For many Columbia students and faculty, the Board of Trustees feels like a group that makes the biggest decisions about campus without often being seen. That disconnect has become harder to ignore amid leadership turnover, discipline controversies, and growing frustration over who actually runs the university.

Columbia’s Board of Trustees is one of the most powerful parts of the university, but it is also one of the least visible to students. The board oversees the university’s finances (including the endowment), long-term strategy, and top leadership, which means its members help shape everything from long term endowment strategy to major policy decisions.

That matters because Columbia has been through a period of intense campus tension, leadership turnover, and disciplinary controversy involving a frenzy of policy changes in the last three years. Many students feel those decisions come from somewhere far above the classroom. The 24 person board’s corporate-heavy makeup, combined with the lack of student representation, helps explain why so many people on campus see it as distant and hard to trust, even though the Board is largely responsible for the University’s public reputation and the advancement of its mission.

A recent March 26th Senate Forum on University governance addressed these issues through a faculty panel, with speakers representing both the Columbia AAUP chapter and the Columbia University Senate. Calling the Board of Trustees an “shadow shared government”, they advocated for open nomination and elections in half of the Board member roles, arguing that Columbia’s corporate makeup is an outlier amongst peer institutions. The panel also discussed opening up the Board for shared governance after recent erosions. Importantly, they seek greater transparency in decision making, aiming to correct “frequent revisions to University statues” and losses of institutional resilience amidst great controversy.

Board profiles

David Greenwald (Law’83) — Greenwald is a Columbia Law alumnus and former chair of Fried, Frank. He is one of the board’s co-chairs and has been closely associated with recent governance decisions, making him a central figure in how Columbia responds to crisis and controversy.

Jeh Johnson (Law’82) — Johnson is a Columbia Law alumnus, former Homeland Security secretary, and longtime Paul Weiss partner. His background gives him a high-level legal and federal-policy perspective, which fits Columbia’s tendency to recruit trustees with strong institutional and corporate experience.

Abigail Black Elbaum (CC’92, Business’94) — Elbaum is a Columbia College and Business School alumna and a real estate investor. Her career reflects the board’s emphasis on finance and property, both of which matter to Columbia’s long-term planning and endowment strategy.

Mark Gallogly (Business’86) — Gallogly is a Business School alumnus and founder of Centerbridge Partners, a private-equity firm. His presence underscores how deeply Columbia’s board is tied to the investment world.

Victor Mendelson (CC’89) — Mendelson is a Columbia College alumnus and co-president of HEICO, an aerospace and industrial company. He represents the board’s corporate and industry-heavy profile.

Dean Dakolias (CC’89) — Dakolias is a Columbia College alumnus and senior executive at Fortress Investment Group. Like several other trustees, he brings direct experience in managing large-scale capital, which is closely connected to how Columbia grows and protects its endowment.

Kathy Surace-Smith (Law’84) — Surace-Smith is a Columbia Law alumna and biotech executive. She brings a corporate-science perspective rather than a traditional academic one, which fits the board’s broader professional makeup.

Claire Shipman (CC’86, SIPA’94) — Shipman is a Columbia College and SIPA alumna, a journalist, and the university’s acting president. Her dual role makes her especially important in campus governance, because she is both part of the board structure and the public face of the administration.

Andrew F. Barth (CC’83, Business’85) — Barth is a Columbia College and Business School alumnus and former asset-management executive. He is another trustee whose background points to the board’s heavy emphasis on finance.

Duchesne Drew (CC’89) — Drew is a Columbia College alumnus and media executive. His background gives the board some communications and public-media perspective, though still outside the classroom or faculty world.

Keith Goggin (GS’91) — Goggin is a General Studies alumnus and market-maker, having retired from the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange. He is part of the board’s strong Wall Street presence.

James Gorman (Business’87) — Gorman is a Columbia Business School alumnus and former CEO of Morgan Stanley. He is one of the most recognizable finance figures on the board and a symbol of Columbia’s deep ties to the financial sector.

Kikka Hanazawa (CC’00) — Hanazawa is a Columbia College alumna, entrepreneur, and nonprofit leader. She adds a more social-impact-oriented profile to a board that is otherwise heavily corporate.

Adam Pritzker (CC’08) — Pritzker is a Columbia College alumnus and entrepreneur who co-founded General Assembly. His background is in startups and education technology, which fits the board’s interest in modern institutional growth.

Julissa Reynoso (Law’01) — Reynoso is a Columbia Law alumna and former U.S. ambassador. Her diplomatic background gives the board experience in government and public service.

Jonathan Rosand (CC’89, MD’94) — Rosand is one of the few trustees with a clear academic role, serving as a Harvard professor and physician. His presence is notable because academics are relatively rare on Columbia’s board.

James Scapa (SEAS’78) — Scapa is a Columbia Engineering alumnus and CEO in the software and engineering-tech world. He reflects the board’s interest in innovation, technology, and industry partnerships.

Shoshana Shendelman (GSAS ’03, ’04, ’05) — Shendelman is a Columbia graduate alumna and biotech founder and CEO. She has become one of the more visible trustees in recent campus debate, especially around antisemitism and protest-related issues.

Fermi Wang (SEAS ’89, PhD ’91) — Wang is a Columbia Engineering alumnus and co-founder and CEO of Ambarella. He brings semiconductor and AI-related business expertise to the board.

Shirley Wang (Business’93) — Wang is a Columbia Business School alumna and manufacturing executive. Her background adds another private-sector perspective to the board’s overall composition.

Alisa Amarosa Wood (CC’01, Business’08) — Wood is a Columbia College and Business School alumna and private-equity executive at KKR. She is one of the board’s clearest links to large-scale finance and endowment management.

Columbia’s financial strength depends on the board’s ability to protect and grow its assets, but that same model can make the university feel less like a community and more like a corporation. For students, the issue is rooted in what kind of institution that board seems to represent. Columbia’s trustees are powerful because they control money, leadership, and institutional strategy, yet they rarely appear in student life except through decisions that already feel settled. That is why the board’s business-heavy makeup, the lack of student voices, and recent controversies around campus governance keep feeding the same basic question: who is actually making decisions at Columbia?

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