Joseph I Douek

Mr. Joseph Douek was born, raised and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. Mr. Douek is the Chairman & CEO of Viceroy Equities, an investment and hedge fund management firm. Mr. Douek also serves as a NYC Planning Commissioner. Mr. Douek graduated from a parochial high school in Brooklyn and at age 17 having had a passion for photography set out to work in that field. At age 19, from 1989-1994 Mr. Douek founded and ran a wholesale photographic company selling camera and photographic equipment to retailers throughout the USA. In 1994 at age 24, Mr. Douek took control of Willoughby’s (since 1898 NYC’s oldest photographic retailer) and ran it until 2018. In 2001, Mr. Douek was nominated by then NY City Council Speaker, The Honorable Peter Vallone to serve as Brooklyn’s representative to the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) Board of Directors. Shortly thereafter, The Honorable Mayor Rudolph Giuliani appointed Mr. Douek to that position. From 2001 through August 2012 Mr. Douek served as an EDC Board Member. The NYC Economic Development Corporation is the main agency tasked with promoting economic development, creating jobs and managing a portfolio of billions of dollars of NYC’s assets. Mr. Douek also served on the Executive Committee of the NYC EDC. In addition to serving as an appointed official in the capacity of a NYC Economic Development Corporation Board Member, in February 2002 Mr. Douek was nominated by Brooklyn Borough President, The Honorable Marty Markowitz to serve as the Brooklyn representative to the NYC Industrial Development Agency (IDA) Board of Directors and he was formally appointed by The Honorable Mayor Michael Bloomberg shortly thereafter. The NYC IDA was tasked with the promotion and retention of jobs and also served as the City’s triple tax exempt conduit bond financing agency. After the 9/11 tragedy the NYC IDA took on additional prominence as the agency managing Liberty Bonds for the reconstruction of lower Manhattan as mandated by Congress in the Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act of 2002. Mr. Douek served as an IDA Board Member until August, 2012 and served on its audit committee tasked with reviewing billions of dollars in bond deals, and economic development transactions. In his tenure at both the NYC Economic Development Corporation and the NYC Industrial Development Agency Mr. Douek has initiated efforts to promote economic development in all five Boroughs of NYC. In 2012 Mr. Douek was nominated to a 5 year term by Brooklyn Borough President, The Honorable Marty Markowitz to represent the Borough of Brooklyn and to serve as one of 13 NYC Planning Commissioners. In 2017, Mr. Douek was reappointed to a 5 year term by Brooklyn Borough President, The Honorable Eric Adams. Mr. Douek currently serves on the Board of Trustees for several non for profit entities including The Brooklyn Public Library, one of the largest library systems in the world and The Jewish Children’s Museum.