<p>At its business meeting Friday morning, May 27, 2011, the Corporation of Brown University elected one member to the Board of Fellows and seven to the Board of Trustees. It also reappointed its treasurer and secretary to new three-year terms and formally accepted a number of gifts totaling more than $18.5 million.</p>

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — At its regular Commencement/Reunion business meeting today (Friday, May 27, 2011), the Corporation of Brown University elected eight members to new terms, reappointed two officers, and formally accepted gifts to the University totaling more than $18.5 million.

Upon the recommendation of its nominating committee, the Corporation voted to reappoint Alison S. Ressler, a 1980 graduate, as treasurer and Donald C. Hood, a 1970 Ph.D. recipient, as secretary. Ressler and Hood will begin their second terms in their respective offices and will serve through June 30, 2014. Officers of the Corporation may serve up to three consecutive three-year terms in their positions.

During two days of committee meetings, presentations and discussions, members of the Corporation received reports and considered a number of campus issues. They heard presentations and joined in discussion with Gov. Lincoln Chafee and Mayor Angel Taveras about opportunities and challenges facing the state and the city. The Corporation is committed to the University’s role in the community, including its work on developing the knowledge economy.

New trustees and fellows

The Corporation, governing body of Brown University, comprises a 12-member Board of Fellows and a 42-member Board of Trustees. It is responsible for establishing broad policies for the operation of the University, for selecting a president to carry out those policies, for approving senior administrative officers and tenure-track faculty members, and for approving annual operating funds and capital projects for the University.

The two boards meet together to conduct the business of the Corporation, although the Board of Fellows may meet alone. Certain powers, including the actual awarding of Brown degrees, are reserved for the Board of Fellows by the University’s original charter. Members of the Board of Fellows customarily serve terms of 11 years.

Jonathan M. Nelson, a 1977 Brown graduate, has been elected to serve as a fellow through June 30, 2022. Nelson is CEO and founder of Providence Equity Partners LLC, a private equity firm that manages approximately $23 billion of committed capital and specializes in equity investments in media, communications and information companies in North America, Europe and Asia. He serves on the board of directors of Hulu, Television Broadcasts Limited (“TVB”), Univision Communications, Inc. and Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network. Nelson has also served as a director of AT&T Canada, Brooks Fiber (now Verizon), Eircom plc, Voicestream Wireless Corporation (now Deutsche Telecom), Warner Music Group, Wellman Inc., and Western Wireless Corporation (now Alltel Corp.) as well as numerous privately held companies affiliated with Providence Equity Partners Inc. and Narragansett Capital Inc. Previously, Nelson was a managing director of Narragansett Capital Inc. which he joined in 1983. He received a Master of Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School in 1983.

Members of the Board of Trustees customarily serve six-year terms, with young alumnus trustees serving for three years. Fourteen of the 42 trustees are nominated by the Brown Alumni Association; the remaining 28, including young alumnus trustees, are nominated by the Corporation’s Committee on Trustee Vacancies. All trustees are elected to office by the Corporation. Trustees elected by the Corporation today include:

Robert J. Carney, a 1961 graduate of Brown, is chairman and was a founder in 1983 of Vacation Publications, which publishes magazines and owns Vacations To Go, a leading online travel company. Previously, he was a founder of Jet Capital Corp., a financial advisory firm, and Texas Air Corp, which owned Continental and several other airlines. Carney has served two previous terms as a Brown trustee and was co-chair of the 50th reunion gift committee. He graduated magna cum laude from Brown in 1961 and from Harvard Business School in 1963. Carney will serve a four-year term as trustee through June 30, 2015.

Cathy Frank Halstead was originally elected to the Board of Trustees in 2005 to serve a six-year term. She will serve a second term through June 30, 2017. Halstead attended Riverdale Country School, Connecticut College, Barnard, and New York University, from which she has a B.A. Halstead is chairman and president of the Sidney Frank Importing Company and Trustee of the Sidney Frank Foundation. She serves on the Board of Directors of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. She is an abstract artist and has shown internationally for more than two decades. Halstead will serve as a trustee through June 30, 2017.

John J. Hannan, a Brown parent, is a co-founder (1990) and senior partner of Apollo Management LP, a private equity firm specializing in buyouts, distressed assets and corporate restructurings. Hannan is also the chairman of the board of Apollo Investment Corp., a public investment company and affiliate of Apollo Management. Previously, he was managing director of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., serving as a senior partner of the mergers and acquisitions group and as head of international corporate finance. He has served on many corporate boards of directors including Vail Resorts and Goodman Global. He also serves on several not-for-profit boards including the Food Allergy Initiative, Mt. Sinai Children’s Center Foundation, the Nightingale–Bamford School, the Allen–Stevenson School and the Mt. Sinai Global Health Institute. Hannan graduated from Adelphi University in 1975 and earned an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School in 1979. He will serve as a trustee through June 30, 2017.

Kevin A. Mundt, a 1976 Brown graduate and parent of a graduating Brown senior, is a managing director of Vestar Capital Partners. He is a former managing director of Oliver Wyman, a management consulting firm and the successor entity to Mercer Management Consulting. Mundt had been with Mercer since 1997, when it acquired Corporate Decisions Inc., a firm he co-founded in 1984. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and began his consulting career at Bain and Company. Mundt has served as director of the Brown Sports Foundation and as a member of the Corporation Committee on Development and Alumni Relations. He chairs the Advisory Council on Athletics and serves on the President’s Leadership Council. Mundt will serve as an alumnus trustee through June 30, 2017.

Steven Price, a 1984 Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude graduate of Brown, is chairman and chief executive officer of Townsquare Media Inc., a position he assumed in May 2010. Townsquare is a media and entertainment company that owns and operates radio, digital, and live event properties. Previously, Price was a senior managing director at New York-based private equity firm Centerbridge Partners LP. Before joining Centerbridge in 2006, he was a general partner at Spectrum Equity Investors, a private equity firm that focused on the media, communications, and business services industries. Prior to joining the private equity sector, Price served in the Pentagon as deputy assistant secretary of defense (spectrum, space and communications) from October 2001 through late 2003 and was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Earlier in his career, Price served in the U.S. State Department as special assistant to the U.S. ambassador to the START talks and also worked in the mergers and acquisitions department of Goldman, Sachs & Co. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Brown University Medical School Committee, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Met Council on Jewish Poverty, The Jewish Theological Seminary, and The Hudson Institute. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on an Advisory Board of a branch of The Department of Defense. Price earned a J.D. degree from Columbia University School of Law. He will serve as a trustee through June 30, 2017.

Jasmine Waddell, a 1999 Brown graduate, was elected an alumna trustee to serve through June 30, 2017. After earning her Ph.D. at the University of Oxford in social policy as a Rhodes Scholar and living in South Africa, she has been a researcher and faculty member at University of Oxford, Wellesley College, Boston College, University of Massachusetts–Boston, and Brandeis University. As senior officer for research and learning at Oxfam America, Waddell led research on post-Katrina recovery and resilience. Currently a visiting lecturer of sustainable international development at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, she also serves on the board of the Ford Hall Forum, which fosters effective citizenship through the presentation of public lectures, debates and discussions.

Lauren Zalaznick, a 1984 graduate magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, has spent her entire career in media. She started as an independent feature film producer and in 2011 was named to her current position as chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment and Digital Networks and Integrated Media. She oversees a portfolio that includes television brands Bravo, Oxygen, Style, Sprout, Telemundo, and Mun2; digital networks Fandango, Daily Candy, and iVillage; and NBCUniversal’s pro-social and marketing initiatives Women at NBCU, Green is Universal, Hispanics at NBCU, and Healthy at NBCU. Prior to NBCUniversal, Zalaznick produced feature films including the Cannes and Sundance Festival award-winning Kids, Safe, and Girls Town, as well as the iconic film comedy, Zoolander. She has earned two Peabody Awards, numerous Emmy nominations and two awards. She has received Mayor Bloomberg’s “Made in NY Award,” was named one of the Time 100: World’s Most Influential People, and was the subject of a New York Times Magazine cover story in November 2007. Zalaznick and her husband, Phelim Dolan, a 1984 Brown graduate, reside in New York City with their three children. Zalaznick will serve as an alumna trustee through June 30, 2017.

Gifts accepted

By University policy, all gifts of $1 million or more require formal acceptance by the Corporation. At its Friday business meeting, the Corporation accepted or ratified previous acceptance of a number of gifts totaling more than $18.5 million. These include:

  • From Brown parents, a gift of $6 million for the Brown-India Research Initiative, which will focus on contemporary issues of urbanization, the environment, and governance;
  • From Brown parents, a gift of $5 million to endow the dean of the School of Engineering position;
  • From an anonymous foundation, a gift of $3 million for the dean of the College initiatives;
  • From the estate of Frederick Lippitt, a bequest of $1,570,840 for the Sheridan Center Endowment;
  • From Fellow and Chancellor Emeritus Stephen Robert, a Brown parent and 1962 graduate, a gift of $1 million for the Student Activities Fees Endowment;
  • From the Rhode Island Hospital Orthopaedic Foundation, a gift of $1 million for the Medical Education Building, in honor of the career and leadership of Michael G. Ehrlich, M.D.;
  • From Brown parents, a gift of $1 million with designation pending.

Endowed positions and named spaces

  • The University Directorship of the Brown Institute for Brain Science (BIBS), established with support from anonymous donors.
  • The Bruce Elliot Donovan ’59 Dean for Issues of Chemical Dependency, established with the support of significant gifts from many donors in recognition of the many years of service of Bruce Elliot Donovan, Class of 1959.
  • In recognition of a gift from Lisa M. and Joseph A. MacDougald, both 1987 graduates and Brown parents, the second floor library of the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences in Metcalf Laboratory shall be named the Joseph Allan MacDougald ’87 and Lisa Cohen MacDougald ’87 Family Library.