Biography
Russell W. Galbut was born and raised in Miami Beach, Florida. He graduated from the School of Hotel Administration (now the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration) at Cornell University in 1974. After college, Galbut returned to Miami to begin his career as a hotel and real estate consultant with Laventhol & Horwath. By 1976, he was developing condominiums and retail centers in South Florida.
While working full time in his business, Galbut attended law school at the University of Miami School of Law, earning a Juris Doctor in 1980 in addition to the CPA certification he received earlier in his career.
In 1983, he acquired and converted his first hotel, The Shelborne. In 1989, Galbut, along with partners Sonny Kahn and Bruce Menin at Crescent Heights, acquired The Alexander and converted the property into a condo-hotel. Crescent Heights focuses on promoting condominium homeownership in urban markets nationwide and is now one of the country’s largest multifamily residential developers, with projects in major cities across the United States. Galbut and Crescent Heights also converted the Ala Moana Hotel in Hawaii, one of the largest condo-hotels in the world.
Beginning in the 1990s, he served on numerous boards of public, civic, charitable and private organizations. More recently, he was elected chairman of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., an S&P 500 company. Galbut also serves on the board of trustees of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and other charitable organizations.