Ken Fisher is This Year's Helmsley Award Honoree

NEW YORK CITY-As a leading light within both New York City real estate and a family with a longstanding tradition of community involvement, Ken Fisher is a fitting choice to join a lineage of Harry B. Helmsley Distinguished New Yorker Award honorees that in recent years have included Howard Rubenstein, Sandy Lindenbaum and Mike Fishman. The senior partner with Fisher Brothers will be honored with the Real Estate Board of New York's second-highest honor at the 118th Annual Banquet on Jan. 16, to be held at the New York Hilton.

In addition to his responsibilities at Fisher Brothers, where oversees the leasing, management and marketing of more than six million square feet of class A commercial space in Midtown, Fisher is a member of the executive committee of the City Investment Fund and the executive committee of REBNY's Board of Governors. He's also a member of the Real Estate Roundtable, based in Washington, DC, and the board of directors of Strategic Hotels & Resorts, a publicly traded REIT.

It's as chairman of the Fisher House Foundation that Fisher does his primary philanthropic work. The not-for-profit organization has aided more than 16,000 families of military members each year by providing comfort homes that save them more than $165 million in travel and lodging costs while loved ones are receiving specialized treatment. To date, the foundation has built 54 houses at military bases and VA Medical Centers across the country and Germany, with plans to add several additional houses.

Fisher was most recently recognized in 2012 by the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Norton A. Schwartz, who presented him with the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. In 2009, the Association of the United States Army awarded Fisher its highest honor, the George C. Marshall Medal, while in 2007, then-President George W. Bush appointed him to the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, which conducted a comprehensive review of the care provided to soldiers who return from the battlefield. He has been named one of America's Best Leaders by US News & World Report, and received the Arts & Entertainment television network's prestigious Lives That Make a Difference Award.

Fisher sits on the board of the Intrepid Museum, New York's Finest Foundation, the Association for the Help of Retarded Children; the Jackie Robinson Foundation; and the Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, KS. REBNY's annual Helmsley Award memorializes Helmsley, considered the most admired real estate executive of his generation.