Name Richard Friedman | ||
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Richard L. Friedman (born 1941) is a prominent businessman and real estate developer involved in numerous business, civic, and charitable endeavors. Friedman is the President and CEO of Carpenter & Company, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, a private firm involved in real estate and private investments. Carpenter specializes in creative hotel development and the adaptive reuse of historic structures into high-end hotels. In 2000, President Bill Clinton appointed Friedman Chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission. In 2010, Mr. Friedman was appointed by President Barack Obama to the President’s Export Council. In May 2013, Mr. Friedman was elected as Director of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, a global luxury hotel company based in Toronto. In June 2014, the Boston Globe reported that Friedman was developing a $700 Million, 60 story Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residencies in Boston's Back Bay. The building will be the tallest building to be built in New England in the last 40 years.
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Early life and education
Friedman was born in 1941 and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, the son of Helen L. and Aryeh "Dick" Friedman. His mother was a social worker and his father was a building manager for Carpenter & Company. As a youth, Friedman attended Pierce Elementary School, Brookline High School for three years, and graduated from the Hebron Academy. In 1963, Friedman graduated from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor's degree in philosophy. At Dartmouth, he was a member of the ski team. After graduating from Dartmouth, Friedman served as a Second Lieutenant in the signal corps the United States Army; he was honorably discharged in 1965. From 1965 to 1971, he served as coach of the Harvard ski team until he broke his neck in a skiing accident.
Career
After he recovered from his injuries, he worked with his father managing buildings for Carpenter & Company and then purchased the company when the owner died. By chance, he sold a warehouse to A.N. Pritzker and was given responsibility to develop it for the Pritzker family; they were impressed with his work and he soon after found himself travelling the country scouting out potential hotel sites for the Hyatt Corporation. Friedman presently serves as the President and the Chief Executive Officer of Carpenter and Company, Inc. At Carpenter, Friedman has developed numerous real estate projects, including hotels, office buildings, and shopping centers. One of Friedman's most notable projects is the development of the Liberty Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. The four-star Liberty Hotel is located in the former Charles Street Jail, an historic landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Friedman’s work on the Charles Street Jail carefully preserved the historic structure’s character, impressive features, and architectural “roots”, while transforming the building into a luxurious new hotel. Other notable projects developed by Friedman include the St. Regis Hotel San Francisco, Charles Square and the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square, the Brookline Marriott Courtyard in Brookline, Massachusetts, and numerous Hyatt hotels. The St. Regis San Francisco project also involved the adaptive re-use of an historically significant building. In that case, the historic Williams Building was incorporated into a new hotel that forms part of a mixed-use project that also includes residential condominium units and an African-American museum. In addition to developing distinguished hotels, Friedman and his company were also involved in the adaptive re-use of Boston’s historic Old City Hall in the 1970s. In 2000, Friedman was appointed by President Clinton as Chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission and led its Interagency Security Task Force. The National Capital Planning Commission is the federal government’s central planning agency for Washington, D.C. and portions of Maryland and Virginia. In 2010, Friedman was appointed by President Obama to the President’s Export Council, where he serves as the Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee on Manufacturing and Services. The Export Council offers advice to the President on increasing tourism and exports.
Friedman has also been extensively involved with other civic and charitable endeavors. He has been a director of the Steppingstone Foundation and Mount Auburn Foundation, and serves on the board of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. He has served as a director of numerous other companies and charities.
In May 2013, Friedman was named to the Board of Directors of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, a global luxury hotel brand.
In June 2014, the Boston Globe reported that Friedman was building a new Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences project in Boston.
In March 2015, a team lead by Friedman was selected to redevelop the former New Orleans World Trade Center into the Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences New Orleans.
Friedman is currently developing a 250-room, $125 million EDITION Hotel in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Liberty Hotel
Friedman and his company re-developed Boston’s historic Charles Street Jail into the four-star Liberty Hotel. The Liberty Hotel is located on Beacon Hill, one of Boston’s most historically-significant and prestigious neighborhoods. The Liberty Hotel, which opened in 2007, contains a total of 298 guestrooms, two restaurants, two bars, a ballroom, and meeting space. In addition to restoring the original Jail, which was constructed in 1851, the project also included the construction of a new 16-story guestroom wing. The project has received numerous accolades including:
Honors, affiliations, and awards
Personal life
Boston Magazine listed Friedman as one of Boston’s most powerful people. Friedman’s summer home on Marthas Vineyard served as the summer White House for President Clinton and family for eight visits between 1993 and 2000. On October 11th, 2012, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly reported that Boston billionaire real estate mogul Richard L. Friedman is among the plaintiffs in a legal dispute about beach rights on Martha's Vineyard. In 1997, Friedman married Nancy Marie Klemm. He has two children. Friedman is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and has performed in movies, all directed by David Mamet, including Spanish Prisoner, Heist, State and Main, Spartan, and others.