NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to Speak at Drew University

Raymond Kelly, the longest-serving police commissioner of the City of New York—who led the police department after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and who created the first counterterrorism bureau of any municipal police department in the country—will speak at Drew University’s Concert Hall in the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts on Thursday, Nov. 20, at 8 p.m.

Kelly is the second speaker in the Drew Forum series, which brings renowned speakers to the Drew campus.

Kelly served two nonconsecutive terms—from 2002 to 2013 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and from 1992 to 1994 under Mayor David N. Dinkins. He currently serves as president of Cushman & Wakefield’s risk management services division. A 43-year veteran of the NYPD, Commissioner Kelly served in 25 different commands before being named police commissioner. He was appointed to the New York City Police Department in 1963.

Commissioner Kelly was formerly senior managing director of global corporate security at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. Before that, he served as commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service. Commissioner Kelly was under secretary for enforcement at the U.S. Treasury Department. There, he supervised the department’s enforcement bureaus including the U.S. Customs Service, the U.S. Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.

In addition, Commissioner Kelly served on the executive committee and was elected vice president for the Americas of Interpol, the international police organization, from 1996 to 2000. In 1994, he was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as director of the International Police Monitors in Haiti, a U.S.-led force responsible for establishing an interim police force in that country.

Commissioner Kelly holds a BBA from Manhattan College, a JD from St. John’s University School of Law, an LLM from New York University Graduate School of Law, and an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Tickets are $128 for the series and may be purchased through the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Box Office at 973.408.3917 For more information about The Drew Forum, please click here.

Other speakers in this year’s forum series include Stephanie Cutter, former deputy campaign manager for President Barack Obama, on March 3, 2015, at 8 p.m. and Leon Panetta, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, on Thursday, April 30, 2015. Panetta is the Thomas H. Kean Visiting Lecturer. Individual tickets will be sold for this talk at a price of $32 each.

The Drew Forum, established in 1994, is the region’s leading public lecture venue. Past speakers have included American statesmen, foreign heads of state, nationally known journalists, and noted historians.

The Drew Forum lecture series is presented through the generosity of the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation. The Thomas H. Kean Visiting Lecturer is supported by an endowment created in honor of former New Jersey Governor Thomas H. Kean, who was president of Drew University from 1990 to 2005.

About Drew University

Drew University is a private, liberal arts university located in Madison, New Jersey, in the New York City metro area. Ranked among the top liberal arts institutions nationwide by U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, and Washington Monthly, Drew is also listed in Princeton Review’s Best 379 Colleges.

The Drew promise—We Deliver Full-Impact Learning to the World—emphasizes the university’s commitment to borderless education that enables a student’s greatest success in a globally connected world. Drew has a total student enrollment of more than 2,000 in three schools: the College of Liberal Arts, the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, and the Drew Theological School.

The undergraduate program offers degrees in 30 different disciplines, while Caspersen and the Theological School offer degrees at the master’s and doctoral levels.

Information and photo courtesy of Elizabeth Moore