Bruce Gitlin to Succeed Mike Pratt as Chair of Pratt’s Board of Trustees

Bruce Gitlin, president and CEO of MILGO/BUFKIN, has been elected chair of Pratt Institute's Board of Trustees, a position he will assume on July 1. Gitlin succeeds Mike Pratt, president and executive director of the Scherman Foundation, who has served as chair since 2007 and is a descendent of Pratt Institute founder Charles Pratt.

"Bruce Gitlin possesses both the business acumen and the art and design expertise to lead Pratt and build on the reputation that the Institute has developed as a leader in creativity and innovation for the 21st century," said Mike Pratt, who will remain on the Institute's Board as vice chair.

Gitlin, whose father graduated from the Pratt School of Engineering in 1936, has served on the Pratt Board since 1997, leading its Buildings and Grounds Committee as it has transformed the Pratt campus into a showplace of sculpture and design.   

 "With Pratt's international reputation for creative and academic excellence in fields ranging from architecture and design to information science, the Institute is poised to play a major role in transforming the way people experience, interact with, and sustain their environments," said Gitlin. "Pratt has already made a profound difference in Brooklyn's and New York City's social and cultural landscape, and I look forward to working with President Thomas F. Schutte and my fellow trustees to make Pratt a global model of socially conscious innovation."    

Gitlin is the third generation of his family to head MILGO/BUFKIN, the Brooklyn-based, internationally renowned metal fabrication company, and is also a major collector of contemporary painting and sculpture.    

A native New Yorker, he earned a bachelor of science degree in metallurgical engineering from Lehigh University in 1963. An avid sportsman, he is also a member of the board of directors of the Alaska Wilderness League, which promotes the preservation of the wild lands of Alaska. A former national-level college competitor in soccer, swimming, and rugby, Gitlin remains a serious skier, kayaker, and wilderness explorer. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, attorney Carol A. Schrager, and has three children.  

Text: Amy Aronoff
Photo: René Perez