Trustee emeritus and Presidential Councillor Andrew Tisch is one of Cornell’s most influential advocates and innovative volunteer leaders.
“Andrew has leveraged his expertise, influence, and resources to help accomplish the university’s greatest priorities,” says Stephen B. Ashley ’62, MBA ’64, who co-chaired the Cornell Now campaign with Andrew. “Few Cornellians have provided more by way of service, ‘friend-raising,’ or financial support.”
Andrew, co-chairman of the board and chairman of the executive committee of Loews Corporation, relishes the challenge of participating in new university ventures when there is, as he puts it, no playbook. For example, he played a critical role in creating Cornell Tech, a bid process he calls “one of the greatest pieces of teamwork I’ve seen in my business career.”
He helped create the “Frozen Apple” Big Red Hockey game that brings the Lynah Faithful to fill Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving weekend. He continues to facilitate this annual event, including supplying the commemorative game pucks.
In addition to leading university growth in ground-breaking ways, Andrew also finds meaning in the vital work of university governance. In 1989, he joined the Cornell University Council, launching a volunteer career that has included membership on the Board of Trustees (2003-2016), service as Vice Chair of the Board (2010–2016), membership on the School of Hotel Administration Dean’s Advisory Board (1999–present), and the Presidential Search Committees that nominated Beth Garrett and Martha Pollack. He also co-chaired the Cornell Now university-wide campaign and sat on the Trustee Task Force for Cornell Tech. Currently he sits on the Weill Cornell Board of Overseers, the Cornell Tech Board of Overseers, the advisory council for the School of Hotel Administration, and he chairs the SC Johnson College of Business Leadership Council. He is a Trustee Emeritus, and he continues to be active on the Committee of Governmental Relations, and Presidential Councillor.
In addition to his volunteer service, providing philanthropy to support the intellectual heart of Cornell—its faculty—is a special emphasis for Andrew. In 2002, he and his wife Ann, along with his brother James Tisch ’75 and sister-in-law Merryl Tisch, endowed the Tisch Distinguished University Professorship, which allows a valued professor near retirement to focus on teaching while freeing up a line for hiring. The Tisch University Professorships, now encompassing six chairs, were endowed in 2008 by Andrew and Ann, to help to recruit and retain the most promising mid-career faculty, sustaining the university’s leadership and prominence in key disciplines. In 2016, Andrew and Ann created the Andrew H. and Ann R. Tisch Professorship at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute.
Andrew, the consummate university citizen, is delighted to work on behalf of the university. In touch with Cornell friends almost daily, he advises new students that relationships forged at Cornell are lasting.
“Our job is to move the university forward and to leave it in better shape than we found it,” he says. “I hope I’ve helped to do that, and helped the next generation of leaders to do the same.”
