Thu 2 Jul 2009
Anyone have news on changes in the board of Trustees? I see 4 Trustees with terms that expired this June: Austell ‘75, Harty ‘73, Scott ‘68 and Smith ‘87. My guesses (and much of the below is pure speculation):
1) Smith ‘87 will be leaving the Board. I think that his three year term was as a replacement for Mike Reed ‘75, who was a Trustee when he joined Williams, but who left that position once he became an employee of the College. (I think that Smith got the job because either a) He is a good guy who lives in the area and has been heavily involved in various Williams activities or b) Because he came in second in the voting behind Reed in the Alumni Trustee election in 2004. (Is there some easy place to look up the history of Trustee elections?)
2) Joey Horn ‘87 will be replacing Smith. She won the Alumni Trustee election. (Full disclosure: I voted for Horn.) Her victory was announced at reunion but I can’t find an official news release from the College.
3) Scott ‘68 will stay on the Board. His term will be extended out to 2014. Scott has been a generous donor to Williams for many years. and has generated some classic EphBlog posts — who can forget Scott being called “limp-wristed” by Senator Orrin Hatch? Although Scott’s wealth may have been significantly impacted by the financial crisis, he was still placed in the picture (pdf) with all the key donors during the recent dedication of Schapiro Hall.
Donors and friends gathered on April 17 to celebrate the naming of the new south academic building in honor of President Morty Schapiro. Pictured are (left to right): Ray Henze ’74, Bob ’60 and Martha Lipp, Jack ’61 and Susy Wadsworth, Greg Avis ’80 and Anne Ricketson Avis ’81, Morty and Mimi Schapiro, Karen and Bob Scott ’68, Paul Neely ’68, Franci Rice, Richard Hollander P’10, and Joe Rice ’54.
I think that every Trustee in this photo served on the Board for longer than five years. Indeed, Henze, Lipp, Avis and Rice all served as chairs of the executive committee. If Scott is still giving enough money that he gets in this photo and/or invited to this event, then he probably has more time on the Board.
4) Austell and Harty will not be re-appointed. Again, I could be totally wrong about this, but neither seem to be major players on the Williams scene nor to provide the sort of specialized knowledge (unlike, say, Keating and Spencer) that the Board values. I have also heard rumors that Greg Avis ‘80 (chair of the executive committee) wants to get more people involved in the board, and the only way to do that is to have more people serve just five year terms. (That seems like a good idea to me, and Avis is certainly in a better position than I to make these sorts of judgments.)
Does anyone have better information than my guesses?
Also, does anyone have better information about the exact structure of the Board, say in terms of governance, committee assignments and so on. I tried to provide an overview here, but that seems quite dated.
Request: The College should update the Trustee web page with a) Trustee designations, at least which ones are the Alumni Trustees and b) Committee assignments. If I have a concern about, say, admissions policies, I should be able to figure out which trustees serve on the relevant committee.
Print • Email| « Endowment Predictions | Another University President » |
6 Responses to “Trustee Changes?”
Leave a Reply
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post
If a comment you submitted does not show up, please email us at eph at ephblog dot com. Please note that commenters are required to use a valid email address when submitting comments.
Guy Creese '75 says:
I think this is like reading tea leaves–it’s hard to foretell the future. My belief is that people are tapped to serve on the Board of Trustees for two reasons: (1) to be easy touches when the college needs money and (2) to offer specialized knowledge (finance, education) when it’s appropriate.
Lest people think #1 is a small thing, in the Great Depression the Trustees got it into their mind at a meeting that Williams needed some squash courts. They passed the hat around that afternoon and by the evening had raised all the necessary money themselves.
If I remember correctly, Harty is in the marketing/visual design business, and was instrumental in theming “The Williams Campaign: Climb Far.” Barbara Austell started out as an investment banker, and served as the CFO for Aramark before retiring in her late 40’s/early 50’s. She also served in the Alumni leadership and is the daughter-in-law of Rhett Austell, an alumni bigwig in the 70’s. So she brings financial knowledge, Williams history, and probably some money to the equation.
In short, hard to tell who will stay and who will go. Believe it or not, some get tired of it, and want out to do other things.
By the way, when I was at Williams, the Trustees were a pretty stodgy bunch, but in the 80’s Williams made a point of getting a more varied set of people (wider range of occupations, wider range of ages) before it became trendy, and I think the college deserves some credit for doing so.
JeffZ says:
I hereby volunteer. Not sure if my $200 donation will maket the cut, however.
lgeorge says:
Alma Mater needs you for your sports expertise and encouragement of her scholar-athletes, JeffZ.
Parent '12 says:
Are there constraints on trustee qualifications?
For example, can a current or retired president of another college or university serve?
Larry George says:
Most trustees are alums. We’ve ad quite a few go on to become presidents, provosts, and so deans of other schools, and I don’t know of any reason they would not be welcomed (and sought out), as a general matter.
frank uible says:
Google interlocking directorates.