Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Commentary by Peter Berkowitz originally published by RealClearPolitics and RealClearWire
In mid-April, the Harvard Crimson reported that “Vivian Y. Hunt ’89 will serve as the next president of the Board of Overseers, the University’s second highest governing body.” The announcement came as Harvard geared up to find a replacement for Claudine Gay. She stepped down in January after six months as Harvard’s president amid controversy over her handling of campus turmoil sparked by Hamas jihadists’ Oct. 7 mass murder, rape, and kidnapping in southern Israel and, in a separate matter, over allegations that she had committed dozens of instances of plagiarism.
The search for Gay’s successor heightens the significance of Hunt’s appointment. That’s because for the university’s last five presidential searches, the president of the Board of Overseers – subordinate only to Harvard’s 12-person Corporation – has sat on the university president search committee.
A well-credentialled and successful consultant and businesswoman, Dame Vivian Hunt graduated from Harvard Business School as well as Harvard College. In 2002, Optum, a division of United Health Group, named her the company’s chief innovation officer. Previously, Hunt worked at McKinsey & Company. After heading “the Life Sciences practice in Europe, the Middle East and Africa” at McKinsey, “she served as the managing partner for the United Kingdom and Ireland.”
Of special relevance to Hunt’s appointment as president of Harvard’s Board of Overseers and to her likely service on the university’s presidential search committee is her co-authorship of four reports for McKinsey between 2015 and 2023 lauding the benefits to corporations of racial, ethnic, and gender diversity: “Diversity Matters” (2015); “Delivering Through Diversity” (2018); “Diversity Wins: How Inclusion Matters” (2020); “Diversity Matters Even More: The Case for Holistic Impact” (2023).
As it happens, former President Gay took a special interest in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her scholarship revolves around them. Moreover, in 2020, as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Gay hired Harvard’s first associate dean of diversity, inclusion, and belonging. With Hunt’s appointment to head its Board of Overseers – and her potential service on the presidential selection committee – Harvard appears to have reaffirmed its commitment to diversity as understood by the diversity, equity, and inclusion industry.
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Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. From 2019 to 2021, he served as director of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department. His writings are posted at PeterBerkowitz.com and he can be followed on Twitter @BerkowitzPeter.
This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
