United States
Sandy Frankel is a practicing attorney with over 50 years of experience, the author of several books, and a trustee of The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
Mr. Frankel graduated from New York University (1964; Phi Beta Kappa) and Harvard Law School (1967). He began his legal career as a staff member of the White House Task Force on Crime, and then served as Temporary Counsel to the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C.
After leaving Washington, he established his own legal practice as a trial lawyer in New York City. In 1990, real estate magnate and hotelier Leona Helmsley became one of his clients, and for the next 18 years Mr. Frankel handled many of her legal matters, becoming one of her most trusted advisors. She later appointed Mr. Frankel as an executor of her estate and one of five trustees of the Helmsley Charitable Trust.
Since beginning active grant-making in 2008, the Helmsley Charitable Trust has committed more than $3 billion to a wide range of charitable causes to benefit humankind, focusing on health, medical research, and select place-based initiatives, including Israel. Under the visionary leadership of Mr. Frankel, the Trust's Israel program has been a pivotal benefactor of major endeavors in Israel, improving access to quality healthcare throughout the country, strengthening Israel's leadership in scientific, technological and medical research, and promoting global understanding and appreciation of Israel and its people.
The Helmsley Charitable Trust has funded numerous projects and initiatives at the Weizmann Institute of Science, including Crohn's disease research, the creation of experimental models to aid in inflammatory bowel disease therapeutics, the establishment of the Weizmann Quantum Nano-Physics Initiative and the Quantum Materials Devices Fabrication Lab, and major state-of-the-art research equipment for the study of stem cells, alternative energy, and magnetic resonance research. The Helmsley Charitable Trust was inducted into the Weizmann Institute's President's Circle in 2010.
Mr. Frankel has visited Israel frequently since his teenage years and is married to Ruthie, a native of Israel. One of his books, Beyond A Reasonable Doubt, received the Edgar Allan Poe Award.