Departing from its customary practice, the University today announced that five Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) nominees—Lindsay Chase-Lansdale; Helena Buonanno Foulkes; Ketanji Brown Jackson; Alejandro Ramírez Magaña; and Kent Walker—have been elected to six-year terms on the Board of Overseers. The news is customarily disseminated on the afternoon of Commencement day—this coming Thursday, May 26—during the annual meeting of the HAA. But this year, with eight HAA-nominated candidates and a slate of five petition candidates campaigning on a “Free Harvard/Fair Harvard” platform all competing for seats on the board, it may have been politic to announce results as soon as possible after the ballots were received (by noon on May 20) and counted, lest the outcome leak piecemeal as candidates were notified of their status.
The complete list of candidates, in ballot order, with identifying information, appears below.
As reported (see all prior dispatches at harvardmagazine.com/overseerelection), the HAA nominated these candidates:
- Kent Walker ’83 magna cum laude, Senior vice president and general counsel, Google Inc., Palo Alto, Calif.
- Ketanji Brown Jackson ’92 magna cum laude, J.D. ’96 cum laude , Judge, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C.
- Helena Buonanno Foulkes ’86 magna cum laude, M.B.A. ’92 , President, CVS/pharmacy; executive vice president, CVS Health, Providence, R.I.
- John J. Moon ’89 magna cum laude, A.M. ’93, Ph.D. ’94, Managing director, Morgan Stanley, New York, N.Y.
- Alejandro Ramírez Magaña ’94 cum laude, M.B.A. ’01, Chief executive officer, Cinépolis, Mexico City, Mexico
- Damian Woetzel, M.P.A. ’07 , Artistic director, Vail International Dance Festival; director, Aspen Institute Arts Program, DEMO at the Kennedy Center, and Independent Projects, Roxbury, Conn.
- Karen Falkenstein Green ’78 magna cum laude, J.D. ’81 cum laude, Senior partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP, Boston
- Lindsay Chase-Lansdale ’74 magna cum laude, Associate provost for faculty and Frances Willard Professor of Human Development and Social Policy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.
The nominees by petition included:
- Ralph Nader, LL.B. ’58 , Citizen-activist and author; founder, The Center for Responsive Law and Public Citizen, Washington, D.C.
- Stephen Hsu , Professor of theoretical physics and vice president for research and graduate studies, Michigan State University, Okemos, Mich.
- Ron Unz ’83 magna cum laude, Software developer and chairman, UNZ.org; Publisher, The Unz Review, Palo Alto, Calif.
- Stuart Taylor Jr., J.D. ’77 magna cum laude, Author, journalist, lawyer; nonresident senior fellow, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.
- Lee C. Cheng ’93 magna cum laude, Chief legal officer, Newegg, Inc., Santa Ana, Calif.
According to the University announcement, 35,870 ballots were cast—a relatively robust turnout, perhaps reflecting the competitive nature of the campaign this year, which was accompanied by significant social-media and online outreach. In recent years, a typical response has been 27,000 ballots from the 250,000 or so eligible voters: about 11 percent.
The petitioners outlined their platform and campaigned via the Free Harvard/Fair Harvard website; alumni who opposed their platform, and who focused particularly on supporting current undergraduate admissions practices, organized and campaigned via the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard website. After soliciting all candidates’ responses to a questionnaire, the coalition—seeking to minimize the possibility that any of the petition candidates would win election—endorsed Ketanji Brown Jackson, John J. Moon, Alejandro Ramírez Magaña, Damian Woetzel, and Lindsay Chase-Lansdale.
