Jeff van der beek biography of michael

Jeff Vanderbeek's day started before the sun rose over his house up in the Watchungs, overlooking the Raritan Valley.

His day ended with the sun going down over the same mountains, as the lights of cities in the Newark Basin flickered on, well below his 23rd floor office.

From his office and the other windows of the New Jersey Devils corporate offices in the historic art deco building at 744 Broad St., in Newark, Vanderbeek can see all his worlds, places he grew up, places he conquered, and the city which now has seen the realization of his most public dream. The Prudential Center, the new home of the New Jersey Devils, opens Thursday.

"My father always said, 'Learn, earn, return,'" Vanderbeek says often. "You spend the first part of your life learning, the next part earning, and the final part returning -- giving back to the community."

There, just to the north, is Bloomfield College, where he got his undergraduate degree, and to the east, across the river, is Manhattan, where he became the kind of executive whose annual salary sounded like a lottery-win.

One of his jobs at Lehman Brothers was managing the Global Risk division.

The world below Vanderbeek now is one where he also has managed -- make that, minimized -- risk.

"You do that by listening to people," said Vanderbeek, late yesterday after a full day of meetings to work out the final-stretch problems of the arena.

For Vanderbeek, this began with investing $20- to $23 million in consulting fees in the arena. Building consultants. Sports and entertainment consultants. Food and beverage consultants. Traffic consultants. And on and on.

Not that he always did what they suggested. But he always listened, so he could make an educated decision.

Now, in two days, the arena many people said would never be built is going to open. Call it the Miracle with Ice. And Jeff Vanderbeek is still listening. Since last Friday, tho

American businessman (born 1958)

Jeff Vanderbeek (born 1958) is the former owner of the New Jersey Devils, a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League. Vanderbeek, a New Jersey native and Devils season ticket holder since the late 1980s, bought a minority stake in the Devils when Puck Holdings, an affiliate of YankeeNets, purchased the team in 2000. In 2004, he bought the team outright and resigned his position as an executive vice president of Lehman Brothers, which he joined in 1984. He was ranked the ninth highest paid executive of 2002 by Business Week with pay totaling over $29 million.

Owner of the New Jersey Devils

In August 2013, he sold the franchise and the Prudential Center to an investment group led by Josh Harris and David Blitzer for $320 million.

Personal life

Raised in Somerville, New Jersey, Vanderbeek moved to Bridgewater Township as a child and graduated from Bridgewater-Raritan High School East in 1975.

He resides in Warren Township, New Jersey, having previously resided in South Orange, New Jersey.

References

In business deals, as in ice hockey, as one side celebrates another is often stuck with disappointment.

Thursday, as Joshua Harris and David Blitzer, a pair of high-powered investors, smiled next to Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, Jeff Vanderbeek watched without expression. By selling his controlling stake in the Devils and the rights to run the Prudential Center in Newark, Vanderbeek cut a deal for a reported $320 million. But, he said, when pen met paper Thursday morning to finalize the deal he had conflicting emotions.

"It’s certainly bittersweet. There were other opportunities on the way to perhaps do things differently," Vanderbeek said. "But you know what? At one point you’ve got to think about the future, think about the larger whole. And this was the right thing."

As Vanderbeek’s nine-year tenure ends, he departs the owner’s box with a complicated legacy.

Vanderbeek’s persistence and vision helped the Devils escape the decaying Izod Center in the Meadowlands and land on the corner of Mulberry and Lafayette in downtown Newark. Of the Prudential Center’s $375 million price tag, nearly $185 million came from Vanderbeek and his former partner Ray Chambers. Since opening in October 2007 with a series of Bon Jovi concerts, the arena has been among the most profitable in the world, through sporting events and concerts.

"I’ve put a lot of things on hold over the last 10 years," Vanderbeek said. "It’s been a 24/7 thing to build this thing."

The arena, though, would become a constant point of contention between Vanderbeek and Newark, whose housing authority leases the venue to the Devils. Vanderbeek squabbled publicly with Cory Booker, Newark’s mayor. The city accused Vanderbeek of skirting conditions in their lease agreement. A panel of arbitrators, in April 2012, ruled in favor of the Devils.

To keep the team afloat, however, Vanderb

American actor (born 1977)

In this Dutch name, the surname is Van Der Beek, not Beek.

James David Van Der Beek (; born March 8, 1977) is an American actor. Known for his portrayal of Dawson Leery on The WB's Dawson's Creek (1998–2003), he also played a fictionalized version of himself on the cult ABC sitcom Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 (2012–2013), starred on CSI: Cyber as FBI Agent Elijah Mundo (2015–2016), and appeared as Matt Bromley on the first season of the FX drama Pose (2018).

His film credits include Varsity Blues (1998), Texas Rangers (2001), The Rules of Attraction (2002), Formosa Betrayed (2009), Labor Day (2013), and Bad Hair (2020).

Early life

Van Der Beek was born in Cheshire, Connecticut, the son of Melinda (née Weber; 1950–2020), a former dancer and gymnastics teacher, and husband James William Van Der Beek, a cellular phone company executive and former minor league baseball pitcher. He is of Dutch, German, English, Scots-Irish, and French descent; his last name translates to "from the creek" in Dutch.

Career

Theatre

Van Der Beek played the role of Reuben in his middle school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. At the age of 15, he asked his mother to take him into New York City to get an agent and try his hand in professional acting. He made his professional debut off-Br