John E. Drew, M.S.S.S. ’65

President and CEO of the Seaport Companies
President of The Drew Company
The Drew Company
Boston, Massachusetts

Recognized as an authority on public-private partnerships and development, Drew is the founder and president of The Drew Company, an internationally successful Boston-based real estate and development company.

He is president and chief executive officer of the Seaport Companies, which includes the Seaport Hotel and Seaport World Trade Center in Boston and is chairman of Trade Center Management Associates, which manages the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., the federal government’s leading site for trade promotion. He is also the vice chairman and treasurer of the World Trade Centers Association. 

As president of the Seaport Hotel and Seaport World Trade Center, he pioneered the revitalization of Boston’s Seaport District. He led the expansion of the Trade Center, which included the Seaport Hotel in 1998, the World Trade Center East in 2000 and the World Trade Center West in 2002. His company is a co-developer of Waterside Place, a major mixed-use project in the Seaport District.

From 1975 to 1977, Drew was Boston’s director of Federal Relations where he created one of the first public-private partnerships to revitalize Boston. From 1977 to 1979, he was the founder and director of the Center for Public Service at the Heller School of Public Policy at Brandeis University. 

In 2005, Drew received the Theodore L. Storer Memorial Award from the Boston Minuteman Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the Caritas Christi Medal from Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap. He is chairman emeritus of Caritas Christi Inc., the Catholic health care system in eastern Massachusetts, and has served on its Board of Governors since 1995. President of the Artery Business Committee, he also serves on the boards of many civic and philanthropic groups. 

He received his B.A. in English from Stonehill in 1965 and his M.S.S.S. from Boston University in 1970. He holds an honorary doctoral degree in humane letters (L.H.D.) from Newbury College (1997). He was also presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Boston Junior Chamber of Commerce.

The recipient of Stonehill’s Outstanding Alumnus Award in 1979, he has been a member of the College’s President’s Council since 1988 and the Visiting Committee on Business Administration since 2002. Elected a Stonehill trustee in spring 2005, he resides with his wife, Kathleen, in Hingham, Mass.