The Boston University Board of Trustees voted to name three businessmen to the governing body of the university last month, bringing “tremendous experience” to the 35-member board.
Richard Cohen, Cleve Killingsworth and Allen Questrom were added Oct. 10. Board Chairman Alan Leventhal called the additions “three outstanding, intelligent individuals.”
“For any board, the strength is the variety of backgrounds and diversity of backgrounds people bring,” the Beacon Capital Partners Chair and CEO said.
Upromise, Inc. founder and Chairman Michael Bronner was the last appointment to the board in June 2005. Prior to that, Bahaa Hariri, Toshimasa Iue and Nasser Khalili were added in May 2004, an expansion of the university’s “international diversity,” according to the press release announcing the appointments.
Also attending her first meeting was Faculty Council Chair Julie Sandell, School of Medicine anatomy and neurobiology vice chairman.
Cohen, whose assistant said he was unavailable for comment, is a 1969 School of Management graduate and president of Capital Properties Management, a real estate firm in New York City. He recently donated $2 million to SMG to fund a professorship chair, filled by operations and technology management professor Michael Shwartz. He is married to CNN anchor Paula Zahn.
While not a BU alumnus, Killingsworth, the CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield, served with BU President Robert Brown on the Boston Public Schools superintendent search committee with 12 other city leaders earlier this year. Killingsworth received a Bachelor’s degree in 1974 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master’s degree in Public Health from Yale University.
Killingsworth, whose assistant said he was traveling and unable to grant interviews, is also a Harvard School of Public Health adjunct lecturer on health policy and management. Before serving at BCBS, he was the president and CEO of one of Michigan’s largest managed healthcare companies, Health Alliance Plan. He was also named to a business cabinet to advise the Deval Patrick and Tim Murray gubernatorial campaign.
Asked about Killingsworth’s connection to the democratic candidate, Leventhal said the board represents many different political views.
“I’ve never really polled board members for their political leaning,” he said. “Many board members are politically involved.”
The only former Trustee, Questrom served on the board from 1992 to 2002 but stepped down after he moved to Texas and “didn’t have the time.”
“When Dr. Brown joined, he asked me and [SMG Dean] Lou Lataif . . . if I’d consider [rejoining],” the 1964 SMG graduate said. “I liked what I heard from Dr. Brown.”
The retired CEO of the J.C. Penney Corporation in Plano, Texas praised BU President emeritus John Silber’s influence within the university during his 25-year tenure.
“Now it’s a totally different university,” he said. “[Silber] changed direction from a lowly school.
“[BU is] ranked in the top quartile,” he continued. “When I was there, it was probably in the bottom. If I applied now, I probably wouldn’t get in.”
Questrom called his new term and Brown’s presidency a “new chapter” in the university and said he is “satisfied” with what he knew of Brown and some of the trustees’ changes.
“Brown’s challenge is to bring [the university] together in a unifying force,” he said.
Questrom said part of improving the university is becoming a “leader in the country and the world,” which he said is based on students’ output.
As for his decision to serve on the Board of Trustees, Questrom said it is “best to help out the school that helped you.”
All three men come from business backgrounds, applicable to the administration of the university.
“The board is a multi-million dollar business in some sense,” Sandell said. “The Board is really a diverse group of people. There is a heavy business emphasis.”
Brown said quality experts in the community are essential to running a university.
“Any one time we look at the board in terms of its coverage, in terms of expertise, and the people, the stature and the quality that you’re looking for . . . to help you with governance of a major, private research university,” Brown, an ex-officio board member, said.
Leventhal, who was made board chairman in April 2004, noted the “broad diversity of membership” of the trustees, specifically mentioning Columbia University Provost Jonathan Cole. While no women were among those appointed last month, Leventhal said there are “very talented, successful women who are on the board.”
“We have considered an awful lot of people,” he said. “It is so important to the running of the university and the future of the university.”