Paul V. Profeta, the publisher of Real Estate NJ, is the founding donor of New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Profeta Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Profeta Real Estate Technology, Design and Innovation Center. — Courtesy: NJIT
By Joshua Burd
State officials have appointed Paul V. Profeta, the founder of Paul V. Profeta & Associates and publisher of Real Estate NJ, to New Jersey Institute of Technology’s board of trustees.
Profeta, a commercial real estate investor and developer for nearly 50 years, is responsible for the single-largest donation in NJIT’s history. Announced in 2021, the gift led to the launch of the Newark-based school’s Profeta Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Profeta Real Estate Technology, Design and Innovation Center.
His service with the university has also included time as a member of the board of directors for the Foundation at NJIT.
“I really look forward to this assignment,” Profeta said. “I have met and gotten to know most of the members of the board of trustees from my involvement with NJIT. They are not like a normal board that has political appointments and famous businesspeople who are not emotionally involved in the school. Most of the board of trustees of NJIT are alumni, care deeply about the school and work hard on committees and at the general board meetings to make NJIT the best it can be. They are an inspiring group to work with.”
Profeta, who launched Real Estate NJ in 2016, owns commercial properties all over the country and has decades of experience in business, education and philanthropy that has largely focused on revitalizing Newark. That includes the Profeta Urban Investment Foundation, which he launched in 2008 to help start or expand minority-owned businesses in Newark by providing expertise and interest-free funds.
He has also launched real estate centers at Columbia Business School in New York in 1980 and at Rutgers Business School in Newark in 2013. Meantime, NJIT’s Profeta Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship recently graduated its first two classes of minority entrepreneurs, paving the way for the launch of dozens of businesses led by Newark-area residents.
Profeta highlights parents’ legacy of education, as NJIT unveils new real estate center
