“I don’t know where she got the money that she gave to charity. In a home with not enough money to make it, to give money to others is a noble act,” says Mr. Mandel. “I saw that, I grew up with it. It was like breathing.”
Although he enrolled at Adelbert College (part of what became Case Western Reserve University/CWRU) after high school, Mr. Mandel dropped out in 1940 to go into business with his two brothers. He was just 19 years old when the trio purchased their uncle’s small automotive shop for $900.
Those early experiences shaped Mr. Mandel’s eventual business success and civic impact. Today, Mr. Mandel is chairman and CEO of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation and chairman and CEO of Parkwood LLC, a private trust company.
The Mandel brothers grew their storefront business into Premier Industrial Corp., a global distributor of electrical, maintenance and industrial parts. Mr. Mandel retired as the company’s chairman and CEO in 1996 when Premier was acquired by the British firm Farnell Electronics for $2.8 billion.
The accumulated wealth of the Mandel brothers over those years has supported charitable work in nearly every sector of Northeast Ohio. Recipients have included Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Neighborhood Progress and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.
For nearly 60 years, Mr. Mandel’s civic volunteerism has helped to shape Cleveland. He served a founding role in several non-profit institutions and was a co-founder of Cleveland Tomorrow (now the Greater Cleveland Partnership), a partnership of 50 of Cleveland’s top CEOs working on economic development initiatives.
In 2013, Mr. Mandel returned to CWRU to complete his coursework. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a minor in social work.
He and his wife Barbara have been married for 67 years and have three children, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
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