 million to Duke University and served as chair of its board of trustees from 2013 to 2017.
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In 2013, David Rubenstein donated $10 million to fund graduate fellowships and undergraduate internships at the Sanford School of Public Policy.
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In 2014, David Rubenstein donated $1.9 million to Jewish Life at Duke to expand programming, fund building renovations and enhance the college experience for Jewish students.
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In 2015, David Rubenstein gave $25 million towards the construction of a new 71,000-square foot Arts Center.
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David Rubenstein was elected to the board of trustees of the University of Chicago on May 31,2007.
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Between 2010 and 2022, David Rubenstein donated $61 million to the University of Chicago Law School for its David Rubenstein Scholars Program, which provides full-tuition scholarships for about 10 percent of the university's law students.
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David Rubenstein has donated $60 million to the Harvard Kennedy School to facilitate its fellowship program and to help build its new campus.
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David Rubenstein was a Fellow of the Harvard Corporation, the governing body of Harvard University, from 2017 to 2023.
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In October 2015, David Rubenstein donated $15 million to the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to create a new hearing center focused on restoring functional hearing loss.
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David Rubenstein is an Emeritus Trustee of the Johns Hopkins University Board of Trustees.
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David Rubenstein has donated $10 million to PBS to help fund Ken Burns documentaries and $5 million to the PBS affiliate in Washington, WETA, to help fund a new headquarters.
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In May 2022, David Rubenstein announced a $15 million donation to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to support and expand the growth of its collection.