WASHINGTON – The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is pleased to announce the establishment of the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Chair.
The chair is made possible by the generosity of Carnegie trustee Kenneth E. Olivier and his wife Angela Nomellini. It is one of the largest individual gifts since Andrew Carnegie’s founding commitment more than a century ago and it endows Carnegie’s first vice president for studies chair.
Olivier joined the Carnegie Endowment Board of Trustees in 2013. He chairs the Board’s Audit & Risk Committee and serves on its Investment & Development Committees. He is the past chairman of Dodge & Cox, an investment management company based in San Francisco where he began his career in 1979 and rose to the position of chief executive officer. A graduate of Stanford University, the University of California Hastings College of Law, and Harvard Business School, Olivier is also a trustee of Stanford University and serves on the board of advisers of a number of its research institutes.
“Ken and Angela have an astonishing track record of service and philanthropy to important causes,” said Board Chair Harvey Fineberg. “Their generosity to Carnegie will allow it to accelerate and deepen policy relevant work at a pivotal juncture in global politics.”
Vice President for Studies George Perkovich will be the inaugural holder of the chair. Perkovich, who joined Carnegie in 2002, oversees Carnegie’s Nuclear Policy and South Asia programs. As the Olivier Nomellini Chair, he will also oversee Carnegie’s new Technology & International Affairs Program, which seeks to contribute norms and rules to manage the use and misuse of cyber, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and other technological domains critical to international peace and security.
“It is a privilege to serve as a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment, a global institution committed to tackling the most consequential challenges of our time with independent, innovative, and impactful research,” said Olivier. “I’m especially pleased to help Carnegie launch a timely and important new program led by George Perkovich—a world-class thinker and doer.”
“It means the world to me—and to my entire team—to know that our Board and leadership share our sense of urgency and our sense of purpose,” said Perkovich. “Thanks to Ken and Angela, we have a genuine opportunity to leverage our global network to help bridge the gaps among states and between governments and industry to ensure we enhance international benefits of new technologies while reducing their risks.”
“All of us at Carnegie are honored and humbled by Ken and Angela’s vote of confidence in our mission and purpose and their transformative investment in its future,” said Carnegie President William J. Burns. “I am so pleased that George Perkovich, a distinguished scholar and practitioner who embodies Carnegie’s values of integrity, independence, and initiative, will hold the chair. He has precisely the kind of imaginative mind and track record of practical problem solving we need to apply to the challenges of today and tomorrow.”
Press Contact: Meshal DeSantis | +1 202 939 2233 | mdesantis@ceip.org