Mark Bisnow (born August 1952) is an American entrepreneur, author and former presidential campaign aide. In 1980, he was press secretary for presidential candidate John B. Anderson. In 2005, he founded Bisnow Media, a commercial real estate news and events company. He has written two books on American politics. [1] [2]
Bisnow grew up in Van Nuys, California. He has a BA and MA from Stanford University and a JD from Harvard Law School. Prior to starting Bisnow Media with his son Elliott in 2005, Bisnow worked in politics (US Senators Hubert Humphrey and John Heinz, US Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole [3] and US Representative John B. Anderson), law (Latham & Watkins), transportation (assistant to the Chairman of US Air [4] ), technology (MicroStrategy and WebMethods), and business journalism (weekly columnist for the Washington Business Journal and daily business commentator for DC news radio WTOP). [1]
From 1978 to 1980, Bisnow was press secretary and political advisor to Rep. John B. Anderson (R-IL) in his campaign for the 1980 Republican presidential nomination. [5] [6] The Wall Street Journal called him "the symbol of the Anderson campaign," and the LA Times identified him as Anderson's closest aide and the model for the campaign spokesman featured in the cartoon strip Doonesbury. [7] [8] [9]
Bisnow's 1983 memoir of the Anderson campaign, Diary of a Dark Horse, was widely reviewed. [9] [10] The New Republic called it "the best book to come out of the 1980 campaign, addressing in a more engaging and revealing manner than any other questions about the power of personality in politics, the decline of the parties, and the influence of the media." [5] The Washington Post called it "funny, gossipy, and provocative." [6]
A second memoir by Bisnow, In the Shadow of the Dome, published in 1990, chronicled his experiences as a Capitol Hill aide in the 1970s and 80's. It was named by Washington Monthly as one of the top political books of the year. [11] [12]
In 2005, he founded Bisnow Media, focused on commercial real estate. [2] [13] By 2016, it grew to 75 employees in 29 cities in the US and Canada, publishing 40 different editions and holding 300 conferences a year for 80,000 attendees. [2] [13] [14] [15] In 2016, it was sold to Wicks Group private equity for $50 million. [2] [13]
Bisnow has been married since the early 1980s to former FTC Commissioner Margot Machol. They have two grown sons, Elliott and Austin Bisnow. [1] [16] [17]
The 1984 United States presidential election was the 50th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1984. Incumbent Republican President Ronald Reagan and his running mate, incumbent Vice President George H. W. Bush, were re-elected to a second term in a landslide. They defeated the Democratic ticket of former Vice President Walter Mondale and Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro.
John Bayard Anderson was an American lawyer and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Illinois's 16th congressional district from 1961 to 1981. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the Chairman of the House Republican Conference from 1969 until 1979. In 1980, he ran an independent campaign for president, receiving 6.6% of the popular vote.
The Whitewater controversy, Whitewater scandal, Whitewatergate, or simply Whitewater, was an American political controversy during the 1990s. It began with an investigation into the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal, in the Whitewater Development Corporation. This failed business venture was incorporated in 1979 with the purpose of developing vacation properties on land along the White River near Flippin, Arkansas.
George Robert Stephanopoulos is an American television host, political commentator, and former Democratic advisor. Stephanopoulos currently is a coanchor with Robin Roberts and Michael Strahan on Good Morning America, and host of This Week, ABC's Sunday morning current events news program.
Angela Marie "Bay" Buchanan is a conservative political commentator who served as Treasurer of the United States under President Ronald Reagan. She is the sister of conservative political commentator Pat Buchanan.
Debategate or briefing-gate was a political scandal affecting the administration of Ronald Reagan; it took place in the final days of the 1980 presidential election. Reagan's team acquired President Jimmy Carter's briefing papers, classified top secret, that Carter used in preparation for the October 28, 1980 debate with Reagan. The briefing papers were never specified to be either vital strategy memos or just routine position papers. This leak of campaign papers was not divulged to the public until late June 1983, after Laurence Barrett published Gambling with History: Reagan in the White House, an in-depth account of the Reagan administration's first two years.
Victor Samuel Kamber is an American labor union activist and political consultant in the United States. A Democrat, he worked for the AFL-CIO in the 1970s before forming The Kamber Group, a public relations firm, in 1980.
Lerner Enterprises is a company owned by the Lerner family that develops and invests in real estate in the Washington metropolitan area. The company has developed more than 20 million square feet of real estate.
Roy Donahue "Don" Peebles is an American millionaire, real estate entrepreneur, author, national media commentator and political leader. Peebles is the founder, chairman, and CEO of The Peebles Corporation (TPC), a privately held real estate investment and development company he established in 1983.
Bisnow Media, also known as Bisnow, is a multi-platform digital media company that produces news and live events. Founded in 2005, Bisnow Media is owned by private equity firm Wicks Group and has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. with 75 full-time employees as of 2014. Covering 27 metropolitan markets across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. with a subscriber base of over 600,000, Bisnow is one of the largest producers of commercial real estate news and events. The company's publications have been described as similar to Business Insider, covering topics such as real estate, technology and businesses with a slight irreverence similar to BuzzFeed.
Stefan A. Halper is an American foreign policy scholar and retired senior fellow at the University of Cambridge where he is a life fellow at Magdalene College. He served as a White House official in the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations, and was reportedly in charge of the spying operation by the 1980 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign that became known as "Debategate". Through his decades of work for the CIA, Halper has had extensive ties to the Bush family. Through his work with Sir Richard Billing Dearlove, he had ties to the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6.
Pete Snyder is an American entrepreneur and marketing executive who is best known as the founder and former chief executive officer of New Media Strategies (NMS), a social media marketing agency that he started in 1999. Snyder stepped down as CEO of NMS in 2011 and founded the angel investment firm Disruptor Capital in 2012. Snyder unsuccessfully ran in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor of Virginia in 2013. Snyder declined to run for the Republican nomination for governor in 2017, instead chairing the campaign of Ed Gillespie. In 2021, he sought the Republican nomination for governor of Virginia. He finished in second place, behind eventual general election winner Glenn Youngkin.
In the 1980 United States presidential election, Ronald Reagan and his running mate, George H. W. Bush, were elected president and vice president, defeating incumbents Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale of the Democratic Party.
Martin Anderson was an American academic, economist, author, policy analyst, and adviser to U.S. politicians and presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. In the Nixon administration, Anderson was credited with helping to end the military draft and creating the all-volunteer armed forces. Under Reagan, Anderson helped draft the administration’s original economic program that became known as “Reaganomics.” A political conservative and a strong proponent of free-market capitalism, he was influenced by libertarianism and opposed government regulations that limited individual freedom.
PS Business Parks, Inc., was a publicly-traded real estate investment trust that acquired, developed, owned and operated commercial properties, primarily multi-tenant industrial, flex and office space. Located primarily in major coastal markets, PS Business Parks’ 97 properties served approximately 5,000 tenants, in 28 million square feet across California, Texas, Virginia, Florida, Maryland and Washington state. The portfolio also included 800 residential units in Tysons, Virginia. As of July 20, 2022, PS Business Parks, Inc.'s holdings have been transferred to Link Logistics Real Estate, an affiliate of Blackstone Real Estate. completing an acquisition first announced on April 25, 2022.
Summit Series is an American organization that hosts conferences and events for young entrepreneurs, artists and activists. Events organized by the group include an annual invitation to a conference during which participants discuss topics including business practices, technological innovation, and philanthropy. Summit Series attendees have included Bill Clinton, Ted Turner and Richard Branson. Summit Series was founded in 2008 by Elliott Bisnow, Brett Leve, Jeff Rosenthal, Jeremy Schwartz, and Ryan Begelman.
MakeOffices is an American coworking and real estate service company. The company currently operates in three cities: Chicago, Philadelphia, and the Washington, D.C. Metro areas.
Austin Bisnow, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and lead singer of the alt band Magic Giant and co-lead singer of the indie folk duo Somewhere In Between. He has written and produced songs for artists such as David Guetta feat. John Legend ("Listen"), Big Time Rush, Jon Batiste & Stay Human, Steve Aoki & Moxie Raia, and Paul Oakenfold, where he was also the featured artist. In addition, Bisnow has collaborated with Akon, Aloe Blacc, Diplo, will.i.am, American Authors, Cody Simpson, Adam Levine, Gym Class Heroes, Benny Blanco, Mike Posner, Claude Kelly, Beast, Sammy Adams, and Cisco Adler.
Margot E. Machol is an American author and former United States government official. She is author of Raising an Entrepreneur: 10 Rules for Nurturing Risk Takers, Problem Solvers, and Change Makers. She is also a former commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and a former chief-of-staff of President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers.
The Demonet Building is composed of a historic townhouse and adjoining office building on the southeast corner of Connecticut Avenue and M Street N.W. in Washington, D.C. Constructed in 1880, the townhouse is the last Victorian residence on Connecticut Avenue between Dupont Circle and Farragut Square that has not been significantly altered. It features an octagonal tower topped by a dome with cartouche windows. Following a multi-year legal battle to demolish the townhouse, which had been added to the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites in 1979, the Demonet Building and adjoining lot were sold for what was then a record price for downtown real estate. The adjoining office building, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, was completed in 1984.