David DeSimone

Biography: INFORMATION FOR DAVE DeSIMONE (as of 2/1/02) Dave DeSimone is Senior Vice President of Operations and General Counsel for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. His responsibilities include real estate development, capital projects, theater operations, planned giving and general legal matters. The Cultural Trust is a 501(c)(3) non-profit created in 1984 to restore the Benedum Center, a 2,800 seat performing arts venue, in an $48 million project financed with Federal, City and private funds. The new Center for the Performing Arts permitted the growth of resident arts companies and the rapid expansion of performing arts presentations. Upon completing this initial project, in 1990 the Trust in collaboration with City planners launched a ten-year strategic plan that entailed a $100 million capital campaign funded by State, County, City and private funds. The plan called for the ongoing revitalization of the Pittsburgh Cultural District, a fourteen square block area that surrounds the Benedum Center in Downtown, Pittsburgh. Since 1995 Mr. DeSimone has worked on behalf of the Cultural Trust with commercial real estate developers, City planners, lenders, and representatives of local philanthropic foundations to create and support new projects. The projects have included residential development, art galleries, office space for resident performing arts companies, a jazz club, and planning for the relocation of the Creative and Performing Arts High School to a new building to be built in the Cultural District. Other projects include installations of public art, installation of public amenities such as new brick sidewalks and granite curbs, new streetlights, and new banners, administration of a 51 building national historic district (the "Penn-Liberty Historic District"), creation of a historic façade loan program, creation of an elevator loan program, the elimination of various "noxious" uses, and acquisition of strategic properties. With the completion of the strategic plan, in June 2000 the Trust commissioned an Urban Land Institute Advisory Services Panel to provide recommendations for the Cultural Trust's on-going role in the continuing revitalization of the Cultural District including more residential development. Mr. DeSimone helped to coordinate the ULI Panel's work in Pittsburgh which included a week long visit and interviews of over sixty stakeholders including the Mayor of Pittsburgh, the County Executive, planning department representatives, representatives of local foundations, private developers, architects, artists and professional urban planners. He is currently coordinating an implementation team that is developing a strategy based on the Panel's recommendations. Prior to joining the Trust, Dave spent eight years with Westinghouse Electric Corporation in various capacities, and prior to Westinghouse, Dave practiced law two years with the firm of Buchanan Ingersoll in Pittsburgh. Dave is a lifelong resident of Western Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard College and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He attended Harvard Business School for a non-degree program in Strategic Management of Nonprofits. Mr. DeSimone resides in Pittsburgh with his wife, Kate, and three children. In his spare time, Dave is the wine writer for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. He is also active in historic preservation with the Allegheny Historic Preservation Society and in fund raising for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.