D. Ronald Daniel to conclude service as treasurer:

D. Ronald Daniel, M.B.A. ’54, the University’s treasurer and currently the longest-serving member of the Harvard Corporation, intends to conclude his service in those roles at the end of the 2003-04 academic year.

“My time with the Harvard Corporation has been among the most fascinating and fulfilling experiences of my life,” Daniel said. “It has truly been a privilege to serve this great university, which continues to excel because people throughout the community never stop thinking about how it can be better. I’m grateful to have been part of the enterprise, I’m proud to be associated with its superb faculty, students, and staff, and I’ve enjoyed working with such remarkable colleagues on issues that matter to Harvard and to higher education.”

“I am one of three Harvard presidents immensely fortunate to benefit from Ron Daniel’s extraordinary judgment and counsel,” said President Lawrence H. Summers. “He has been a cornerstone of the corporation for nearly 15 years, dealing expertly with financial and investment matters but also engaged in countless constructive ways with the University’s broader progress. I have known few individuals, at Harvard or elsewhere, who are more perceptive and insightful about how institutions function and how the people within them can be inspired to do their best work. All of us owe Ron our gratitude, and I know we will continue to depend on his wisdom not just during his remaining time on the corporation, but for years to come.”

A 1954 graduate of Harvard Business School, Daniel joined the corporation as the University’s 29th treasurer in 1989 after serving from 1976 to 1988 as the managing partner of McKinsey & Co., the global management consulting firm, where Daniel remains a senior member of its staff.

As treasurer and one of the corporation’s seven members, Daniel has worn a host of Harvard hats. Throughout his tenure, he has served as chairman of the board of the Harvard Management Company, guiding the organization through a period of unprecedented growth in the endowment. He has also been chair of the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility, a member of the executive committee of the Committee on University Resources, and one of two ex officio members (along with the president of the University) of the Board of Overseers. He served on the search committee for each of Harvard’s past two presidential searches.

Daniel has been an adviser to numerous deans and vice presidents, and has maintained close ties to an array of Harvard’s faculties, schools, museums, and institutes. Among other things, he has been chairman of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows, a director of Harvard Medical International, an active alumnus of the Business School, and a member of the Villa I Tatti Council. As treasurer, he has also been closely involved with a range of financial matters, from debt-asset policy to financial reporting to risk management, as well as the formulation of the Harvard Management Company’s policy with regard to asset allocation.

Daniel received his bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University in 1952, and two years later received the M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He began his career at McKinsey in 1957, and progressed from associate to principal to director to managing partner of the New York office to managing partner of the entire firm. Broadly active in nonprofit governance, he is chairman emeritus of the Wesleyan University board of trustees, and also serves on the boards of the Brookings Institution, Rockefeller University, and Thirteen-WNET (New York’s public television station).

A search to identify a new treasurer will begin soon. Under the University’s charter, a new member of the corporation is elected by the President and Fellows with the counsel and consent of the Board of Overseers. The search will be conducted by a joint committee of the governing boards.

Confidential letters of nomination or advice may be directed to the Treasurer Search Committee, Harvard University, Loeb House, 17 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138, or to treasurersearch@harvard.edu.