Lynn Lander

Lynn Lander ChE'60 spent his entire 41-year career in R&D with Unilever, the multi-national Detergents, Foods & Personal Products Company. He held positions as Director of Technical Services, Dir. of New Product Research and Dir. of Project & Knowledge Management and was a member of the Laboratory’s Management Committee. He co-chaired a global team that designed and implemented a Project and Risk Management process and training program, initially for Research, then rolled out across the entire corporation. He has trained and facilitated cross-functional project teams on five continents. Lynn was Unilever’s corporate, voting representative to the Industrial Research Institute where he sat on the Research-on-Research Committee and was a co-founder of the Total Quality Management Committee. Lynn was a member of the Detergents Steering Committee of the America Oil Chemists’ Society and an Associate Editor of its Journal (JAOCS). He was President of the New York based Association of Research Directors. He retired in 2003.

After retirement Lynn established a consulting company specializing in Project and Risk Management, and Training for Team Effectiveness. He was an Adjunct Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University.

In his community, Mr. Lander was President of the Harrington Park Board of Education, and President of the Northern Valley Joint Boards of Education. He served on the Harrington Park Borough Council and currently is an advisor to the Mayor and is actively involved in the town’s environmental projects.

Mr. Lander is a member of the CUAA Council and its Executive Committee. He sits on the Executive Committee of the Ridgewood Camera Club and is their Chairman for Photographic Print Competitions. He maintains a large vegetable garden. He, and his wife Anne, enjoy philharmonic and chamber music concerts, modern ballet and theater, as well as world travel.

Mr. Lander is dedicated to restoring Cooper Union to financial health so that we can return to free tuition as quickly and safely as possible, and to elevating Cooper’s reputation so that our graduates will deservedly be sought out as leaders in their respective fields of endeavor.

Mr. Lander received a B.Chem.E. from Cooper Union in 1960, an M.S. in Chem.E. from The Johns Hopkins University in 1962 and an M.S. in Math from NYU Courant School of Mathematics in 1970.

Role: Alumni Trustee
Elected to the Board: March 2018
Class Term: 2022
Term Limit: 2022

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.