46. Mike Cave

As the owner of the growing title insurance company 1st Equity in Melville and co-founder of PinkTie.org, the expansive Long Island-based philanthropic effort to raise money for cancer research, Mike Cave has quickly made a name for himself. By combining a real estate industry networking event with big-name sports icons for a great cause, Cave’s PinkTie Event has quickly become the premier Long Island gathering, with more than 2,000 attendees in 2015, from just 350 two years ago. Yet, beyond the see-and-be-seen element of Long Island’s social philanthropy, PinkTie.org promises nothing less than 100-percent transparency, for example, donating $300,000 of the $300,000 raised last year to charities and local research labs (such as Cold Spring Harbor Lab) that are addressing the disproportional rate of breast cancer (among other cancers) right here. Their mission has expanded in just three short years to include coalition-building, bringing together more than 20 local organizations to raise awareness to facilitate ways to help. In 2015, Cave kicked it up even another notch, by introducing PinkTie1000, whose mission is to compel 1,000 professionals to donate $100,000 to be distributed to local causes. Mike Cave’s vision is ever-expanding, and there is little doubt that he, as well as the ubiquitous pink ties that have become unavoidable on Long Island, will only become more entrenched in our region’s business culture.