Richard A Friedman

Mr. Friedman is head of Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division, in New York. Mr. Friedman and his wife, Susan, pledged $20-million to Mount Sinai Medical Center, in New York, to establish the Friedman Brain Institute. Mr. Friedman, who has served on the medical center’s Boards of Trustees since 2001, said he and Mrs. Friedman became interested in neuroscience after their son began to study the field in college and worked one summer at the medical center with the neuroscientist Eric J. Nestler, who is now the director of the brain institute. The couple began considering a large donation to the medical center in 2009. “Mount Sinai is in the midst of a major capital campaign, and we wanted to make a leadership gift that would build the brain institute, which is an important component of the medical center’s strategic plan,” said Mr. Friedman. “It was important to us to find an area in which we could really focus our giving.” The Friedmans paid $12-million toward the pledge in 2010. He also serves on the board of Brown University, in Providence, R.I., as well as the boards of the Horace Mann School and Central Synagogue, both in New York.