News
Harvard Corporation Elects Kenneth I. Chenault and Karen Gordon Mills
2.10.14
Kenneth I. Chenault, J.D.’76, and Karen Gordon Mills, A.B. ’75, M.B.A. ’77, were elected as Harvard Corporation members. They will begin their service as Fellows of Harvard College on July 1.
Photographs courtesy of Harvard Public Affairs and Communications
The University announced today that Kenneth I. Chenault, J.D. ’76, and Karen Gordon Mills ’75, M.B.A. ’77, have been elected members of the Harvard Corporation, the senior governing board, effective July 1. They succeed retiring members Robert D. Reischauer ’63, who is the senior fellow, and Robert E. Rubin ’60, LL.D. ’01; they will conclude their service at the end of the academic year, as announced last October.
Chenault is chairman and chief executive officer of American Express Company. Mills was administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration from 2009 to 2013, and is currently a fellow at the Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School.
According to the news announcement, Chenault, a graduate of Bowdoin College, has served on the Harvard Law School visiting committee and is a member of the Committee on University Resources (COUR), Harvard’s most senior fundraising advisory group. His service commitments include the boards or advisory councils of the National Academy Foundation, the NYU Langone Medical Center, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center, and the Bloomberg Family Foundation. He is also a director of IBM and Procter & Gamble. Kenneth and Kathryn Cassell Chenault’s son Kenneth graduated from the College in 2012; son Kevin is a senior.
Mills, according to the news announcement, has resumed her role as president of a private-equity firm in Maine. She was previously founding partner of a venture-capital firm, and has served on the boards of Scotts Miracle-Gro, Arrow Electronics, Guardian Insurance, Latina Media Ventures, and Annie’s Homegrown. She was earlier a McKinsey & Company consultant and a General Foods product manager. She was a member of the Board of Overseers, the junior governing board, from 1999 to 2005, and a Radcliffe College trustee from 1985 to 1993. Her visiting-committee service includes the business school, engineering and applied sciences, the department of chemistry and chemical biology, and the information-technology operation. She is also a COUR member. She is married to Barry Mills, president of Bowdoin College. They have three sons, including George, a junior at Harvard.