Howard Milstein is currently Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of New York Private Bank & Trust and its operating bank, Emigrant Bank (the country’s largest privately owned and operated bank). He chairs and operates all the Milstein family’s real estate companies. Howard is also founding Chairman of the merchant bank, FriedbergMilstein, and is an owner and builder of innovative businesses in financial services, technology, sports and entertainment, and consumer goods. His entrepreneurial spirit is evident in the family’s major holdings — Milstein Properties, Milstein Brothers Real Estate and the Emigrant Savings Bank — as well as the august institutions that bear their name: Milstein Hospital Building of New York Presbyterian Hospital; Milstein Hall of Ocean Life (“The Whale Room”) at the American Museum of Natural History; Milstein Division of Local History, American History and Genealogy at the New York Public Library; Milstein Hall at the Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Milstein Pool & Terrace at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and many others.

As the scion of a family of builders, Howard has particular expertise in large infrastructure projects. This was demonstrated in his Chairmanship of the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA), to which he was nominated by Governor Andrew Cuomo and unanimously confirmed by the New York State Senate in 2011. At NYSTA, he brought to bear a lifetime of privatesector experience and knowledge in large-scale development, initiating and leading a design-build process that saved New York nearly $2 billion from the original cost estimates for replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge. Howard served as Chairman through 2014 and was recognized for his achievements with the Regional Plan Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. In addition to RPA, he has been recognized by the New York Building Congress, Associated Builders and Owners of New York, and Phipps Houses for his industry leadership and large scale developments.

In 2015-2017, Howard chaired the Milstein Forums on Infrastructure in partnership with RPA. Bringing together business and civic leaders, along with content experts, the Forums were tasked with producing fresh thinking about the region’s infrastructure. Their deliberations produced key recommendations for RPA’s Fourth Regional Plan. He currently chairs RPA’s Committee on Critical Infrastructure and has authored op-eds and done briefings for think tanks - such as Eno Center for Transportation, Brookings Institution, Manhattan Institute, and Third Way - on applying private sector best practices to large public works projects.

Immediately prior to the Forums, Howard spearheaded University of Virginia Miller Center’s ​“Milstein Symposium: Ideas for a New American Century,” which addressed a range of economic issues and policies, many of which are impacted by infrastructure.