PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — At its regular Commencement Weekend business meeting Friday morning, May 23, 2014, the Corporation of Brown University approved siting of new academic buildings for the School of Engineering and the Division of Applied Mathematics, approved the recommendation of the faculty that Brown establish a joint Executive Master of Business Administration degree program with the I.E. Business School of Madrid — the University’s first international joint degree program — reappointed two officers, elected new trustees, and formally accepted gifts to the University totaling more than $46.6 million.

The largest of those gifts — $25 million from anonymous donors — will underwrite 25 named fellowships, allowing the University to provide enhanced support for more of its highly accomplished doctoral candidates. Continued improvements in the quality and visibility of doctoral programs is a major focus of the University’s strategic plan, Building on Distinction.

Brown’s Charter of 1764 empowers the Board of Fellows to “confer any and all the learned degrees which can or ought to be given and conferred ... upon any and all such candidates and persons ... worthy of the academical honors.” The Board of Fellows approved the candidates for baccalaureate and advanced degrees to be awarded at Commencement on Sunday, May 25, 2014

In addition to the formal actions taken during its business meeting, members of the Corporation and a number of Corporation committees received reports and engaged in discussion on a variety of issues including health care and medical education, planning for the public-private South Street Landing redevelopment project, a needs assessment for performing arts at Brown, and planning for a comprehensive campaign in support of the Building on Distinction strategic plan. The Corporation also discussed the issue of sexual assault at Brown and campuses across the country. The final report of a task force on sexual assault is expected at the end of the fall semester.

The Corporation also heard a report about early progress on the goals of Building on Distinction, which it approved at its meeting in October.

Building sites for Engineering, Applied Mathematics

The Corporation approved siting of a new building for the School of Engineering to the west of the Barus and Holley Building, the existing engineering facility, along Manning Walkway, opposite Prince Engineering Lab, east of Brook Street. The architect selection process for the building is already underway. At its meeting today, the Corporation announced that the full fund-raising goal for the building had been achieved. The building is part of an ambitious plan to expand the facilities, faculty, and programs of the School of Engineering.

The Corporation also approved siting of a new building for the Division of Applied Mathematics to house faculty and graduate students relocated from buildings on the site of the new Engineering building. The building, to be designed by Architecture Research Office (ARO), will be sited along George Street near the primary home of Applied Mathematics at 182 George St., which will remain in service. The University has had a number of meetings with community members about the project and will ensure that the new Applied Mathematics building will be compatible with the residential character of the area.

A joint international degree

The Board of Fellows approved a recommendation of the Brown faculty that Brown University School of Professional Studies and the IE Business School in Madrid establish a joint degree program leading to the Executive Master of Business Administration degree (E.M.B.A.). IE and Brown have worked cooperatively on master’s-level professional studies for several years, announcing their cooperative program in the spring of 2010. Graduates of that program, parts of which take place on the Brown campus, received their degrees from IE. Degrees in the new program will be conferred jointly by the two institutions.

Professorships created

The Corporation established three endowed professorships:

• The Professorship in Nuclear Security and Policy, established with the support of The Stanton Foundation and the Thomas J. ’37 and Olive C. Watson Foundation;
• The Hugh W. Pearson 1958 Family Professorship in Technology and Entrepreneurship, established with the support of Hugh W. Pearson, a 1958 graduate;
• The John Hawkes Professorship in the Humanities has been established with funding from anonymous Brown parents. John Hawkes, the internationally acclaimed avant garde novelist, taught at Brown for 30 years, from 1958 until his retirement in 1988. His papers are kept in the John Hay Library.

Appointment of officers and election of trustees

Upon the recommendation of its nominating committee, the Corporation voted to reappoint Alison S. Ressler, a 1980 graduate and Brown parent, as treasurer and Donald C. Hood, a 1970 Ph.D. recipient, as secretary. Ressler and Hood will begin their third terms in their respective offices and will serve three-year terms through June 30, 2017. Officers of the Corporation may serve up to three consecutive three-year terms in their positions.

In addition to reappointing Ressler and Hood, the Corporation elected four new trustees, who will be formally engaged at the Corporation’s meeting in the fall, and elected a fifth trustee to a second term.

George S. Barrett, a 1977 graduate and Brown parent, is chairman and CEO of Cardinal Health, a company ranked among the top 25 on the Fortune 500 and dedicated to improving the cost-effectiveness of health care. Barrett joined Cardinal Health in 2008 as vice chairman and CEO of the company’s Healthcare Supply Chain Services segment. From 2005 through 2007, Barrett was president and CEO of North America for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and executive vice president of global pharmaceuticals, having served as president of Teva USA from 1999 through 2004. Barrett serves on the Board of Directors of Eaton Corporation and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Healthcare Leadership Council and The Conference Board. He is also a member of the Business Roundtable, the Business Council, Ohio Business Roundtable, and the Columbus Partnership. He is a former member of the President’s Leadership Council of Brown University. Barrett earned an M.B.A. from New York University. He serves on the advisory board of the Columbus Crew (MLS professional soccer) and is a trustee of the Serious Fun Network (camps for sick children and their families, started by Paul Newman. He has an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the Long Island University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

Genine Macks Fidler, a 1977 Brown graduate and parent, received a J.D. with honors in 1980 from New York University School of Law. She began her legal career at Willkie, Farr & Gallagher in New York City, specializing in personal service, taxation, trusts and estates, and not-for-profits. Returning to Baltimore, Fidler continued this specialty until retiring from active practice. Now focused on philanthropic causes, Fidler serves as president of the Louise D. and Morton J. Macks Family Foundation Inc. and as a director of the Harry Weinberg Foundation Inc., the Anne and Yehuda Neuberger Foundation Inc., and the Zimmerman Fund for Children Inc. She was chair of the Board of The Associated Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore (2006-2008) and continues as a member of that board. She is a member of the Board, Executive, Endowment and Nominating committees of the Jewish Federations of North America and co-chaired JFNA’s 2012 General Assembly with her husband, Josh, also a 1977 Brown graduate. At Brown, Fidler is co-chair of the President’s Internship Advisory Council. She was a founding member and past co-chair of the President’s Women’s Leadership Council and a member of the Creative Arts Advisory Council.

Alexandra Robert Gordon, a 1991 Brown graduate, serves as a deputy attorney general in the Government Law Section of the California Department of Justice, where she represents the constitutional officers of the State of California in a wide array of litigation in both the state and federal trial and appellate courts. In 2014, Ms. Gordon was awarded a California Lawyer of the Year Award for her work defending the constitutionality of a state law prohibiting mental health professionals from engaging in treatments intended to change the sexual orientation of a minor. Prior to joining the California Department of Justice, Ms. Gordon was a staff attorney at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals where she ran the Criminal/Habeas Unit, practiced commercial litigation at a law firm in San Francisco, and clerked for Judge Robert W. Sweet in the Southern District of New York. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Gordon was a speechwriter for First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown. She earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School and a master’s degree in English from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marshall Scholar.

Nancy Fuld Neff was originally elected to the Board of Trustees in 2008 for a six-year term. She will serve a second term through June 30, 2016, to coincide with her term as co-chair of the Brown Annual Fund. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown in 1976 and earned her M.B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in 1978. She is a former principal in investment banking at Morgan Stanley & Co., serving at the firm from 1978 to 1987. Neff is co-chair of the Randall’s Island Park Alliance and serves on the board of Ramapo for Children, a summer camp which serves special needs and high-risk children. She is a former trustee of the Dalton School, where she served as president of the Board and co-chair of the school’s endowment and capital campaigns. Neff, a Brown parent, former tennis team captain, and New England MVP, was inducted into the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame in 1981.

Ralph F. Rosenberg, a 1986 graduate and Brown parent, served on the Brown Corporation from 2007 to 2013. He joined Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. in 2011 and is a member of the firm responsible for global commercial real estate business. Prior to joining KKR, Rosenberg was a partner at Eton Park Capital Management from 2008 through 2010 where he had primary responsibility for commercial real estate debt and equity businesses and sat on the firm’s Operating and Commitments committees. Between 2006 and 2008, Rosenberg managed his own firm, R6 Capital Management, which later merged into Eton Park. He spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs where he was a partner from 1998-2006. From 2004 through 2006, Rosenberg co-founded and co-headed the Goldman Sachs Global Special Situations Group, one of Goldman Sachs’ largest proprietary trading businesses. From 1990 – 2004 Rosenberg helped to co-found and co-run the Goldman Sachs Real Estate Investment business. He has an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Rosenberg serves as a trustee of the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. He is a former member of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Trust and is an honorary trustee of the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago.

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 $46.6 million. These include:

• From anonymous donors, a gift of $25 million to establish a Fellowship Fund, which will underwrite 25 named fellowships supporting highly accomplished doctoral candidates at the University;
• From anonymous donors, a gift of $5 million pending donor designation;
• From Hugh W. Pearson, a 1958 graduate, a gift of $2,196,530, in addition to prior gifts, to establish the Hugh W. Pearson ’58 Family Professorship in Technology and Entrepreneurship;
• From anonymous donors, a gift of $2 million, of which $1 million is designated to support a postdoctoral fellowship at the Watson Institute, with preference for scholars working on South Asia/India or India in comparative perspective; $600,000 to support research in pulmonary fibrosis and other pulmonary disorders; and $400,000 to support the Brown Annual Fund;
• From an anonymous donor, a gift of $2 million, of which, $1.8 million is allocated to the President’s Flexible Fund and $200,000 will support the Brown Annual Fund;
• From an anonymous donor, a gift of $1.5 million, of which $1 million is designated to support the President’s Flexible Fund; $400,000 to support the Brown Annual Fund; and $100,000 to assist in the maintenance of the Ladd Observatory;
• From anonymous donors a gift of $1 million for expenses related to hiring an architect and producing plans for the School of Engineering’s new building;
• From Howard M. Reisman, a 1976 and Brown parent, a gift of $1 million to assist in the construction of the new Engineering building;
• From Judith V. Bassoul, a 1977 graduate, an unrestricted bequest intention of $1 million;
• From anonymous donors a gift of $1 million to underwrite undergraduate teaching assistants in support of the Computer Science undergraduate curriculum;
• From an anonymous donor, a gift of $1 million to support undergraduate scholarships at the University, with a preference for high-need students;
• From anonymous donors a gift of $1 million, of which $900,000 is designated to pilot a program on Ethical Leadership and $100,000 is designated to support the Brown Annual Fund;
• From The Stanton Foundation, a second gift of $1 million to support the establishment of an endowed professorship in international security issues, with a particular focus on policy-relevant nuclear security studies;
• From Andres Santo Domingo, a 2000 graduate, a gift of $1 million to increase the Andres Santo Domingo Class of 2000 International Scholarship Fund;
• From anonymous donors, a gift of $1 million to establish the Head Coaching Chair in Women's Soccer.