The Yale Corporation, officially The President and Fellows of Yale College, is the governing body of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
The Corporation comprises 19 members:
While Article 8 Section 3 of the Constitution of the State of Connecticut recognizes a 1792 Act of the Connecticut General Assembly, which established the governor, lieutenant governor, and six members of the State Senate as ex officio members of the Corporation, an 1871 act of the Connecticut Legislature gave Yale alumni the right to elect the six posts formerly occupied by state senators. As explained by 20th-century Yale historian George Pierson:
In the 1750s President Clap did cause or engineer two great breaks: the separation of the College from the churches by the setting up of an independent college church, and separation of the College from the state by the refusal of inspection and termination of colony support. But the second separation proved unsuccessful. So Stiles and his trustees had to bring political authorities back into the management of the College by adding the governor, lieutenant governor, and six senior assistants to the Fellows of the Corporation in return for some monies and for the confirmation of the colonial charter. So, whatever the traditions or later assumptions, Yale College would not find itself operationally free from political supervision until 1872, when by law six alumni fellows or trustees were allowed to be substituted for the six senior senators of the Corporation.[1]
In the late nineteenth century, it became a point of debate whether the Successor Trustees needed to remain Connecticut ministers. In 1905, the trustees selected their first non-minister successor, Payson Merrill.[2] By 1917, half the Successor Trustees were laypersons.[2]
The Members of the Yale Corporation were the following and had the following roles as of May 2021, according to the Yale University webpages concerning the Corporation:[3]
| Position | Name | Academic degrees | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| President | A.B., A.M., Yale '86 Ph.D. | 23rd president of Yale University and Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology | ||
| Senior trustee | Catharine Bond Hill (successor trustee) | B.A., B.A., M.A., Yale '85 Ph.D. | managing director of Ithaka S&R, Ithaka Harbors | |
| Trustee | Joshua Bekenstein (successor trustee) | Yale '80 B.A., M.B.A. | co-chair of Bain Capital | |
| Trustee | Michael J. Cavanagh (successor trustee) | Yale '88 B.A., J.D. | chief financial officer of Comcast Corporation | |
| Trustee | Charles Waterhouse Goodyear IV (successor trustee) | Yale '80 B.S., M.B.A. | president of Goodyear Capital Corporation and Goodyear Investment Company | |
| Trustee | William Kennard (successor trustee) | B.A., Yale '81 J.D. | co-founder and chair of Velocitas Partners | |
| Trustee | Ann Miura-Ko (alumni fellow) | Yale '98 B.S., Ph.D. | co-founding partner at Floodgate Fund | |
| Trustee | Carlos R. Moreno (alumni fellow) | Yale '70 B.A., J.D. | independent mediator with Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services | |
| Trustee | Emmett John Rice, Jr. (successor trustee) | Yale '88 B.A., M.B.A. | founder and chief executive officer of Management Leadership for Tomorrow | |
| Trustee | Eve Hart Rice (alumni fellow) | Yale '73 B.A., M.D. | author, artist, psychiatrist, and co-president and treasurer of the Rice Family Foundation | |
| Trustee | Joshua Steiner (successor trustee) | Yale '87 B.A., M.St. | senior advisor at Bloomberg LP | |
| Trustee | David Sze (successor trustee) | Yale '88 B.A., M.B.A. | partner at Greylock Partners | |
| Trustee | Annette Thomas (alumni fellow) | S.B., Yale '93 Ph.D. | chief executive officer of Guardian Media Group | |
| Trustee | Kathleen E. Walsh (alumni fellow) | Yale '77 B.A., Yale '79 M.P.H. | president and chief executive officer of Boston Medical Center | |
| Trustee | Michael Warren (alumni fellow) | Yale '90 B.A., B.A. | global managing director of Albright Stonebridge Group | |
| Trustee | Lei Zhang (successor trustee) | B.A., Yale '02 M.A., Yale '02 M.B.A. | founder and chief executive officer of Hillhouse Capital Management | |
| Trustee ex officio | B.A., Yale '80 M.B.A. | governor of Connecticut | ||
| Trustee ex officio | Yale '83 B.A., J.D. | lieutenant governor of Connecticut |