3. Stuart Rabinowitz

Much is made of Long Island’s “brain drain”—where our best and brightest are supposedly fleeing in droves—but rarely do we hear about those institutions attracting young minds to LI. As the president of the Island’s largest private college, Rabinowitz is one of the primary figures charged with this responsibility. Since accepting the role in 2001, both he and the university in his care have flourished—and not just through its ever-rising academic standards. In recent years, the school has achieved national prominence for its extracurricular activities, including hosting an October 2008 presidential debate, a 2010 New York state gubernatorial debate, as well as building an exciting, fast-rising basketball program featuring a future NBA star (point guard Charles Jenkins). Rabinowitz is the driving force behind Hofstra’s soon-to-be-opened Hofstra-North Shore LIJ School of Medicine. Hofstra is also at the geographic and economic center of the Nassau Hub—where proposed coliseum projects will eventually take shape. Rabinowitz’s involvement with that, too, will be crucial, and will influence the future of Nassau County and LI for decades to come.