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February 11, 2005
Bush
selects Betts for Olympics board
BY
RAYMOND PACIA
Staff Reporter
President George
W. Bush '68 named his Yale classmate and close friend Roland Betts '68,
the senior fellow of the Yale Corporation, to the board of directors of
the New York Committee for the 2012 Olympic Games on Thursday.
Betts, a prominent New York developer, will serve on the board if the
city is chosen to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. The International
Olympic Committee will select the host city at a vote on July 6 in
Singapore from a pool of five finalists: Paris, London, Madrid, Moscow
and New York.
A former member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, Betts has maintained a
long-standing presence in U.S. Olympic affairs. He has been involved
with planning New York's 2012 Olympic bid since the campaign began in
1995. He said his new appointment will allow him to continue his
longtime involvement with trying to bring the Olympics to his hometown.
"It's going to be intensively competitive, but we have a good bid
in," Betts said in a telephone interview Thursday night. "I've
been involved with the Olympics for a long time and I love it."
Betts' associates at Yale praised his appointment. Yale President
Richard Levin said he thinks Betts' background will be an asset to the
committee.
"He has been a longtime champion to bring the Olympics to New York
City," Levin said.
Yale architecture professor Alexander Garvin, a leading developer who
serves on the New York City Planning Commission and is a former
development director for New York's Olympic bid, said he thinks Betts
will bring sound experience to his new position.
"Roland Betts, who I admire greatly, is one of the most
knowledgeable people one can find about Olympics in the United
States," Garvin said.
Betts and Bush have been close friends since
their undergraduate years at Yale in the late 1960s, when they were
brothers in the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. A Democrat, Betts is one
of Bush's closest confidants and sat with the Bush family at last
month's presidential inauguration. He is a frequent visitor to the White
House, Camp David, and Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Bush and Betts were members of the ownership team for the Texas Rangers
from 1989 to 1998, and Bush appointed Betts last December as an informal
advisor to Major League Baseball officials who are trying to reform the
game's steroid-use policies.
In an October television interview on PBS' "Charlie Rose
Show," Levin said Betts was instrumental in reinvigorating Yale's
relationship with Bush, who, before his address at the University's 2001
commencement, had not visited campus since his graduation in 1968.
Betts has been involved in numerous community and development activities
during his post-Yale years. Soon after graduation, he taught public
school in Harlem for 10 years before moving on to Columbia Law School.
He is currently chairman and chief executive officer of Chelsea Piers,
L.P., which operates the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex
in Manhattan. Betts is also a director of the Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation, which is responsible for rebuilding the World
Trade Center site.
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