Our Board
Peter T. Grauer is chairman of Bloomberg, the global financial technology company founded in 1981. He has been a member of the Bloomberg Board of Directors since October 1996 and was named Chairman of the board in March 2001, succeeding Michael R. Bloomberg.
Mr. Grauer joined Bloomberg full-time as chairman, president and CEO in March 2002. Prior to joining Bloomberg, he was a managing director of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette from 1992 to 2000 when DLJ was acquired by Credit Suisse First Boston. Mr. Grauer is a founder of DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and DLJ Investment Partners and also served as a managing director and senior partner of CSFB Private Equity.
Mr. Grauer graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Harvard University Graduate School of Business, Program for Management Development. He is a member of the McKinsey Advisory Council. He serves on the World Economic Forum’s Media, Entertainment and Information, Financial Services and Gender Parity Board of Governors. Mr. Grauer is founding Chairman of the Community of Chairmen at the World Economic Forum. He is also a member of the British American Business International Advisory Board.
Mr. Grauer is the President of the Board of Trustees of the Inner City Scholarship Fund in New York City and a member of the Partnership for Inner City Education Board of Directors. He serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Wildlife Conservation Society and The WNET Group. Mr. Grauer is the founding Chairman of the U.S. 30% Club. He is a member of the Board of the Prostate Cancer Foundation and is Chairman of College Advising Corps. Mr. Grauer is a trustee of The Economic Club of New York and Rockefeller University. He served as lead director of DaVita, Inc. (NYSE: DVA), a healthcare services company based in Colorado. Mr. Grauer was the Senior Independent Director and Chairman of the Nominations and Audit Committees of Glencore. He is a former Independent Director and member of the Audit Committee of Blackstone (NYSE:BX). Mr. Grauer is a former member of the Business Council, the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, the Asia Business Council, and Out Leadership’s Global Advisory Board.
Mr. Grauer is Emeritus board member of Room to Read and the Board of the USA Cycling Development Foundation. He is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and several UNC entities. He is the Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of The Big Apple Circus, former member of Jazz at Lincoln Center and a former President of the Pomfret School Board of Trustees. He is a recipient of the Peterson Business Award, the William Richardson Davie Award, the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Service to the College of Arts and Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Papal Order of Merit. Mr. Grauer was also inducted into the North Carolina Media and Journalism Hall of Fame.
The Honorable Joaquin Castro is a member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas’ 20th congressional district. He serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Previously, he served in the Texas House of Representatives where he was Vice Chairman of the Higher Education Committee. He created Trailblazers College Tour, personally raising money to send underprivileged students on college visits. He also created SA READS, San Antonio’s largest literacy campaign and book drive. Mr. Castro serves on the board of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials’ Taskforce on Education. Mr. Castro received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and J.D. from Harvard Law School.
André Dua is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company based in Miami. He is a member of the McKinsey Global Institute Council, which advises on MGI’s research on global economic, business, and technology trends.
Mr. Dua co-leads MGI’s Future of Work Initiative and founded and leads McKinsey’s higher-education work, which has served more than 20 public- and private-university systems and campuses around the world, including research, comprehensive, and community colleges. This work has spanned a range of issues, such as strategy, research preeminence, administrative excellence, enrollment, and financial aid, capital productivity, college completion, health-sciences strategy and performance improvement, academic medical-center culture, and university board governance.
Mr. Dua convenes McKinsey’s roundtable of higher education board of trustees and developed McKinsey’s higher-education “Fingerprint,” a granular performance assessment of more than 800 universities in the United States. In addition, Mr. Dua was founder and chair of McKinsey Academy, the firm’s vehicle for transforming the performance of leading institutions by unlocking the potential of people.
Previously, he founded and led McKinsey’s state and local government work; in this role, he worked with dozens of state and local governments, including on economic and workforce development.
Mr. Dua currently serves on the board of the Citizens’ Budget Commission, and on the advisory council for the Oxford University Initiative on AI and the Law. Previously, he served on the boards of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, and the United Way of New York City, where he was vice-chair.
Prior to joining McKinsey, Mr. Dua was a research fellow at Yale Law School. He holds an LLM in public law from Yale Law School. He also holds an LLB in business law and a Bachelor of Science degree in Econometrics and Economics from the University of Sydney.
Steven A. Denning is the Chairman Emeritus of General Atlantic LLC, a firm he joined in 1980 and has helped build into a leading global growth equity firm with $64 billion in assets under management.
Mr. Denning joined GA after working with McKinsey & Company. He received an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1978. Prior to business school, Mr. Denning served for six years in the U.S. Navy, where he also earned an M.S. degree from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He received a B.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1970, and an honorary doctorate in 2019.
Mr. Denning is a member of the Board of Directors of the Markle Foundation, the Rocky Mountain Institute, College Advising Corps, and the National Park Foundation, as well as a member of its Executive Committee, and is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a member of the Starr Companies Advisory Board. He is also a member of the Columbia Climate Board of Advisors, and a member of its Executive Committee. Mr. Denning is Vice Chair of the Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council and Chair of the Global Advisory Council to the President, both at Stanford University, Co-Chair of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab Advisory Group, and is a member of the Advisory Council of the Freeman Spogli Institute, the Knight-Hennessy Scholar Program Advisory Board, and the Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute Advisory Council.
Mr. Denning is former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Stanford University and former Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of The Nature Conservancy (TNC). He is Emeritus Chairman of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council, and a lifelong Trustee of The Brookings Institution, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Georgia Tech Foundation. He is Trustee Emeritus of Blue Meridian Partners, Inc, and a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Bridgespan Group and the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Stanford GSB awarded Mr. Denning with the Excellence in Leadership Award in 2007 and the Ernest C. Arbuckle Award in 2018. The Stanford Alumni Association awarded him the Gold Spike Award in 2022.
Mr. Denning grew up in Salt Lake City, UT. He and his wife, Roberta, currently reside in Greenwich, Connecticut, and San Francisco, California.
Tony, Grammy, and Lucille Lortel-Award winning actor, writer, rapper and producer Daveed Diggs, is widely known for originating the dual roles of “Thomas Jefferson” and “Marquis de Lafayette” in the Broadway sensation, HAMILTON. Most recently he returned to the Public Theater to star in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Outer Critics Circle Award winning play WHITE NOISE in what Ben Brantley of the New York Times called “a breakout performance as a dramatic star.”
In 2018, Mr. Diggs co-wrote, produced, and starred in the critically acclaimed Lionsgate feature BLINDSPOTTING, for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for “Best Lead Role.” Peter DeBruge at Variety called it “the most exciting cinematic take on contemporary race relations since DO THE RIGHT THING nearly 30 years ago,” and Eric Kohn of IndieWire wrote, “Daveed Diggs is an instant movie star.”
Mr. Diggs stars in SOUL, Pixar’s feature co-starring Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey. He can also be seen in the Netflix thriller VELVET BUZZSAW opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, as well as Lionsgate’s WONDER opposite Julia Roberts and Fox’s animated film FERDINAND with Kate McKinnon.
On television, Mr. Diggs can be seen in TNT’s series SNOWPIERCER opposite Jennifer Connelly and Showtime’s THE GOOD LORD BIRD with Ethan Hawke. He has also lent his voice to Netflix’s GREEN EGGS AND HAM, Amazon’s UNDONE, Fox’s BOB’S BURGERS, Netflix’s BOJACK HORSEMAN, Apple’s EDENDALE, and Disney XD’s STAR WARS. Other television credits include ABC’s Emmy-nominated series BLACKISH; Netflix’s hit comedy UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT; HBO’s TOUR DE PHARMACY; NBC’s LAW & ORDER: SVU; and Netflix’s THE GET DOWN, created by visionary director Baz Luhrmann. Mr. Diggs also executive produced ABC’s THE MAYOR and a variety of digital shorts for ESPN.
Mr. Diggs is a member of the West Coast-based experimental hip-hop trio “clipping.” He has toured nationally and internationally, both as a solo artist and with “clipping,” playing venues including Sonar Festival in Barcelona; Off Festival in Krakow; ATP Iceland in Keflavic; and Brooklyn’s AfroPunk Fest. Special engagement bookings include the Red Bull Music Academy and Moog Electronics. The group was also nominated for a Hugo Award for their sophomore album, Splendor & Misery, and will be releasing a Simon and Schuster-published novel based on their acclaimed single “The Deep.”
MC Belk Pilon
BOARD MEMBER
MC Belk Pilon is board chair of the John M. Belk Endowment, where she and her team are committed to increasing access to and completion of postsecondary education in order to give all citizens the chance at long-term, family-sustaining careers. Guided by the vision she shared with her father, the late John Belk, MC leads the Endowment on its mission to create a stronger North Carolina.
Like her father, MC serves her community in many ways. She has participated on several boards that champion education access and success for all children, including Good Friends, Greater Enrichment, and the Fletcher School. She is Chair of The John M. Belk Scholarship Advisory Board at Davidson College and active on The Belk Foundation Board, as well as the Board of Trustees for Charlotte Country Day School and the CCDS Advancement Committee. She was awarded the 2016 Roanoke College Medal, the highest honor for an alumni to receive, as well as the 2015 Central Piedmont Community College Distinguished Service Award.
MC earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and communications from Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia, where she also worked as assistant alumni director after graduation. After returning to her hometown, she spent twelve years in retail management for Belk and five years with The Belk Foundation, a family foundation that focuses on improving early childhood education, teaching, and leadership in public schools.
Holden Thorp, Ph.D., is Editor-in-Chief of the Science family of journals. He was previously the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at Washington University in St. Louis and the Chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During his research career, he developed technology for electronic DNA chips and co-founded Viamet Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Thorp is a member of the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board and the Board of Trustees of the National Humanities Center. He also chairs a committee for the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Thorp received his B.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from California Institute for Technology.
John Sexton, Ph.D., served as the 15th President of New York University, a position he held from 2002 to 2015. He is also the University’s Benjamin Butler Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus of the Law School. Prior to his tenure at New York University, Dr. Sexton served as Law Clerk to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger of the United States Supreme Court and Judges David Bazelon and Harold Leventhal of the United States Court of Appeals. From 1983 to 1993, he served as Special Master supervising pretrial proceedings in the Love Canal Litigation. He began his career as a Professor of Religion at Saint Francis College in Brooklyn, where he was Department Chair from 1970 to 1975.
Dr. Sexton is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the Association of American Universities. He is past Chair of the American Council on Education, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities of New York. He has served as the Chairman of the Board for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Chair of the Federal Reserve Systems Council of Chairs. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Institute of International Education.
Dr. Sexton received a bachelor’s degree in History, a master’s degree in Comparative Religion, and a Ph.D. in History of American Religion from Fordham University. He also received a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. He holds honorary degrees from Fordham University, Saint Francis College, and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (a university in Belgium).
Nicole F. Hurd, Ph.D., 18th president of Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, is the founder of College Advising Corps and formerly the organization’s CEO.
Under Dr. Hurd’s leadership, College Advising Corps has grown into the largest college access program in the country and received many accolades for its innovative work. Some of these honors include selection as one of eight nonprofits highlighted in The University of Pennsylvania’s 2018 annual High Impact Giving Guide, which targets organizations working with society’s most vulnerable, and the 2012 National Service Impact Award from the Corporation for National and Community Service.
College Advising Corps has also been the recipient of major investments including a $20 million gift from the Ballmer Group to launch CAC’s Goal 2025, an initiative to enroll 1 million students in college by 2025; a multimillion-dollar gift in 2015 from Bloomberg Philanthropies to launch CAC’s virtual advising work as part of the CollegePoint Initiative; and two $10 million investments from The John M. Belk Endowment, the first of which was announced at the 2014 White House College Opportunity Summit.
A tireless advocate for students and increasing opportunity, Dr. Hurd was honored as a White House Champion of Change for College Opportunity in September 2016 and was selected as a Featured Innovator by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for leading bold and creative efforts to eliminate disparities in college access and success.
In 2018, Dr. Hurd received an Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters from Franklin & Marshall College, and was recognized as one of Time Magazine’s 2018 Top 31 People Who Are Changing the South. She was named to Washington Monthly’s 2016 list of the most innovative people in higher education and the Chronicle of Higher Education’s 2014 Influence List.
Prior to launching College Advising Corps, Dr. Hurd served as an Assistant Dean and Director of the Center for Undergraduate Excellence at the University of Virginia. While there, she founded the College Guide Program that was the precursor to College Advising Corps. The College Guide Program received national attention and a $10 million grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to expand into 10 additional states. Because of the growth and success of College Guides, Dr. Hurd was awarded the Governor of Virginia’s Award for Volunteerism and Community Service in 2007.
While at the University of Virginia, Dr. Hurd taught in the Department of Religious Studies, worked with successful Rhodes, Marshall, Mitchell, Fulbright, and Truman Scholar candidates, and led the first university-wide Office of Undergraduate Research.
Erskine Bowles has had a varied and illustrious career. The former president of the University of North Carolina System, Mr. Bowles also founded and served as Chairman and CEO of the Charlotte-based investment banking firm that became Bowles Hollowell Connor & Co. He is also a founder of Kitty Hawk Capital and Carousel Capital. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton and served as Director of the Small Business Administration, and later as Deputy White House Chief of Staff and White House Chief of Staff. Mr. Bowles has also served as a member of the National Economic Council and National Security Council. He currently serves on the boards of General Motors, Morgan Stanley, Cousins Properties, and NC Mutual Life Insurance Co.
Mr. Bowles helped found Dogwood Equity, chaired the Rural Prosperity Task Force, and served as a trustee of the Golden LEAF Foundation, all of which are designed to bring economic development to rural North Carolina.
Mr. Bowles received his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Business. He holds eight honorary doctorates from universities and colleges throughout the United States.