david: this is my kitchen table. and also my filing system. over much of the past three decades, i have been an investor. the highest calling of mankind i have always thought was private equity and then i started interviewing. i learned from doing my interviews how leaders make it to the top. >> he said 250. i did not negotiate. david: how they stay there. you don't feel in adequate being the second wealthiest man in the world? dan doctoroff is a former deputy mayor of new york city. and a former ceo of bloomberg. i came to know him recently fairly well when he created target als, an organization

designed to raise funding to cure als, a disease which killed his father and uncle. recently, dan was also diagnosed. i sat down with dan at bloomberg and talked about his life, philanthropy and his desire to do what he can to help cure als. recently about a year ago you were diagnosed with als which is a sad tragic disease. what was your reaction when you heard about this? dan: i was actually shocked despite the fact my father and uncle died of the disease. i did not expect it at all. i really had not felt many symptoms. i went away on a trip to iceland with my wife. i had breathing problems. i could not climb rocks. i got exhausted climbing hills which is weird because i was in pretty good shape. i decided to see a doctor not thinking it was aos and he noticed my muscles twitching in brought in the head of neurology.

he almost immediately declared i probably had als given my family history. and i reached out to other doctors who i knew in the als field and they basically concern -- basically confirmed it with a series of tests. david: your father who died of als and your uncle had a gene, you had earlier been tested for that years ago and were told you did not have it. >> i had never been tested. i never one to be tested because i never want to tell my kids if i tested positive. everyone sort of assumed i had als based on my results and family history. when the genetic testing came back, i did not have the same genetic mutation my dad and my uncle in by the way, their first

cousin had. throughout my family but i did not have the gene which has happened alike five times in history. david: for people who were not familiar with aos, it became well-known to the public when lou gehrig contracted it and died relatively quickly thereafter. since the 1930's, have we made that much progress in diagnosing and treating als? >> there has been virtually no progress for 140 years from the time it was discovered in 1870. my uncle died in 2010 and in 2010 i decided, in my family it is hereditary. my dad had died in 2002. i got to do something. i hired a team of scientists to understand why there was so little progress made in the

disease. we came up with a set of series and created an organization around those theories that included funding of consortia, funding of core scientific resources that anyone in the world can draw on bringing in biotech and pharma into the process has been an explosion of progress over the last 10 years. i am proud that organization target als has played a major role in catalyzing the progress. david: when you were told a year ago you had als, you did not say i am now going to take life easy. you decide you're going to raise another $250 million to target als. dan: first of all, this affects my family.

even though i don't have the same genetic mutation that my dad and uncle did, i may have another genetic mutation that has not been discovered yet. my cousin, my brother might have als. it is very personal to me. most people don't recognize this. one in 400 people who are alive today will die from als if we do not come up with treatment. target als has been amazingly successful over the last 10 years and i thought there was nothing more important i could do than to scale up target als and hopefully see real treatment that saves people's lives within the next five to 10 years. and hopefully we will be at a

point within 10 years that we can see a day when everybody's lives get extended and saved. david: a number of years ago there was a so-called ice bucket challenge where people were having water dumped on their heads. i think it did raise a hundred million dollars. dan: some of it went to research but most of it went to patient care. this is a devastating disease. what happens in aos is the signals that get sent from the brain to the muscles to move die. when that happens, you will get paralyzed. it is a progressive disease where you lose more and more control. so patient care is really important.

we have to find the right balance between patient care and research because at the end of the day, the thing that is going to save the lives of those one in 400 people is treatments and we need a load of effort to come up with effective treatment. david: today we still do not know what causes als. is it genetic, environmental or some combination? what do we know about what causes als? dan: there are certain genetic causes we know. that is only about 10% of the cases. the other 90%, we don't really know. we know with the biological pathways are. we have a much better understanding of the science and

that is leading to potential treatment but really understanding the cause i think we are at a long way to go. david: you know within three to five years it is more like them not you will not be alive so how do you deal with that everyday when you get up? dan: i have been in an amazing mood ever since i have been diagnosed. i stopped thinking about the future. ♪

david: i'd like to talk about your background. where are you from? dan: i grew up in birmingham, michigan, a suburb of detroit. my father was a lawyer who became the chief judge of the michigan court of appeals. david: what age did he contract

als? dan: 66 years old. my mother who is a psychologist had just died of a rare net cancer at 64 and literally within weeks of her dying, he started to show symptoms that would later be diagnosed as als. he started to limp. david: you were what a -- you are what age? dan: 64. david: where did you go to college? dan: harvard? david: what did you study there and what did you want to be? dan: i did not know what i wanted to be. i studied government because i did not know anything better. my biggest achievement in college was meeting my wife freshman year. we have now been dating or married 45 years. that was my biggest achievement. david: big achievement.

after college, you went to law school at the university of chicago. dan: before i did that, i was a political pollster. i would be flying all over the country as a 22-year-old advising candidates and the fact they listened to me discouraged me so much i decided to go to law school. david: the fact they were listening to a 22-year-old. what did you do after you graduate? dan: i went to work for lehman brothers. david: you were an investment banker. how long did you do that? dan: three years. david: then you went into private equity. dan: a firm that became oak hill partners. david: you did that for how many years? dan: 14. david: how did you become close to or get to know mike bloomberg? dan: it is actually a funny story. in 1994, i was sitting in the stands of the world cup semifinal game at the

meadowlands in new jersey. it was italy versus bulgaria. a friend literally dragged me to the game. i did not want to go. it was like 100 degrees. we took the bus. it took forever. i walked into the stadium that day. i thought it was the most amazing sporting event i have ever seen. everyone was painted in bulgarian and italian colors. you could not sit down. i was standing there through the match thinking to myself you could play this game in new york with any two countries in the world and it would feel exactly the same. then i started thinking about the olympics which i had always been a fan of and saying why has the most international city in the world never hosted the most international event? i left the stadium that day with

this vague notion that new york ought to host the olympics. i built a plan with advisors about how new york could host an olympics and eventually i showed it to mike bloomberg. he was running the company. he was not contemplating running for mayor. he gave some money. he went on the board. when he shockingly won to be mayor, he asked me to join him in city hall. david: what did you do in city hall? dan: i was responsible for everything economic and financial. my title was deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding. first task was rebuilding the world trade center site. but then we really rethought the future of new york fiscally and financially by having a five borough economic development strategy. david: after serving as deputy mayor of new york, you left after how many years?

dan: i was there for six years. mike bloomberg, we sat in this bullpen in city hall. it was an open space. i sat basically behind him. one day he wheeled around and he said, what would you think about going over and running bloomberg? i said to him, what are you talking about? in the six years we have sat here together, we have discussed the company for one hour total. he said i think you would be really good. i had never run a big company before. i did not know anything about bloomberg. when i was in private equity,

that was a layer of bloomberg. i knew one person at the company and he said i think you would be really good. i said i will think about it. i came back the next day and said i am going to do it. i'm not going to do it for the same salary i was getting paid in government which was one dollar. i started about six weeks later. after it was announced publicly i was going to go run bloomberg, i said to mike i am doing it. what do you want me to do? he said i don't know. i haven't been there for six years. you go figure it out. i did. david: how many years did you run bloomberg? dan: seven. david: the company grew nicely during that time. dan: as soon as i got there, the financial crisis happened but we grew from i think 5.4 billion in revenue to nine in the seven

years i was there. david: after mike finished his third term as mayor, he resumed his position as being ceo. you left the company and started another company called sidewalk labs. what was that? dan: that was a company i formed with larry page and google that became alphabet. that was focused on urban innovation. what we wanted to do was build the most innovative place in the world but also by focusing on building a place, develop ideas, urban innovation ideas that could dramatically transform the city. david: you are learning that company. when you got the news you had als, you decided i am going to do it myself at target als.

dan: basically. i am still on the board of a couple of companies we created but my focus was definitely on als. i also wanted to spend much more time with my family, with friends, travel. do things i had always wanted to do. and it has worked out amazingly well. ♪

david: how do you think new york city is doing today? mike bloomberg is no longer mayor. there has been a mayor after him and now we have a new mayor, eric adams. do you think new york is a safe as -- is as safe as it was when you were in government? dan: it is not as safe as it was. crime is clearly rising. it is not back to the dark days of pre-giuliani in the 90's but we have to be careful because it is a foundation of everything. i know the current mayor is committed to reducing crime but we are going to have to be incredibly aggressive in making sure crime does not increase. david: are you involved any longer in new york city matters? dan: the mayor and governor asked me to cochair a panel or task force on reviving the commercial districts throughout the city.

i have been in the middle of that. later this fall we will produce a report that hopefully will be inspiring here and in other places. david: one of the other projects you conceived of as the shed. you were the chairman for a while. what is the shed? dan: we wanted to put a cultural institution on the far west side of manhattan. well we decided to do was create a new kind of cultural institution that would be remarkably adaptable. the spaces could be adapted to anything. they could accommodate virtually all forms of artistic expression. there are many different venues. the building literally moves back and forth. it is so flexible. it is sort of an architectural marvel. i am really proud of it. david: perhaps the most favorite person who had als was lou gehrig. another famous person was

stephen hawking and he lived for some 30 plus years with it how do you explain that sometimes people can live for 30 years plus? dan: a couple percent of people live beyond 10 years. one of the decisions i'm going to face because my major symptom is respiratory and that is why people ultimately die. -- is to get a tracheostomy. which means that you cannot breathe independently. you also cannot eat and you also generally cannot talk. you communicate by looking and spelling out words on a computer screen. a lot of people don't want to live that way. i think i probably would. i want to see my grandchildren grow up. i still think i could be engaged

in things. that is sort of my optimistic nature. that it is not just about believing there is a cure. but it is sometimes about believing that the better of two bad alternatives is something worth doing. faced with that choice, i think that is what i would do. i will need a lot of help. fortunately i can afford help. david: the word progressive is a word used for als and other diseases as well. progressive is a euphemism for it is going to get worse.

progressive in the case of als means you're going to die a much sooner than you would otherwise die. dan: absent some sort of miracle progress which i don't really expect for 80% of als patients die within three to five years. david: many people when they face death and everybody is going to die at some point but people generally think it is way down the road, you know within three to five years, it is more likely than not you will not be alive. how do you deal with that every day when you get up? dan: the interesting thing is i have been in an amazing mood ever since i have been diagnosed. i have had maybe one down our cumulatively in the last year. i have had many theories to try to explain it. the biggest one is when i was diagnosed, i stopped thinking about the future. it was not something i tried to do. it was sort of my optimistic nature protecting me. it is not like i am in denial. i know the statistics. i spend lots of times with als

patients. i have lived it with my father, my uncle peered my college roommate died of als. i know what is going to happen. but i stopped thinking about the future. that has been an enormous benefit for me. i have a lot of other theories to explain why i have been so unfazed by the disease. why i have been so happy. i have had a great life. i have a wonderful family. i have great friends. i have done what i wanted careerwise. i have done outside things like the shed or the olympics that i wanted to do because i was passionate about them. i have had a great life. obviously i want it to continue but if it does not, i am grateful for the life i have had.

i have been bathed in love and support from so many people. when i announced i had als, i got thousands of notes. lots of people talking about the impact i have had on their life. i literally felt like i died and witnessed my own funeral. but then the last part of it is i feel like i have purpose. with target als, i feel like i can contribute to saving people's lives, maybe my own unlikely. my kids, my family. there's one in 400 people. there is nothing more important.

i feel like i'm on my last mission and it gives me a real sense of purpose. ♪

emily: hello!