Keohane to Step Down from Harvard Corporation, Rubenstein to join

David M. Rubenstein, a billionaire investor and philanthropist, will replace Nannerl O. Keohane on the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, beginning in July 2017.

Keohane became a member of the Corporation, which oversees a number of major University decisions, including the selection of Harvard’s President, in 2005; she has served longer than anyone else on the body, including University President Drew G. Faust. Keohane was the president of both Wellesley College and Duke University.

While Rubenstein, the co-founder of private equity firm The Carlyle Group, did not attend Harvard, he has been a notable donor to the University. He serves as one of the co-chairs of Harvard’s ongoing capital campaign, which recently passed its goal of $6.5 billion. Rubenstein is also the chair of Harvard’s Global Advisory Council.

“Harvard is a truly unique global institution of higher learning and cutting-edge research, and I am humbled to be associated with such an institution in this way,” Rubenstein said in a statement. “I hope John Harvard would approve.”

With Rubenstein, every single member of the Harvard Corporation, the oldest corporation in North America, has been selected during Faust’s tenure. In 2010, the Corporation announced a number of reforms to its membership, creating term limits and expanding the size of the body from seven to 13.

Rubenstein will step down from his position as chair of Duke University’s board of trustees in July 2017, the end of his term. Rubenstein’s appointment comes less than a year after Corporation member and University treasurer James F. Rothenberg ’68 unexpectedly died; Shirley M. Tilghman, a former President of Princeton, assumed his spot last December.

—Staff writer Andrew M. Duehren can be reached at andy.duehren@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @aduehren.

—Staff writer Daphne C. Thompson can be reached at daphne.thompson@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @daphnectho.