VOL 26 | ISSUE 12 | MARCH 24, 2025
Jeremy M. Jacobs, chairman of Delaware North, has stepped down as chair of the University at Buffalo (UB) Council, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul has named Delaware North CEO Jerry Jacobs Jr. as his successor.
Chairman Jacobs is an alumnus of UB School of Management, and the university’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences is named for his unprecedented generosity to advancing the institution’s medical education and research. For 27 years, he led the UB Council, which serves as the primary oversight and advisory body to the University at Buffalo and its president and senior officers.
An excerpt from an article in The Buffalo News is below. Read the full article here.
For Jacobs, UB is more than an important institution. The university’s work is personal to him. He joined the UB Foundation in 1972 and chaired the group in the 1980s. Today, his son Louis is a foundation board member.
Then-Gov. George Pataki appointed the elder Jacobs to the UB Council in 1997 and soon after he became chair, a role that positioned him to lead presidential searches and serve as a key adviser to UB’s presidents.
“He has been a great mentor for me, and I really value his strategic advice and perspective,” said UB President Satish Tripathi, who was hired in 2011. Tripathi told The News that Jacobs’ penchant for looking at issues and asking questions from “different angles” has “made me a better decision-maker.”
The Jacobs family’s lifetime giving to UB totals $50.3 million and includes support of the management program, law school, student athletes and more. But for Jeremy Jacobs, the university’s work in the medical field has been the most energizing − and the
most personal. His late brother, Dr. Larry Jacobs, was a UB medical practitioner and researcher whose studies broke new ground in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
From Jeremy Jacobs Sr.’s point of view, those medical institutions with the family name are clearly in honor of his brother. But as Jerry Jr. takes over his father’s position as council chair, he takes a slightly broader view.
“For me, when I walk on campus, I see Uncle Larry and my dad,” he said. “Their engagement was so important to them, and is so important to my dad. The university is everything.”
Jerry Jacobs Jr., who holds the role of Delaware North CEO with his brothers Louis and Charlie, shared a family joke:
While Jeremy Jacobs Sr. and] his wife, Margaret “Peggy” Davis Jacobs, had six children, there was a seventh: the family business, and “we know who his favorite is. But he actually had eight, because the importance of the university is all he ever talked about at home.”
The job of the board chair is to both advise UB’s president and top officials, and advocate or the university in the community. On the advisory side, he plans to first “watch and learn” from the existing board members.
His role as an advocate and supporter will happen at a quicker pace and be a familiar one in the education space: He is a past chair of the board of trustees of Nichols School, a private high school in Buffalo, and spent five years on Georgetown University’s board of regents. He also served three terms on the UB Foundation board, and is a founding member of Say Yes Buffalo, which focuses on education access. Last year, he co-chaired the dean’s advisory council for UB’s medical school, has been a leader in the United Way, and is a board member for the Corps Network, a national organization that focuses on jobs and career development.
The younger Jacobs reinforced that his father’s decision to step down, and his ascension to chair, is a continuation of the family’s commitment to UB. “I think he felt it’s time to pass the baton and plan for a long-term relationship to continue the Jacobs family’s involvement with the university,” said Jerry Jacobs, who emphasized the university’s role in continuing the growth of the region.
“I get really excited about new discovery, new science,” he said. “It’s really a powerhouse for improvement here. The university, the hospital system, the J.I. (Jacobs Institute), all of that is really a core engine for pushing Buffalo forward.
Main caption: Delaware North Chairman Jeremy Jacobs speaks at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in 2017.