Rubin Sheds One Board Post But Vows To Keep Another

Harvard Corporation member Robert E. Rubin ’60 has resigned from the board. No, not that board.

In fact, although Rubin stepped down from Ford Motor Company’s board last Thursday, he says he has no plans to leave Harvard’s executive board any time soon.

Rubin, who has served on the Corporation since April 2002, was former University President Lawrence H. Summers’ most adamant supporter on the Harvard board this past winter. That put him at odds with his fellow Corporation members, who—sources say—pushed the president to step down.

But Rubin said through his assistant in late July that it was “unequivocally not true” that he would resign his post on the Harvard Corporation before the end of the 2006-2007 academic year.

Rubin sits on the presidential search committee, composed of all six Corporation fellows and three members of the alumni Board of Overseers. The search is expected to finish before next summer.

Rubin’s presence on the search committee will allow him to push for a candidate who shares Summers’ vision for the University.

As Harvard prepares to select its third leader in just two years, Ford likewise is entering a period of transition. The automaker announced this January that it would shed up to a quarter of its workforce and that it would shift production toward smaller, fuel-efficient cars.

In his letter announcing his resignation from Ford’s board, Rubin wrote that his role as a director at financial conglomerate Citigroup Inc. might appear to clash with his duties at Ford as the automaker’s board undertakes an internal strategic review. Earlier this summer, Ford hired Citigroup and investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to advise the struggling automaker, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.

Rubin worked at Goldman Sachs for 26 years, including two years as co-chairman of the firm, before leaving to join the Clinton administration in 1993. He served as Treasury secretary from 1995 to 1999—when he was succeeded by his protégé Summers—and he then went to work for Goldman Sachs’ rival, Citigroup. Rubin joined Ford’s board of directors in 2000.

“Citigroup’s multifaceted relationship with Ford could raise a question whether my relationship with Ford and Citigroup creates an appearance of conflict,” Rubin, who is chairman of Citigroup’s executive committee, wrote in the letter. “Although no conflict currently exists and while I would have liked to remain involved, I have with great regret concluded that I should resign from the board at this time.”

—Staff writer Daniel J. T. Schuker can be reached at dschuker@fas.harvard.edu.