2004 Harvard Board of Overseers election results

The president of the Harvard Alumni Association Thursday (June 10) announced the results of the annual election of new members of the Harvard Board of Overseers.

The results were released at the annual meeting of the association following the University’s 353rd Commencement. The five newly elected Overseers are:

Alan D. Bersin (San Diego). He is superintendent of public education for the San Diego Unified School District. Earlier he was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. He is a graduate of Harvard College (1968) and Yale Law School (1974).

Helen M. Blau (Menlo Park, Calif.). She is the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Professor and director of the Baxter Laboratory of Genetic Pharmacology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She received her B.A. from the University of York, England, in 1969, and then continued her studies at Harvard, receiving an A.M. in 1970, and a Ph.D. in molecular biology in 1975.

Ann M. Fudge (New York). She is chairman and chief executive officer of

Young and Rubicam Inc., a global marketing and communications firm. A 1973 graduate of Simmons College, she received an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School in 1977.

Merrick B. Garland (Washington, D.C.). He has been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 1997, after serving as principal associate deputy attorney general of the United States. He received his A.B. in 1974 and his J.D. in 1977, both from Harvard. He has served as an Overseer in 2003-04, having been elected in 2003 to complete an unexpired term.

Thomas F. Stephenson (San Francisco). He has been a partner since 1987 in Sequoia Capital, a leading Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm. He received his A.B. in 1964 and his M.B.A. in 1966, both from Harvard. He received the J.D. from Boston College in 1969.

The five new Overseers were elected for six-year terms. In 2004, there were eight candidates nominated by the Harvard Alumni Association, as prescribed by the election rules. One nominee withdrew shortly before the ballots were mailed

out, to accept a senior administrative position within the University. 31,176 alumni and alumnae cast ballots in the election, representing 14.4 percent of the eligible voters.

The primary function of the Board of Overseers is to encourage the University to maintain the highest attainable standards as a place of learning. Overseers carry out this mission by visiting faculties, departments, and other important programs throughout the University so that they can inform themselves about the quality of teaching, research, and administration and then identify problems and offer advice to faculties and University officials.