From left, James S. Tisch, Peter W. May, and Richard A. Friedman

On Monday, April 22, during the annual meeting of the Mount Sinai Health System Boards of Trustees, there was an item on the agenda that had not appeared in nearly two decades—the election of a new Chairman. With little fanfare as the meeting was about to conclude, Peter W. May, who had led the Trustees as Chairman for 17 years, presented two gavels—one to Richard A. Friedman, and the other to James S. Tisch—who had just been confirmed as the new Co-Chairmen of the Boards of Trustees. Mr. May will now continue as Chairman Emeritus.

Mr. Friedman has been a member of the Boards of Trustees since 2001, and in 2010, a substantial gift from the Friedman family allowed for the creation of The Friedman Brain Institute. Mr. Tisch has been a Trustee since 1988. A generous donation from the Tisch family allowed for the establishment of The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

“It is difficult to overstate what Peter has achieved through his inspiring leadership,” Mr. Friedman and Mr. Tisch wrote in a joint statement. “When he assumed the Chairmanship in 2002, there were cracks in the financial foundation of what was then called The Mount Sinai Medical Center. Peter was determined that Mount Sinai would not merely survive, it would thrive.”

They continued: “Under Peter May, the culture of Mount Sinai has experienced an extraordinary transformation. Peter has been such an exemplary Chairman that the Boards felt they needed two of us to replace him.”

In a separate interview, Mr. Tisch said, “Peter has left Richard and me with enormous expectations—taking over after this 17-year run, which has been up, up, up, up, up, with new and higher heights for the Health System and the School of Medicine. I am elated to have a partner as co-chairman, especially in view of the fact that I have a day job, as did Peter, and the notion of doing this alone is truly daunting.”

Mr. Tisch is Chief Executive Officer of Loews Corporation, where he has worked since 1977. He is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of Diamond Off shore Drilling, Inc., and a member of the Boards of Directors of CNA Financial Corporation and the General Electric Company. Additionally, Mr. Tisch is a member of the Board of Directors of The New York Public Library and a former director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He is the past Chairman of WNET and the Jewish Agency for Israel. Mr. Tisch also serves on the Executive Committee of the Partnership for New York City, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Mr. Friedman is Chairman of the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman Sachs, where he has worked since 1981. He is a member of the company’s Management Committee and the Chairman of the Corporate, Real Estate, Infrastructure, and Cooperation Fund Investment Committees. Additionally, Mr. Friedman oversees Launch With GS, the company’s answer to narrowing the gender investment gap, which aims to invest $500 million in women-led companies. He has made substantial contributions to fund scholarships at the Icahn School of Medicine, and he is Chairman of the Development Committee of the Boards of Trustees, leading the institution’s current capital campaign.

“From what I know of other organizations,” Mr. Friedman said during an interview, “what was created here is pretty special. Peter really brought inspiration and confidence to the Trustees, and to the whole organization, and completely changed the whole culture of the institution to a winning culture. Now, we need to carry forward the overall strategy of making Mount Sinai one of the great integrated health care systems, not only here in the United States, but in the world.”

Leni and Peter W. May, center, with, from left, son Jon May, daughter-in-law Juliana May, daughter Leslie May Blauner, and son-in-law Andrew Blauner.

Long before Peter W. May became Chairman of the Boards of Trustees, his family had a life-changing experience at The Mount Sinai Hospital. It was 1970, and Peter and Leni May were at Mount Sinai, where Leni was about to give birth to their second child, Leslie. But the birth was extremely complicated. Mrs. May had Rh negative blood, and her baby had Rh positive blood.

This incompatibility can be life-threatening to the baby as the mother’s Rh antibodies cross into the fetus and begin destroying its red blood cells. Today, the condition can be successfully prevented and treated with medicine during a woman’s pregnancy. But at the time, there was no medication, and the Mount Sinai physicians acted quickly and effectively.

“The doctors performed a cesarean when they saw how threatened the baby was,” Mr. May recently told an interviewer. “My daughter was sent to the neonatal intensive care unit at Mount Sinai and had her blood exchanged four times as a premature baby. Essentially, the doctors there saved her life.”

In a recent interview, Mrs. May recalled her daughter’s difficult birth. “We were lucky she lived. And because of that we had a very sweet spot for Mount Sinai.”

Today, Leslie May Blauner and her husband, Andrew Blauner, are themselves parents of three children who were born at Mount Sinai. Leslie’s brother, Jon May, and his wife, Juliana May, have two children of their own. Both couples served as Benefit Chairs of the 2019 Mount Sinai Crystal Party.

For more than 20 years, Mrs. Blauner has been affiliated with Mount Sinai in various full-time and volunteer capacities, including working with pregnant and parenting teens, and children with cancer and gastrointestinal disease. She is currently a member of The Mount Sinai Auxiliary Board, which complements the Health System’s clinical activities with social and educational services.

Growing up, Mrs. Blauner said, her parents were role models in their philanthropic work, whether it was fundraising for their children’s school or their synagogue. “My father’s whole mentality is about philanthropy and giving back, and taking care of everybody around him—his family members, his friends—if they need it. I would describe my father as the best person I know,” she said in a recent interview.

Leni May has said of her husband, whom she began dating at 15: “He’s a great father, a great husband, a good son. He’s blessed. I have a nickname for him, Perfect Peter. He just takes things as they come along, and that’s been the same way in business and the same way at Mount Sinai.”

She said turning around Mount Sinai “has been his most overwhelming job, in a good way. He loved it. He loves a challenge.”

Mr. May has said, “Our institution today really makes a difference in the health care it provides to people around the world. When I step back and think about it, it’s probably the single most important thing I’ve done in my life other than building my family. I’ve been very successful in my business career, but I think the impact that we’ve had at Mount Sinai and the value of what we do in terms of contributing to the improvement of health has been incredibly rewarding.”

According to Jon May, “We have always felt that Mount Sinai has the best doctors and the best care. Mount Sinai has played such an important role in the lives of three generations of our family.”

Mrs. Blauner recalled a family story from several years ago that illustrated the pride Mr. May derived from his work at Mount Sinai. When she was in labor at The Mount Sinai Hospital with her third child, she had invited her parents into the delivery room. As they were waiting for her labor to progress, Mr. May took his wife on a little tour of a newly constructed wing of the hospital and was happy to point out how great the new space was. “He was showing my mother how beautiful this was and that was—and finally she said, ‘Our daughter’s in labor. We have to get back to the room!’”