Joseph R. Bankoff

Chair, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Georgia Tech

Joseph R. Bankoff joined the Woodruff Arts Center in September 2006 as president and CEO. He has been an active part of the Atlanta arts community for many years. He worked to raise funds for Atlanta Arts Alliance (original name of the Woodruff Arts Center) and the 1983 expansion of the High Museum. He is a charter member of the High and long-time subscriber to the Alliance Theatre. He joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Board of Directors in 1996 after arranging for the ASO to perform at the Olympics Games Opening and Closing ceremonies.

As vice-chair of the ASO Board, Joe participated in long-range planning and chaired the search committee that pioneered a creative partnership approach that attracted Robert Spano and Donald Runnicles to Atlanta. He also chaired the Regional Arts Task Force for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and was involved in the formation of the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts and Culture Coalition (MAACC).

Joe’s passion for the arts is a life-long one. He participated in music and theatre as a child and as a young adult he volunteered his time for the arts and was a subscriber with several different arts organizations. More recently, he served as a member of the regional effort to strategically plan to strengthen arts throughout the metro region.

Before Joe joined the Woodruff, he was a senior partner of one of Atlanta’s largest and most prestigious law firms, King & Spalding. He is an experienced trial lawyer with more than 25 years experience in various technology and communication disputes and contracts. Joe has wide litigation experience in patent, copyright, trade secret, media and technology-related matters.

Joe is recognized as one of “Atlanta’s Best Lawyers” and is a founding member of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation. He was selected by Chambers USA as a leading lawyer in his practice area. He has been included in the list of The Best Lawyers in America and in Georgia Trend magazine’s “Legal Elite,” a list of the state’s most effective lawyers by practice area.

Joe has served on the Governor’s Telecommunications and Technology Task Force. He recently led an Advisory Committee to the Georgia Joint House-Senate Committee on Emerging Communications Technologies drafting legislation adopted in the current session. As Television Counsel to the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) he negotiated television rights agreements for the 1996 Olympic Games in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Latin and South America.

Joe earned his B.S. degree from Purdue University and his J.D. degree from the University of Illinois. In 1992, he visited at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Patent, Copyright and Competition Law in Munich, Germany.