Advisory Council

• Albert Bildner: Raised and educated in New York City, in 1948 he went to Venezuela to open a chain of supermarkets – the first in South America – for the Rockefeller Brothers’ International Basic Economy Corporation. Subsequently, he became an importer and consultant in international business. In August 1978 President Carter appointed him Special Ambassador for the inauguration of Julio Ayala as President of Colombia. In the early 1960s, in collaboration with his late wife, Patricia Bildner, he helped organize the Associação Universal Internacional, which annually sent 50 outstanding Brazilian students to the United States to study for one month. Many of these students went on to become leaders in Brazilian government, education and industry. In 1982 Mr. Bildner established and funded the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies at The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York. Among the Center’s efforts is the Brazil Project, which facilitates the interaction of academic and policy specialists to study the processes of reform and to evaluate social development in Brazil.