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Leonard Kurz

Leonard Kurz

Director and officer of the Kurz Family Foundation

Leonard Kurz was born in Brooklyn and later moved to Rockland County, NY. Mr. Kurz serves as a director and officer of the Kurz Family Foundation. He played a significant role in establishing the two endowed professorships at Brooklyn College: the Herbert Kurz Chair in Constitutional Rights and Civil Liberties and the Herbert Kurz Chair of Finance and Risk Management as well as the program that assists Black and Latino male Brooklyn College students. He is the C.E.O., president and creative force behind Forest Creatures Entertainment, a motion picture, television, and new media production company he established in 1993.

In 2007, Forest Creatures Entertainment produced Kitka & Davka in Concert: Old & New World Jewish Music, which has been broadcast extensively on the PBS network. He was a founding director (United States board) of Free the Children, an international organization which has the unique mission of creating a global network of children helping children through education. Leonard is making a feature length documentary on Free the Children, is a co-producer of Maangamizi: The Ancient One, the first film from Tanzania to be considered for an Academy Award, and has been a script reader for Francis Ford Coppola. Mr. Kurz is a founding member of the SUNY Chancellor’s Society and has received awards for his philanthropic work. 

Mr. Kurz graduated from Grinnell College with a B.A. in History and from Stanford University with an M.A. in Film and Television Production.