The Big Picture: Ted Kheel translates ideas into action
Cornell Communique Fall 2000

A talent for linking ideas with opportunities once moved a friend to call Ted Kheel a "catalyst on a hot tin roof." Kheel, a 1935 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences and a 1937 graduate of the Law School, has fashioned a unique and influential career that embraces, among other things, the law, labor mediation, real estate development, and environmentalism.

Kheel brought together several interests to create the Cornell Biodiversity Laboratory at Punta Cana, a facility built on the site of a 30-square-mile resort in the Dominican Republic he owns with Grupo Punta Cana, whose partners include the distinguished Dominican businessman Frank R. Rainieri, fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, and singer Julio Iglesias. The laboratory, to be dedicated early in 2001, will allow Cornell undergraduates to greatly expand the scope of its ongoing biological research.

The Punta Cana Beach Resort also allows Kheel to implement principles of sustainable development. Punta Cana's solid waste is treated through oxidation and evaporation rather than chemicals. Treated wastewater, 90 percent pure, is contained in two lakes and used to irrigate the golf course. "This is just one example of what we're doing to implement sustainability," Kheel says.

A lecture on campus by Eloy Rodriguez, the James A. Perkins Professor of Environmental Studies, inspired Kheel to create the Cornell Biodiversity Laboratory at Punta Cana. Professor Rodriguez told of the research he and his undergraduate students conduct in the Venezuelan Amazon, whose rich biodiversity provides them with a living laboratory in investigate questions such as the medicinal value of plants.

Kheel remembers, "I was fascinated by what he said. We lunched afterwards and I learned more about what he was doing in the field of biodiversity. And I asked Eloy, 'Could you do the same thing in Punta Cana?' He said, 'Absolutely.' We've been developing the resort for the last 32 years and doing it with regard to the environment and the protection of the diverse species on our property. A Cornell biodiversity laboratory here will prove that we really mean what we say about the environment."

The resort entered into a formal agreement with Cornell to create the laboratory. The Punta Cana Ecological Foundation, which Grupo Punta Cana created to maintain a 1,500-acre ecological reserve that Grupo Punta Cana donated to the foundation, has built the laboratory to Cornell's specifications on a 10-acre site within the reserve at an initial cost of $500,000. The foundation has also agreed, with Grupo Punta Cana's support, to maintain the laboratory, to provide students and facility with food and lodging, and to rent the facility to Cornell for $1 a year as long as it is maintained as a teaching and research facility. To facilitate the transaction, the Kheel family TASK Foundation contributed to both Cornell and the Punta Cana Ecological Foundation.

"We got started a year ago, before the laboratory was built, putting up 20 or so students and professors in quarters at the hotel," says Kheel. "The enthusiasm on the part of the students is wonderful. Their spirit has, in turn, promoted enthusiasm on the part of our architects and builders. The Cornell Biodiversity Laboratory is one of the most exciting things with which I've been involved, and I think it's going to grow in importance and size." In 1999 Cornell undergraduates conducted research in entomology, botany, ornithology, marine biology, and ethno-pharmacognosy (medicinal plants).

According to Professor Rodriguez, he and his students primarily focus on identifying new anti-cancer drugs, particularly those to fight breast cancer, and compounds derived from naturally occurring plants, organisms, and even birds. "The ocean marine organisms are a valuable source of new medicines, and we will have the opportunity to study their ecology, biology, and biochemistry. This opens up a whole new dimension of study that we never had before." Also under study: scorpion venom that contains anti-tumor properties and birds that produce antibiotic fluids, "We have at this point already identified over 500 species of plants and 82 species of birds," notes Professor Rodriguez. "Twenty-five percent are endemic-they are found only in this area. The laboratory provides us with remarkable advantages."

The 5,000-square-foot, air-conditioned facility will include lodging for up to 32 Cornell students and faculty, who will be residence 12 months a year. Through Cornell's Global Classroom Project, the laboratory has hosed two conferences that enabled scholars and students to participate via the Internet. Dean Sutphin, director of the Global Classroom and associate dean of academic programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, says the distance learning facilities at Punta Can will allow students to connect with courses on the Ithaca campus. "Moreover, we will be able to broadcast worldwide what students learn about biodiversity as part of the global network of universities we are building," explains Sutphin. "Mr. Kheel has helped us combine both new science and cutting-edge distance learning with the latest learning strategies."

Future uses for the Cornel Biodiversity Laboratory include collaborative research with the recently established Cornell Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine at the Well Medical College, which Kheel also supports. An annual conference with scientists from the New York Botanical Garden, Cornell's Bailey Hortorium, and various Caribbean institutions will also be convened at the laboratory.

"Mr. Kheel is an extraordinary man,: says Professor Rodriguez. "When he came to one of my talks about how I trained Cornell undergraduates in the Amazon, he was very enthusiastic, but I never thought our conversation would develop into such an incredible laboratory. He has a great deal of intellectual energy, and he loves the students. We're very fortunate to have his support."

Earlier in his career, Ted Kheel gained a measure of notoriety for his mediation of a 114-day strike against the New York City newspapers and a subsequent 88-day strike. He helped resolve a conflict arising from the introduction of new technologies that displaced thousands of workers. President Lyndon Johnson enlisted his help in mediating a nationwide railroad dispute. He served as arbitrator of the New York Transit Authority for 33 years, and the New York Times declared Kheel "the most influential peacemaker in New York City in the last-century."

Today Kheel sees the conflict between environmental protection and development as highly incendiary. "Developers despise the environmentalists, and vice versa," he notes. "I think substantial development is a proposed solution of great viability to the conflict. That clash-the excesses of both views-has to be resolved before the world is destroyed, and the procedures of conflict resolution are available to address it." At Cornell, Kheel supports the Institute of Conflict Resolution in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

"I am not a scientist or a great scholar," says Kheel who practices law with the New York firm Paul Hastings Janofsky and Walker. "I think the thing I do best is to solve problems or put things together. It's just the same as conflict resolution. I think business is very creative - it's a matter of putting things together." -George Lowery