Who Are the Members of the Harvard Company?

Amid the turmoil over Harvard College’s president, Claudine Homosexual, the highly effective board governing the college has been thrust into the highlight. Regardless of the mounting scrutiny over Dr. Homosexual, the Harvard Company has to this point proven assist for her.

The Harvard Company — formally often known as the President and Fellows of Harvard Faculty — consists of 13 members (one place is at the moment unfilled), is answerable for the hiring of the college president and is the arbiter of main coverage selections. Members, who meet a number of instances a 12 months, aren’t paid for his or her position.

The board, the smaller and extra highly effective of two governing boards at Harvard, dates again to 1650, making it the oldest company within the Western Hemisphere, in accordance with the college. For generations, the company was made up of solely the college president and 6 others, but it surely expanded in 2010 to 13 members amid requires clearer communication with the broader Harvard group, in accordance with the varsity’s Workplace of the Governing Boards.

Right here’s what to know concerning the board’s present members.

Timothy R. Barakett

Timothy R. Barakett is the college’s treasurer and a donor. He based the now-fallen hedge fund, Atticus Capital, which he led as chairman and chief govt for 15 years. Mr. Barakett has additionally labored in philanthropy.

Kenneth I. Chenault

Kenneth I. Chenault is the chairman and a managing director for Basic Catalyst, a enterprise capital agency. Beforehand he served as chairman and chief govt of American Categorical Firm. Mr. Chenault has served on the boards of many influential firms, together with I.B.M. and Procter & Gamble. He’s additionally a board member of the Smithsonian Establishment’s Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition, and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar

Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar is a former justice of the Supreme Court docket of California. Mr. Cuéllar labored within the White Home for the Clinton and Obama administrations and served as co-chair of the U.S. Division of Schooling’s Fairness and Excellence Fee and of the Immigration Coverage Working Group for the Obama-Biden Transition Undertaking. He was additionally the particular assistant to the president for justice and regulatory coverage throughout President Barack Obama’s first time period. For 20 years, he was a Stanford College college member.

Paul J. Finnegan

Paul J. Finnegan is the previous treasurer for Harvard, a former member of the Harvard Board of Overseers and a earlier president of the Harvard Alumni Affiliation. Mr. Finnegan is the chairman of the Chicago-based private-equity funding agency Madison Dearborn Companions, which he helped discovered within the Nineties. He’s a present member and former chairman of the Chicago regional advisory board of Train for America and is the previous treasurer of the group’s nationwide board of trustees.

Claudine Homosexual

Dr. Homosexual turned Harvard’s president in July, and concurrently serves as a member of the board. She is Harvard’s first Black president and the second girl to carry the place. Dr. Homosexual obtained an undergraduate diploma in economics from Stanford College and a Ph.D. in authorities from Harvard. Learn extra about Dr. Homosexual right here.

Biddy Martin

Biddy Martin is a German research scholar. Ms. Martin was the chancellor of the College of Wisconsin-Madison and the longest-serving provost at Cornell College, the place she led initiatives for monetary help and the humanities. She additionally served because the nineteenth president of Amherst Faculty.

Karen Gordon Mills

Karen Gordon Mills served because the administrator of the U.S. Small Enterprise Administration beneath Mr. Obama for greater than 4 years. She was additionally a member of the Nationwide Financial Council.

Diana L. Nelson

Diana L. Nelson is one other former member of the Harvard Board of Overseers. Ms. Nelson has been closely concerned in alumni efforts — she was co-chair on the Harvard Faculty Fund and a School of Arts and Sciences job power for undergraduate college students. She has had her hand within the nonprofit sector, holding management positions in organizations geared towards youngsters and the humanities. She was acknowledged by Queen Silvia of Sweden in 2007 for her work to assist exploited youngsters.

Tracy Pun Palandjian

Tracy Pun Palandjian is the chief govt and co-founder of Social Finance, a nonprofit investing in areas similar to housing and training for low-income and traditionally marginalized populations. She is a board member for the Boston Basis, one of many nation’s oldest group foundations. Ms. Palandjian is a former member of the Board of Overseers, the place she was the vice chair of the manager committee and chair of the faculties committee and visitation subcommittee. Ms. Palandjian’s household can also be a serious donor to the College.

Penny Pritzker

Penny Pritzker is the lead member of the Harvard Company. A billionaire businesswoman, an inheritor of the Hyatt lodge fortune and the sister of J.B. Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, Ms. Pritzker was an early backer of Mr. Obama’s candidacy for president and later served as U.S. secretary of commerce in his administration.

Shirley M. Tilghman

Shirley M. Tilghman is the previous president of Princeton College, recognized for her work in molecular biology. Ms. Tilghman additionally chaired the assessment of life sciences at Harvard earlier than her time on the board.

Theodore V. Wells Jr.

Theodore V. Wells Jr. is a trial lawyer and co-chair of the litigation division of the regulation agency Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Mr. Wells was a boss of the board of administrators for the N.A.A.C.P. Authorized Protection and Academic Fund, and in 2011, he gained the Thurgood Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award.

Rob Copeland, Maureen Farrell and Sarah Mervosh contributed reporting.