Peter S. Kalikow

'66, B.B.A.
Chairman, MTA

Peter S. Kalikow, president of H.J. Kalikow & Company, LLC, one of New York City's leading real estate firms, and former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), earned a B.S. in Business Administration from Hofstra in 1965 and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws in 1988. He is a member of Hofstra’s Board of Trustees.

Mr. Kalikow in 2006 established donated $3.5 million to Hofstra to establish the Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency and the Peter S. Kalikow Chair in Presidential Studies. Together with its presidential conferences, the center and the endowed chair make Hofstra one of the very few institutions in the country with a unique focus on the presidency. Meena Bose, Ph.D., is the first person to hold the chair.

"The office of the President is the centerpiece of our democracy and studying how these 42 men have functioned in this office is of vital importance to all of us," Mr. Kalikow said at the time. "In times of peril and in times of peace, the office of the president holds the country together. The president is the most important office for which all Americans vote, so in many ways, it is a mirror of our society."

Mr. Kalikow’s gift will allow the University to build on Hofstra's tradition of interdisciplinary academic conferences that examine the policies and historic implications of various administrations. Hofstra’s first Presidential Conference in 1982 focused on the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The University has since held academic conferences on each succeeding president, the last on William Jefferson Clinton in November 2005.