New York, New York, June 22, 2020 — Carnegie Corporation of New York announced today that three new members have been named to its Board of Trustees: Liberian peace advocate Leymah Gbowee, former United Nations under-secretary-general for peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guéhenno, and Harvard Law School professor and former dean Martha Minow. Each will serve a four-year term.
“During these periods of crises brought on by the pandemic and the outcry over racial injustice, we are grateful for the expertise that our three new trustees will bring to our board,” said Thomas H. Kean, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and former governor of New Jersey. “Ms. Gbowee won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for leading a women's peace movement that helped bring an end to a four-year civil war in Liberia. Ambassador Guéhenno is a former French diplomat known for his high-level work in peacekeeping, global governance, and transnational security threats. Dr. Minow is a constitutional law expert and advocate for minorities and disenfranchised individuals. Each of them — in the depth and breadth of their knowledge and experience — will be an outstanding addition to our board.”
“The Corporation’s grantmaking is constantly evolving to meet the needs of our philanthropic mission, and with that in mind, we aim for a Board of Trustees that represents a broad range of personal and professional backgrounds,” said Janet L. Robinson, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees, Chair of the Committee on Trustees, and former President and CEO of The New York Times Company. “Among their standout areas of expertise, Ms. Gbowee founded a nonprofit that is educating the next generation of leaders in West Africa. Ambassador Guéhenno is a member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation and a senior fellow with our sister institution, the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. Dr. Minow is one of the country’s most versatile legal scholars and the author of many scholarly articles and books, as well as the coeditor of two law school textbooks.”
“We are honored to welcome three individuals who can provide valuable guidance to the Corporation, especially in the areas of human rights and international peace and security, including in Africa, where we have made many longstanding commitments,” said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. “Leymah Gbowee is a humanitarian with a history of fearless activism that helped change the course of history in Liberia, enabling women to participate fully in its government. For some 20 years, Jean-Marie Guéhenno has been at the center of many of the world’s major crises, working alongside Secretary-General Kofi Annan to restore peace to conflict areas. Martha Minow possesses one of the most brilliant legal minds that I have encountered. She is an expert in issues of great concern to our country and an advocate for members of racial and religious minorities.”
Leymah Gbowee is the founder and president of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, a women’s rights advocate, Liberian peace activist, and the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Her foundation provides educational and leadership opportunities to girls, women, and youth to empower the next generation of peacebuilders and democratic leaders in West Africa. Ms. Gbowee currently serves as executive director of the Women, Peace, and Security Program at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. She is also a member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation, the World Refugee Council, and the African Women Leaders Network. Read more here.
Jean-Marie Guéhenno was appointed in 2000 by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to serve as under-secretary-general for peacekeeping, and in that position he became the longest-serving head of peacekeeping in UN history, leading an unprecedented expansion of operations from 2000 to 2008. He worked again with Mr. Annan in 2012 when the then former secretary-general was attempting to broker peace in Syria. After leaving the United Nations, Mr. Guéhenno became a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and then joined Columbia University as a professor of professional practice in international and public affairs from 2010 to 2014. Read more here.
Martha Minow is the 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard University. She has been a professor at Harvard Law School since 1981, serving as the inaugural Morgan and Helen Chu Dean from 2009 to 2017. In addition to teaching courses on subjects such as civil procedure, constitutional law, family law, international criminal justice, and technology, fairness, and privacy, Ms. Minow is also an expert in human rights and advocacy for members of racial and religious minorities, and for women, children, and persons with disabilities. In 2018, she became the 300th Anniversary Professor at Harvard University. Read more here.
The new trustees were elected to the board by unanimous vote at the most recent meeting of the Corporation's Board of Trustees, on June 4, 2020.
