Jerome Davis Selected Next University Secretary

June 08, 2007

Dear fellow member of the Columbia community,

I am glad to tell you that the Trustees approved my nomination of Jerome Davis to serve as the next Secretary of the University, effective immediately.

Jerome has served as a Special Assistant in the President’s Office for the past five years. In that role, he has helped manage a number of key strategic initiatives for the University, such as the Task Forces on Globalization, Journalism, and Undergraduate Education. He helped manage the search committees for a variety of senior University administrators and oversaw projects such as the World Leaders Forum and the first Global Colloquium of University Presidents. He has been serving as Interim Secretary since March, filling the vacancy left by Keith Walton.

Jerome has an enormously impressive educational and professional history. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He graduated from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Jerome has more than twenty-five years of executive, management, financial, technology development and legal experience, primarily in environmental and energy industries. Prior to joining Columbia, he owned and operated his own technology business and held executive positions in the private sector, including as President of a subsidiary of Cummins Engine Co.

Jerome has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1985. He also served as a Trustee of Princeton, a first-hand experience that will certainly serve him well in his new role working directly with Columbia’s Board of Trustees. He has also served on the boards of the New York State Civil Liberties Union and the Advisory Committee on President Clinton’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection.

Jerome has been a wonderful resource to me and to Columbia. While he will continue to be a key adviser, please join me in officially welcoming Jerome into this new leadership role at the University.

Sincerely,

Lee C. Bollinger