David B. Cornstein

Cornstein was born in New York City on August 17, 1938. As the only child of Irwin, who worked in the rug business, and Fanny, a schoolteacher, Cornstein grew up in the city. His maternal grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Hungary. Cornstein attended P.S.168 in The Bronx and later attended Horace Mann School, graduating in 1956.[1] He earned a B.A. in 1960 from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, where he is still a donor and part of the university's Marquis Society today.[3] He subsequently earned an M.B.A. from New York University (NYU).[4][5] Cornstein then served as a cook in the Army Reserve.[1]

Cornstein started his career while studying at NYU. He opened a jewelry counter in a J. C. Penney store in Long Island and later expanded the operations into a company called Tru-Run, selling jewelry in department stores throughout the U.S. Cornstein served as the president, chief executive officer, and a director. The company bought a similar firm, Seligman and Latz, in 1985 and Finlay Fine Jewelry for $217 million in 1988.[5] Cornstein formed a new holding company, Finlay Enterprises, where he became president and chief executive in December 1988 and continued as a director of Finlay Fine Jewelry. The company continued to grow through the economic downturn in 1989, and in the 1990s expanded into Europe. In January 1999, Cornstein left Finlay as acting chief executive.[5][6]

He was appointed to the New York Off-Track Betting Commission in 1994 and eventually became its chairman. He promoted ideas like televising races live and an 800 telephone number for gamblers to wager.[1]

Cornstein contemplated runs for Mayor of New York City in 1985 and 1991. He briefly declared himself a candidate for New York State Comptroller in 2001. Cornstein later dropped out of the race after Republicans leaders backed the eventual candidate, John Faso.

In September 1999, he was named chairman of TeleHubLink, a telemarketing company that produced wireless encryption products. He had been a director of What A World! since July 1993, before it changed its name to TeleHub. His connection with TeleHubLink proved problematic when, in April 2001, Eliot Spitzer filed a lawsuit against TeleHubLink for violating consumer protection laws.[7] The State argued:

Using the name Triple Gold Benefits, Telehublink Inc.'s telemarketers promised thousands of consumers across the nation that, for an advance fee of over $200, the consumers would receive a low rate, general purpose Visa or MasterCard credit card. In fact, consumers who paid the advance fee did not receive a credit card. Instead, Telehublink sent them a 'discount benefits package' consisting of generally worthless items such as an application for a credit card.[8]

In January 2003, the Third Department of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, upheld a 2001 ruling that "had halted the scam and awarded restitution to victimized consumers."[9][8]

Cornstein was previously the chairman of Pinnacle Advisors Ltd., in addition to being CEO, president, and chairman emeritus of Finlay Enterprises.

In 2006, Cornstein was elected chairman of the board of the Jewelers' Security Alliance.

New York Governor George Pataki gave Cornstein the chairmanship of the New York State Olympic Games Commission as it prepared a bid for the 2012 games, which eventually went to London.[1]

• Enyedi, Zsolt (2018). "Democratic Backsliding and Academic Freedom in Hungary". Perspectives on Politics. 16 (4): 1067–1074. doi:10.1017/S1537592718002165. S2CID 150203242.