Interview

Everybody Lives

with Dan Doctoroff

January 24, 2024

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“We believe that every single patient with ALS should be able to live and that’s our mission – Everybody Lives!”

Dan Doctoroff joins the Patient Empowerment Program to talk about his mission to support a world where everyone with ALS lives. Dan is the former NYC deputy mayor for economics and former CEO of both Bloomberg L.P. and Sidewalk Labs. In this episode, Dan discusses his family’s battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), his own inspiring story of how his diagnosis completely changed his outlook on life and his work with the foundation he started, Target ALS.

On This Episode We Discuss:

  • Dan’s inspiration to bring the Olympic Games to NYC
  • 3 things he learned as a CEO
  • Coping with the reality of living with ALS
  • Shifting his perception of life
  • How ALS has impacted his bloodline
  • Bolstering Target ALS and fighting for the lives of every ALS patient

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Dan Doctoroff is a force in the corporate and government world. After growing up near Detroit and studying at both Harvard and the University of Chicago, he set his sights on the ‘Big Apple’, New York City. He started his career working in finance on Wall Street but later worked alongside NYC’s Mayor Mike Bloomberg as deputy mayor for economics. Doctoroff helped lead New York City’s economic recovery from 9/11 and shaped the city’s zoning and real estate landscape. Dan also spearheaded NYC’s bids to host the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games as a managing partner of investment firm Oak Hill Partners. During his tenure as the CEO of Bloomberg, L.P., Dan successfully navigated the organization through the 2008 financial crisis. Most recently, Dan co-founded Sidewalk Labs with Google where he served as CEO.

In 2021, Dan stepped away from Sidewalk Labs after he was diagnosed with ALS. This life-altering event shifted his perspective of life and honed his focus on the present. Dan notes that he became more patient and less competitive, and he began cherishing every day with those around him.

ALS has been ever present in Dan’s life even before his own diagnosis. ALS claimed the lives of his father, uncle, and college roommate. In 2013, he founded Target ALS, to fund research into this terrible degenerative and fatal disease. The Target ALS Foundation is a non-profit whose mission is to accelerate ALS research into successful clinical trials. The foundation has built an innovative ecosystem for biomedical research that has catalyzed ALS drug discovery through collaborations with organizations such as n-Lorem. Dan and his foundation, Target ALS, envision a world where everyone with ALS lives.

Daniel L. Doctoroff stepped down as Chairman and CEO of Sidewalk Labs, Alphabet’s pioneering urban innovation company, in late 2021 upon being diagnosed with ALS. Prior to Sidewalk, Dan was CEO of Bloomberg L.P. Before Bloomberg, he served as Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding for the City of New York, where he led the city’s dramatic economic resurgence after 9/11. His memoir-manifesto, Greater than Ever: New York’s Big Comeback, was named by The Economist as one of the four essential books to understand New York City.

Before joining the Bloomberg Administration, Dan was Managing Partner of investment firm Oak Hill Partners. While there he founded NYC2012, New York’s Olympic bid. He is a founding chair of The Shed, an innovative cultural institution on Manhattan’s Far West Side.

Credits

Hosted by: Dr. Stan Crooke.
Videographer: Jon Magnuson of Mighty One Productions.
Producers: Kim Butler, Colin Delaney, Kira Dineen, Jon Magnuson, Andrew Serrano and Amy Williford.

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Fostering Collaboration to Fight ALS with Manish Raisinghani

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