David Emil is an American restaurateur and New York State government official. At the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, David Emil was the president of the company that owned and operated the restaurant Windows on the World on the 106th and 107th floors of One World Trade Center, New York, New York. All the employees and guests at the restaurant during the attacks lost their lives, 79 of whom were Windows on the World employees. Soon after the attacks, David Emil co-founded, along with restaurateurs Waldy Malouf and Tom Valenti, Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund, a relief fund for families of victims in the hospitality business throughout the World Trade Center. Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund raised $25 million to provide on-going support for the children of victims. In 2002, David Emil opened Noche, a Latin-themed restaurant in the Times Square area of New York, with Michael Lomonaco as chef-director. Lomonaco had served as executive chef at Windows on the World at the time of the attacks. Education and public service David Emil, an alumnus of Yale College, graduated from Columbia Law School in 1977. In November 1978, David Emil and Anne Burley, a researcher from Amnesty International, visited Tehran as investigators on behalf of Amnesty International to interview political prisoners of the government of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi who asserted they had been tortured despite the regime's claims that torture had been discontinued. A report based on Emil's and Burley's investigation, published in January 1979, provided detailed accounts of torture endured by political prisoners. In the early 1980s, David Emil served as an assistant counsel to New York Governor Hugh Carey. From 1983 through 1988, Emil served as deputy commissioner and general counsel to the New York State Department of Social Services. In 1988, Emil was appointed president of the Battery Park City Authority on the recommendation of New York State Governor Mario Cuomo in October 1988. As Battery Park City Authority president, Emil oversaw the construction of Stuyvesant High School and North Cove Marina on the 92-acre landfill site in Lower Manhattan. In 1994, Emil stepped down from the position at the Battery Park City Authority to enter the private sector. David Emil returned to public service in 2007 when Gov. Eliot Spitzer appointed him president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), which had been formed in 2002 to support the revitalization of the