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New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced on March 31, 2010 the founding of the Board of Directors of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization focusing on public health, education, the environment, arts, social services, and innovation in government. The Foundation has named Manny Diaz, Senior Partner of Lydecker, and former Mayor of the City of Miami, as one of its19 distinguished directors alongside other formidable colleagues such as Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida, former U.S. Senator David Boren, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault, Morgan Stanley Chairman John Mack, former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, and former Secretary of the Treasury Henry “Hank” Paulson.

Manny Diaz was first elected City of Miami Mayor in 2001, having never before held elective office. He was reelected to a second term in 2005, and was chosen to lead the United States Conference of Mayors as its president in 2008. During his two-term tenure, Diaz was recognized for transforming the City of Miami, and for many nationally recognized innovative programs in the areas of urban design, sustainability and green initiatives, education, affordable housing, law enforcement, poverty and homelessness, and arts and culture.

Diaz was recognized as one of America’s Best Leaders by US News and World Report and The Center for Public Leadership (Kennedy School of Government); the Urban Innovator of the Year by the Manhattan Institute; Americans for the Arts-National Award for Local Arts Leadership; American Architectural Foundation Keystone Award; Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce Power Leader of the Year and Green Visionary Awards; the Government Award by Hispanic Magazine; the Business Leader of the Year Award by South Florida CEO Magazine; and was named an Outstanding American by Choice by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service.

He is a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council of the US Department of Homeland Security and serves as Vice-Chairman of the Alliance for Digital Equality Board of Directors. He is also a member of the Board of City Year Miami, the Florida After School Network, the advisory board for the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Civic Innovation, the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Urban Research and the Mayors’ Institute on City Design.

He is currently serving as a Resident Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, after which he will resume his corporate and real estate law practice as a senior partner at Lydecker in Miami, Florida and will head up the law firm’s corporate/transactional department. Lydecker is a full-service law firm with offices throughout the state.

He is married to Robin Smith and they have four children, Manny, Natalie, Bobby, and Elisa, and three grandsons.