An international diplomat and champion for human rights; a global executive and philanthropist; an expert economist and leader in U.S. monetary policymaking; and a successful family business entrepreneur and social justice philanthropist will be awarded honorary degrees at Syracuse University’s 2019 Commencement exercises on Sunday, May 12.
Zainab Hawa Bangura, former United Nations special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict and former foreign minister for Sierra Leone; Steven W. Barnes ’82, a managing director at Bain Capital and Syracuse University Board of Trustees chairman; Mary C. Daly G’94, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; and Marvin K. Lender ’63, chairman of Baldwin Street Management LLC and part of the former family business, Lender’s Frozen Bagels, will be recognized for their achievements during the ceremony in the Dome. Daly will deliver the Commencement address.
Marvin Lender ’63, Doctor of Humane Letters
Marvin K. Lender helped build a successful family business before creating an even more fulfilling life through his belief in social justice and philanthropy. Lender is chairman of Baldwin Street Management LLC, a family office. He is widely known for the highly successful Lender’s Bagels enterprise, which his father founded in his garage in 1927, and which was sold to Kraft Inc. in 1984.
Lender is very active in the Jewish community. He cofounded the Holocaust Education Prejudice Reduction Program for New Haven, Connecticut, and surrounding school systems. He is a former member of the board of directors of the Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven and of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven. He is past chair of the Budget Committee of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; chair and former member of the board of governors of the World Income Committee of the Jewish Agency of Israel; founder and former co-chair of the Israeli American Jewish Forum; and former chairman of the board of trustees of the Israel Policy Forum, among other leadership roles. Lender is also a past president and chair of the National United Jewish Appeal. He was also chair of Operation Exodus’ $1 billion campaign for the resettlement of Soviet and Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
For more than 30 years, Lender has served—and continues to serve—on the boards of Yale-New Haven Hospital and Yale-New Haven Health Systems. In 2010, he concluded his term as co-chair of the development committee for the Yale-New Haven Smilow Cancer Hospital, helping raise over $100 million for this new state-of-the-art cancer treatment facility. In 2017, he was inducted into The American Society of Baking Hall of Fame.
In 2018, Lender and his wife, Helaine (Gold) ’65, turned their lifelong commitment to social justice and greater understanding among people into the establishment of the multidisciplinary Lender Center for Social Justice, within the School of Education. The couple provided a $5 million gift in support of the creation of the center, which includes research support, symposia and faculty and student fellowships.
Lender, who earned a political science degree at the College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School, is a Syracuse University Life Trustee and life participant of the Investment and Endowment Committee and served as chair of the $370 million Commitment to Learning Campaign. He has been a member of the national committee for the Campaign for Syracuse and the charter president of the Society of Fellows. He founded the Lender Laboratory for Institutional Food Preparation in the former College for Human Development and earned a National Alumni Award in 1986 and the Arents Pioneer Medal for Excellence in Business in 1993.