Faust issues call for new seats on Harvard governing board

President Faust and Senior Fellow Robert D. Reischauer seek to fill six new seats on the governing board.

In the wake of the Harvard Corporation’s early December decision to increase its membership from seven (the President, Treasurer, and five Fellows) to 13, nominations for candidates to serve on the senior governing board are now being sought. An announcement today from President Drew Faust and Senior Fellow Robert D. Reischauer solicited ideas and names from the Harvard community at large; they can be submitted to corporationsearch@harvard.edu or by mail to Corporation Search Committee, Harvard University, Loeb House, 17 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; all communications will be held in confidence.

Consistent with the Corporation’s earlier steps to include members of the Board of Overseers in its review of its governance structure and procedures, the search for new Corporation members will include three Overseers: Joshua Boger, Ph.D. ’79, founder and former CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and chair of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows; Diana Nelson ’84, director of the Carlson Companies and former co-chair of the Harvard College Fund; and Robert Shapiro ’72, J.D. ’78, a partner at Ropes & Gray, past president of both the Harvard Alumni Association and the Harvard Law School Association. Shapiro served on the Corporation’s governance review committee.

Faust and Reischauer reiterated their earlier expectation that the Corporation’s expanded membership would be put into place within the next two to three years.

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