Biography
A respected lawyer, George M. Weiss became involved with the National Football Foundation in 1969 first as an Associate Legal Counsel and then General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, and he has remained a fixture ever since. He has helped navigate the organization through countless ventures, and he has served in numerous capacities, including legal member, board member, legal counsel, committee chairman, fundraising and executive officer.
Weiss’ service to the NFF has touched the tenures of every chairman in the history the organization, including Chester J. LaRoche, Vincent dePaul Draddy, William Pearce, Jon F. Hanson, Ron A. Johnson and Archie Manning. During the 1960s and 1970s, Weiss worked closely with many of the Foundation’s pioneers, including LaRoche, Allison Danzig, Edgar Garbisch, George Murphy, Bill Morton and Stan Crossland.
Having served as NFF legal counsel for many years, Weiss accepted an invitation to join the board in 1988. He became the organization’s Treasurer/Secretary in 1995, and he served in that role until 2006 when he took on the role of Vice Chairman, a position he still holds today.
Working closely with every management team since 1969, he has had a major role in leading the foundation into a modern era, overseeing all legal matters, chapter programs, the Hall of Fame Bowl Game, the Kickoff Classic, the launch of the NFF Play It Smart youth development program, the NFL-NFF Coaching Academy, the naming of the William V. Campbell Trophy and many other projects.
During his 45 years with the organization, Weiss has helped negotiate the location of all of the sites of the College Football Hall of Fame, including its latest move to a $67 million 95,000 sq ft facility in Atlanta. “I am probably the only man alive who has helped negotiate four football Halls of Fame moves… Rutgers (a house), New York (limestone mansion), Kings Island (Ohio), South Bend (Ind.) and now this (Atlanta),” Weiss said of the grand opening of the College Football Hall of Fame this fall in Atlanta.
Weiss, born in the South Bronx, moved to Rochester, N.Y., attending and playing football at Benjamin Franklin High School. For college, he attended Bowling Green State University from 1959-1963. He then returned to New York, receiving a Master’s Degree from the New York University School of Education in 1965 and his Juris Doctors degree from New York University Law School in 1968. Shortly thereafter Weiss joined the law firm of Rubin, Baum, Levin, Constant & Friedman (now the New York office of SNR Denton and the 7th largest law firm in the world) eventually becoming a senior partner. In addition to corporate legal work, Weiss carved out a niche in the music and recording field, working on projects that involved jazz pianist Chick Corea, Madonna and numerous other artists. He stayed with the firm for a little more than 17 years, leaving in 1985 to concentrate on his business ventures.
In 1992, he founded Beechtree Capital, private investment firm operating in New York City, Scottsdale, Ariz., and Silicon Valley, Calif. The firm has participated in more than 90 venture investments involving $600 million, resulting in a 75 percent success rate with an approximate 350 percent return for investors. He has been a co-founder or early investor in the predecessors of American Tower Corporation, Rogers Cable, Nexsan Technologies, XOS Digital and numerous other publicly and privately held companies.
Throughout his career, Weiss has served on the Boards of Directors and on the Audit, Executive, Nominating and Governance or Compensation Committees of numerous private, NASDAQ, AMEX and NYSE companies. He has been a member of the New York State Bar Association, the Bar Association of the City of New York and the Legal Education Committee and Committee Overseeing Public Demonstrations of the Bar Association of the City of New York.
In addition to his service to the NFF, Weiss’ charitable work includes service of more than 10 years as a board member and chairman of the Finance and Audit Committee of The Global Hunger Project, a 40 year-old strategic organization working on four continents to end hunger and provide basic human rights. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the United States Naval Academy Foundation, and for more than five years, he was an active member of BENS (Business Executives for National Security), focusing on the organization’s activities in Silicon Valley. He remains an active participant in a number of other national and international charitable and educational organizations.
