Former Trustee

Colonel G. F. Robert Hanke USMC (Ret)
Colonel
G. F. Robert Hanke
USMC (Ret)

Vice Chairman Emeritus

Colonel G. F. Robert Hanke served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam, logging 126 combat missions as both a fighter/attack pilot and a helicopter pilot. During the Cuban Crisis, as a Marine lieutenant, he flew over fifty missions as a fighter pilot, some off Navy aircraft carriers and others while assigned to the Air Defense Command of the U.S. Air Force. He was a NASA test pilot for Projects Gemini and Apollo and is a former Top Gun of the 2nd Marine Air Wing. His decorations include the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Legion of Merit, the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for Heroism, the Air Medal with Silver Star and Combat V and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. He served as a regular and reserve Marine Corps Officer for over twenty years, retiring as a colonel.

Following his years of active service, he worked for former President Ford as a staff member in Congress, then went on to a career on Wall Street as a financial analyst and investment banker with Scudder, Stevens & Clark. Later he served for many years as Vice President and General Counsel of The Asia Society in New York.

An attorney and investment banker, he is now President and CEO of Polaris Arts Ltd, an Academy Award nominated independent film and stage production company in New York and London. Also President of New York Repertory Theater Company, Colonel Hanke and his wife, Lynn, co-produced Orlando, the British feature film distributed by Columbia/Sony Classics that received two Academy Award nominations, as well as Antarctica at The Savoy Theatre in London, and the documentaries, Voltaire and Jefferson, narrated by Academy Award winning actor Cliff Robertson; and Gilbert and George, recently premiered at the Yale Center for British Art.

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Colonel Hanke was a long-time director of both the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation and the Marine Corps Command & Staff College. He is currently a trustee of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, the Marine Military Academy, Northwood School, Flagler College and The Flagler Museum. He is a director of the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation and is one of the three original Founders of the National Museum of the Marine Corps, as well as an executive officer in the National Association of Chiefs of Police and Chairman of New York's Finest Foundation (Police). He serves as an officer, director or trustee on a number of other business, scholastic, civic and foundation boards.

Colonel Hanke was born in London, England, the son of a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force, and is a naturalized America citizen. He received his BA from Yale University, has an MA in political science and received his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law School, where he was Executive Editor of the Georgetown International Law Journal. He is a member of the Bar of the Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces and the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a full-certified alpine ski instructor, has a black belt in Shoto-Kan Karate, is an Episcopal Eucharistic Minister and is the Senior Warden of his Episcopal church. He lives with his wife and their three children in New York City.

 

 

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