The Corporation of Brown University, the University’s governing body, established the Brown University School of Engineering, elected three new fellows and six new trustees, and accepted gifts totaling $15.5 million at its regular spring meeting Friday, May 28, 2010.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — At its regular Commencement Weekend business meeting Friday, May 28, 2010, the Corporation of Brown University elected three new fellows and six new trustees, who will begin their service on July 1, 2010. The Corporation formally accepted gifts totaling $15.5 million.

A major capital project to renovate 74,000 square feet of space in the Metcalf laboratories as a new home for the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences was approved by the Corporation’s Budget and Finance Committee. Work on that project will begin immediately with an anticipated completion date of January 2012.

(See also a separate release on the Corporation’s vote to establish the Brown University School of Engineering.)

Newly Elected 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 appointments to tenure, and for approving annual operating funds and capital projects for the University.

Laura Geller, a 1971 Brown graduate and parent of a 2010 Brown graduate, serves as senior rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills, Calif., and is a national figure in the American Jewish community. Appointed to her current position in 1994, she was the first woman to head a major metropolitan synagogue. Geller has received the A.C.L.U. of Southern California Award for Fostering Racial and Cultural Harmony, the Alan J. Kassin Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement, the Los Angeles County Commission on the Status of Women Recognition Award, and the Woman of the Year Award from the California State Legislature. She serves on the boards of many national and local organizations and was the founding chair of the Beverly Hills Commission on Human Relations. She served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion from 2001 to 2008. Featured in the PBS documentary “The Jewish Americans,” Geller served as a Brown alumna trustee from 2001-2007 and in 2000 was named one of the Hundred Most Distinguished Brown University Alumni of the Past Century by the Brown Alumni Magazine. She will serve through June 30, 2021.

Charles M. Royce, a 1961 Brown graduate and parent of three Brown graduates, is completing his third six-year term as a Brown trustee and will join the Board of Fellows July 1. Royce earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia University in 1963. He is president of The Royce Funds, New York City. In 1996, Royce established the Royce Fellows Program to celebrate exceptional academic performance, creativity, leadership and community service by Brown undergraduates. The program provides support for research and other educational enrichment projects of each fellow’s choosing and confers lifetime membership in the Society of Royce Fellows. He also established the Royce Professorships for Excellence in Teaching. Royce will serve through June 30, 2013.

Peter S. Voss, a 1968 Brown graduate and parent of a Brown graduate, is a private investor and part-time adviser to firms in private equity and asset management. Prior to his retirement in 2007, Voss served as chairman and CEO of IXIS Asset Management Group (now Natixis Asset Management), a global asset management firm with headquarters in Paris, France and Boston. Prior to the merger with IXIS in 2000, he was the chairman, president, and CEO of Nvest, L.P., a publicly listed U.S. investment firm, which he helped to form in 1992. Voss serves as a trustee of the Oakmark Funds (an open-ended mutual fund complex) and serves on the boards of Nuveen Investments Inc., Windy City Investments and Holdings LLC, and Insurance Recovery Group. Voss served on the Board of Trustees from 2006 to 2010. He is chair of the Corporation Committee on Facilities and Design and serves as an alumni member of the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investing at Brown. He is a regional vice chair for Boldly Brown: The Campaign for Academic Enrichment. Voss will serve through June 30, 2021.

Newly Elected Trustees

At its May meeting last year, the Corporation established a new young alumnus trustee position in which recent graduates would serve for three years. Young alumni trustees must begin their terms no more than seven years after concluding their studies at Brown. The Corporation’s second young alumnus trustee was among the six trustees elected today.

Andrea Terzi Baum, a 1983 Brown graduate in computer science, earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School in 1988. She was a vice president and manager of the Financial Analyst Program in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs when she retired in 2000. Today, Baum works for causes important to her and her family, including the Pingry School, JESPY House, and Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel, where she was a co-chair of the Capital & Endowment Campaign and serves on the Board of Trustees. She is an active member of the Brown Annual Fund Leadership Council, where she serves as liaison to the Brown Alumni Association Board of Governors. She served as co-chair of her 25th Reunion Gift Committee and is currently a member of the Women’s Leadership Council and Brown Alumni Schools Committee. She will serve as an alumna trustee through June 30, 2016.

Tanya Godrej Dubash, a 1991 Brown graduate and an alumna of the Harvard Business school, serves as executive director and president (marketing) at Godrej Industries Ltd., the publicly traded holding company of the $2.7-billion Godrej Group in India. The Group, with more than 22,000 employees and businesses in consumer products, real estate and chemicals, is one of the largest conglomerates in the country. Dubash assumed her current role in 2008 as part of the company’s overall rebranding, an effort that she leads. Previously she served as director of marketing. She became a director of Godrej Industries in 1996. Dubash was named a Young Global Leader 2007 by the World Economic Forum. In 2009, India Today Woman Magazine named her one of 25 women of power in India. She is a member of the Brown-India Advisory Council. Dubash will serve as a Brown trustee through June 30, 2016.

Brian T. Moynihan, a 1981 Brown graduate, is president and CEO of Bank of America. Moynihan was elected to his role by the Board of Directors on Dec. 16, 2009, and took office on Jan. 1, 2010. Moynihan also is a member of the Bank of America Board of Directors. Prior to becoming CEO, Moynihan led each of the company’s primary lines of business, including consumer and small business banking, global corporate and investment banking, and global wealth and investment management. He also served as general counsel for the company. Moynihan also chairs Bank of America’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Council. Moynihan is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School. He serves on the boards of directors of YouthBuild Boston and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston. A member of Brown’s President’s Leadership Council for four years, he serves and has served on the boards of various charities in Boston and Providence. He will serve through June 30, 2016.

Eric Rodriguez, a 2008 Brown graduate, will serve a three-year term through June 30, 2013 as a young alumnus trustee. While at Brown, he concentrated in international relations (politics, culture and identity), participated in the Brown Outdoor Leadership Training Program (BOLT) as group leader, and volunteered with the Swearer Center for Public Service. Rodriguez received the Joslin Award in 2008 for his contribution to students at the University and worked for U.S. Sen. Jack Reed in constituent affairs and policy analysis as a student. He served as an Army Reservist in the Iraq War during 2003-04, and was attached to the 308th Civil Affairs Brigade and the 4th Infantry Division as a water treatment specialist and intelligence analyst respectively. Rodriguez was awarded the California Executive Fellowship in 2008 and was assigned to the California Department of Social Services. He continues that work as a legislative consultant analyzing, monitoring, and preparing departmental bill analyses.

Barry S. Sternlicht, a 1982 Brown graduate, previously served on the Board of Trustees from 2003 to 2009. He received a master of business administration degree with distinction from Harvard in 1986. Sternlicht serves as chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, a privately held investment management firm specializing in real estate-related investments, which he formed in 1991. He is also chairman of Societe du Louvre, a Starwood property. He serves on the Boards of Directors of Estee Lauder Companies and the National Advisory Board of JP Morgan Chase. Sternlicht also serves on the boards of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s National Leadership Advocacy Program, Kids in Crisis, Dreamland Community Theatre, the Pension Real Estate Council, the Business Committee for the Arts, and the Robin Hood Foundation, and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization. He will serve through June 30, 2016.

Nancy G. Zimmerman, a 1985 Brown graduate, is a founder and managing partner of Bracebridge Capital LLC, a Boston-based investment manager with approximately $5 billion under management. Zimmerman serves on the scholar selection committee of the Institute for International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund and is involved in a number of philanthropic causes, focused on a range of topics from medical science to education reform. While a student at Brown, she was a recipient of the Joslin Award, which recognizes graduating students who have made significant contributions to the University through leadership and service. Zimmerman is a member of Brown’s Library Advisory Council and of Women’s Launch Pad and is co-chair of her 25th Reunion Gift Committee. She will serve through June 30, 2016.

Acceptance of Gifts

University policy requires the Corporation’s formal acceptance of gifts of $1 million or more. At its business meeting Friday, the Corporation accepted gifts and ratified acceptances made by its Advisory and Executive Committee totaling $15.5 million. These include:

  • From anonymous Brown parents, a gift of $2.5 million for an endowed president’s opportunity fund;
  • From Susan H. Buffum, a 1974 Brown graduate, a gift of $1,642,815 for an endowed scholarship fund;
  • From a Brown trustee, a gift of $1.54 million: $1 million for the renovation of Metcalf Laboratory and $540,000 for the Brown Annual Fund;
  • From the Ittleson Foundation, a gift of $1.5 million for green and sustainable initiatives campuswide;
  • From the estate of Mrs. Frances Weeden Gibson, a 1945 Brown graduate and parent, a bequest of $1.5 million: $750,000 for the permanent endowment of the Alpert Medical School and $750,000 for the University’s general endowment;
  • From the family of the late Phyllis and Irving Sigal (Andrew Sigal, Jamie Sigal Manville, Susan Sigal Bazar, and Steven Sigal), a gift of $1.5 million to create an endowed clinical professorship in oncology to be known as an endowed Professorship in Humanistic Medicine. (In accordance with the University’s practice in creating endowed clinical professorships, the Sigal family has also contributed $1.5 million to Miriam Hospital, where the incumbent will practice oncology);
  • From Mrs. Marjean A. Ingalls, a 1952 Brown graduate, a gift of $1,351,808 for an endowed scholarship fund;
  • From Brown parents, a gift of $1 million: $700,000 for the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center and $300,000 for the Brown Annual Fund;
  • From the Champlin Foundations, a gift of $1 million for the library of the Medical Education Building;
  • From the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a gift of $1 million to augment and improve undergraduate science education and to create a new summer research program and three new science courses;
  • From Trustee William P. Wood, a 1978 Brown graduate, a gift of $1 million for the Brown Annual Fund.

Endowed Positions

The Corporation ratified newly endowed positions established by its Advisory and Executive Committee:

  • Three Chancellor’s Professorships. Chancellor Thomas J. Tisch has provided the University with support for three Chancellor’s Professorships, which will begin July 1, 2010.
  • The Sigal Family Professorship in Humanistic Medicine, a clinical professorship in oncology was created, effective July 1, 2010, with a gift from the family of the late Phyllis and Irving Sigal (see “Acceptance of Gifts”above).
  • The Frederic M. Alper Directorship of Financial Aid was created, effective immediately, with a gift from Frederic M. Alper, a 1960 Brown graduate, parent, and trustee emeritus.

Capital Projects

Metcalf Laboratory. The Metcalf project, approved by the Budget and Finance Committee to begin immediately, includes complete interior and historically appropriate exterior renovation of the Metcalf Chemistry and Metcalf Research laboratories. In addition to providing new classroom, laboratory, office, and public spaces for the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, the existing auditorium will be renovated into a fully accessible state-of-the-art teaching space. The entire project will obtain a USGBC rating of LEED Silver.

Ittleson Quadrangle. In recognition of gifts from Brown Trustee H. Anthony Ittleson and the Ittleson Foundation, the Corporation voted to designate the quadrangle formed by the new fitness and aquatic center and existing buildings of the athletic complex as the Ittleson Quadrangle.

Zucconi Strength and Conditioning Center. In recognition of a gift from trustee emeritus and 1976 Brown graduate Daniel S. O’Connell and Mrs. O’Connell, Brown parents, the new varsity strength and conditioning center will be named The David J. Zucconi ’55 Varsity Strength and Conditioning Center.

Members of the Corporation participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for that new construction, which includes the Nelson Fitness Center, the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center, the Zucconi Varsity Strength and Conditioning Center, and the Ittleson Quadrangle. The project has an anticipated completion date of January 2012. [See separate release.]