Board of Overseers Chooses New Leadership

Richard A. Meserve, president of the Carnegie Institution for Science and former head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, will lead Harvard’s Board of Overseers—Harvard’s second highest governing body—for the 2013 academic year, the University announced Monday.

Lucy Fisher ’71, film producer and co-head of Red Wagon Entertainment, will serve as the Board of Overseers’ vice-chair.

“The Overseers bring essential experience and wisdom to the work of the University, and their perspectives assure that Harvard moves ahead with both ambition and care,” University President Drew G. Faust said in a press release. “With Dick Meserve and Lucy Fisher, we’re once again fortunate to have two alumni leaders of remarkable accomplishment and strongly complementary backgrounds to guide the board forward during the coming year.”

Meserve and Fisher will succeed Leila Fawaz, a professor at Tufts University, and Robert N. Shapiro ’72, a partner at the law firm Ropes & Gray, respectively.

They will assume their positions following Commencement this May. Next year will be the final year of both Meserve and Fisher’s six-year Overseer term.

“It is a great honor to be selected as President of the Overseers,” Meserve wrote in an email. “Harvard is [a] very important institution, and it is somewhat humbling to assume a role in its governance.”

Meserve earned his undergradute degree from Tufts University, his J.D. from Harvard, and his Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford. He served as chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 1999 to 2003 and as a partner in the law firm of Covington & Burling from 1984 to 1999.

“I hope that my experiences provide sufficient foundation for serving a productive role in the even more complicated world that constitutes Harvard,” Meserve wrote.

Before becoming co-head of Red Wagon Entertainment, Fisher served as vice chair of Sony Pictures’ Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group.

She was executive vice president for worldwide production at Warner Brothers from 1981 to 1996.

As members of the Board of Overseers, Meserve is the chair of the committee on natural and applied sciences and Fisher is vice chair of the committee on humanities and arts.

—Staff writer Hana N. Rouse can be reached at hrouse@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Justin C. Worland can be reached at jworland@college.harvard.edu.