OLARA A. OTUNNU APPOINTED TO CARNEGIE CORPORATION'S BOARD; CARNEGIE APPOINTS TWO VICE PRESIDENTS
Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, announced today the election to the foundation's board of trustees of Olara A. Otunnu, United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict and former high official of the United Nations.
He also announced the appointment of two vice presidents for the Corporation: Edward Sermier, as Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, and D. Ellen Shuman, as Vice President and Chief Investment Officer. Mr. Sermier currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and is former Deputy Director, Office of Operations, Office of the Mayor, New York City. Ms. Shuman is Director of Investments at Yale University, managing the real estate and capital markets activities of Yale's $6.5 billion endowment portfolio. Both will assume office at the Corporation the first week in December.
Commenting on the new additions to the "Carnegie family," Dr. Gregorian, former Brown University president who joined the foundation as its president in June 1997, said, "We could not be more delighted to have attracted someone of Olara's stature and extraordinary achievements in fields so closely associated with the Corporation's mission to advance peace, democracy, and education, in the nation and worldwide. He has been a consummate diplomat and skilled peacemaker, a stalwart member of the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, and a good friend to the foundation. We are very grateful for his presence among us."
Dr. Gregorian added, "Edward Sermier brings to the Corporation all the attributes we have sought in a chief administrative officer. He is widely experienced not only in management and finance, but in government, education, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector. We look forward to a strong and successful collaboration with him as the Corporation continues to reorganize and launch new programs. Ms. Shuman, in addition to her extensive experience directing and managing investments for a variety of nonprofit organizations, brings to the foundation an impressive background in academia and education. We stand to benefit greatly from her astute judgment."
Mr. Otunnu, president of the United Nations-affiliated International Peace Academy from 1990 to 1998, is a recognized expert on international security and cooperation and a dedicated proponent of human rights, with long experience in conflict management, conflict resolution, and post-conflict peace building. At the United Nations he served variously as President of the Security Council, Vice President of the UN General Assembly, Chairman of the UN Commission on Human Rights, and Chairman of the African Group. His three-year appointment as the Secretary-General's Special Representative charges him with assessing and promoting concrete measures to protect children affected by armed conflict and reintegrating them into society in the conflict's aftermath.
A Ugandan by birth, Mr. Otunnu has previously served as Uganda's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Permanent Representative of Uganda to the United Nations; before that, he was a member of the Uganda National Consultative Council (Uganda's interim parliament). He was educated at King's College, Budo; Makerere University, Kampala; Oxford University where he was Overseas Scholar; and Harvard University Law School, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. Active in many civic initiatives and organizations, he currently serves on the boards of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the International Crisis Group, the Aspen Institute, and the Council of African Advisors of the World Bank, among other contributions.
As Chief Financial Officer of the New York Philharmonic since 1992, Edward Sermier directed its financial, human resources, information systems, and strategic planning functions, overseeing a budget of $36 million and an endowment of $150 million. Among his signal accomplishments there, he planned and negotiated a six-year labor agreement with the orchestra union, which included a precedent-setting arrangement for sharing health care costs. In the Mayor's Office from 1990 to 1992, he was responsible for identifying, developing, and directing implementation of productivity-saving projects. From 1988 to 1990, Mr. Sermier was Deputy Vice President, Capital Budget and Strategic Planning, New York City Transit Authority. He joined the New York City Board of Education in 1979, working there in various management and budgetary capacities until he became Chief Administrator, Division of Special Education, in 1978, leaving that position in 1988. He is a graduate of Manhattan College, Bronx, and received a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University. A long-time lecturer on public policy, education, and management and finance at various major New York colleges and universities, Mr. Sermier also serves on the board of the Hazen Foundation.
Ms. Shuman is a graduate of Bowdoin College, graduatingmagna cum laude in 1976. She received her Masters in Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Management in 1984 and became a Chartered Financial Analyst in 1992. From 1986 to the present, she has been Yale's Director of Investments, among other accomplishments building the real estate program from $200 million to $855 million in assets over five years, overseeing the endowment's fixed-income portfolio ($650 million) and its short-term portfolio ($200 million) as well as trading activity. She also coordinates the issuance of University debt, comprising $900 million. Her various directorships of nonprofit organizations have included the Gesell Institute for Child Development in New Haven, the Forum Group in Indianapolis, and the Tennis Foundation of Connecticut. She was President of the Bowdoin College Alumni Council from 1989 to 1990. Since 1988 she has been an Advisor on Investments of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation in New York City. An athlete of no mean ability, she was the Women's 1-Meter New England Collegiate Springboard Diving Champion in 1976 and winner of the Lucy Shulman Trophy for Outstanding Female Athlete when at Bowdoin.
Carnegie Corporation of New York was founded in 1911 by Andrew Carnegie "for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding." With assets at $1.4 billion, it currently provides $60 million each year in grants for the improvement of education K-16, international peace and security, African development and education, and democratic strengthening.