Distributed June 4, 2003
For Immediate Release

News Service Contact: Tracie Sweeney



Corporation of Brown University elects eight new trustees

At its Commencement Weekend meeting May 24, 2003, the Corporation of Brown University elected eight new members to its Board of Trustees: Alain J.P. Belda; Cornelia Dean; Galen V. Henderson, M.D.; Bobby Jindal; Samuel M. Mencoff; Kenneth J. O’Keefe; Eileen M. Rudden; and Laurinda Hope Spear.


PROVIDENCE, R.I. — At its Commencement Weekend meeting May 24, 2003, the Corporation of Brown University elected three term trustees and five alumni/ae trustees. The new trustees will be sworn in at the next regular meeting of the Corporation in October and will serve six-year terms, from 2003 to 2009.

The new term trustees are Alain J.P. Belda, chairman, president and CEO of Alcoa; Samuel M. Mencoff, a partner in a Chicago-based private equity investment firm; and Kenneth J. O’Keefe, executive vice president of Infinity Broadcasting. The new alumni/ae trustees are Cornelia Dean, until recently the science editor of The New York Times; neurologist Galen V. Henderson, M.D.; Bobby Jindal, until recently the assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Eileen M. Rudden, a technology adviser; and Laurinda Hope Spear, an architect.

The Corporation is composed of a 12-member Board of Fellows and a 42-member Board of Trustees, all elected by the Corporation. Fourteen members of the Board of Trustees are alumni/ae trustees, nominated by the Brown Alumni Association and elected to office by the Corporation.

Alain J.P. Belda of New York City is the parent of two Brown students, members of the 2005 and 2007 classes. He has been Alcoa’s president and CEO since May 1999 and chairman since January 2001. He joined Alcoa in 1969 at the company’s Brazilian affiliate, Alcoa Aluminum, and since then has held a number of positions with Alcoa Aluminum and Alcoa, its parent company.

Cornelia Dean of New York City graduated magna cum laude from Brown in 1969 with a degree in American civilization. This spring, after serving as science editor of The New York Times for more than six years, she stepped down to accept a fellowship at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. She plans to return to The Times in 2004 as a writer and commentator.

Galen V. Henderson, M.D., of Taunton, Mass., received his medical degree in 1993 from Brown Medical School. A neurologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, he is on the faculty at Harvard Medical School. He directs the division of Stroke and Critical Care Neurology and the Neurological Intensive Care Unit, and serves as neurology clerkship director for Harvard Medical students rotating through Brigham and Women’s.

Bobby Jindal of Baton Rouge, La., graduated magna cum laude from Brown in 1992 with an Sc.B in biology. Currently a candidate for governor of Louisiana, Jindal previously was assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, serving as principal policy adviser to the secretary. Prior to that, he was president of the University of Louisiana System of eight campuses, 4,000 faculty and 80,000 students.

Samuel M. Mencoff of Chicago received a degree in anthropology from Brown in 1978. He is a partner with Madison Dearborn Partners Inc., a Chicago-based private equity investment firm focusing primarily in management buyouts and special equity transactions involving middle-market companies. He was vice president of First Chicago Venture Capital in 1992, when the staff of First Chicago’s venture capital group was spun off as Madison Dearborn.

Kenneth J. O’Keefe of Boston received a degree in economics from Brown in 1976. In December 2002, O’Keefe became an executive vice president with Infinity Broadcasting. He also is a member of NewVen Partners, a private investment and consulting firm. He is the former president and COO of Clear Channel Communications’ Radio Group and of AMFM Inc., which merged with Clear Channel in 2000.

Eileen M. Rudden of Cambridge, Mass., received a degree in American civilization from Brown in 1972. She is an adviser to companies on technology strategy and growth. She previously was a senior vice president with IBM’s Lotus Software unit, which developed Lotus Notes and Domino. Rudden was the co-chair of the Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign of former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. Rudden will begin a term as president of the Brown Alumni Association on July 1, 2003.

Laurinda Hope Spear of Miami received a B.F.A. in fine arts from Brown in 1972. An award-winning architect, she is a founding principal of Arquitectonica, an international architecture and interior design firm. She has designed several hundred buildings located in 27 states and 18 countries. In 1999, she was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame.

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