Advisory Council
EUGENE P. BEARD is Chairman and CEO of Westport Asset, Inc. which he founded in 1983. A Connecticut corporation, its primary business is investments in public, private, and start-up firms worldwide. At The Interpublic Group of Companies he has served as Vice Chairman for finance and operations and as a member of the Board of Directors, where he chaired the Finance Committee. He retired from the company in 1999 after nearly 20 years of service. In the business community, Mr. Beard has been a prominent executive and an advisor to corporate leaders. He serves on the Board of Directors and the Audit Committee of Brown Brothers Harriman, Bessemer Trust Company, Old Westbury Funds, Sand Hill Investors Fund, Mattel & Company, Mattel Foundation, and MARC USA. He is a graduate of Duquesne University, where he established the Beard Center for Leadership in Ethics in 1994, and from which he received an honorary doctorate as the commencement speaker in 1996. Mr. Beard supported the first named Graduate Fellows in Ethics from 1996-2001, and the Eugene P. Beard Faculty Fellowship in Ethics from 2001-2007.
NONNIE STEER BURNES is Insurance Commissioner, Massachusetts Division of Insurance, having been appointed in February 2007. Commissioner Burnes has a background as a legal advocate and has been a Superior Court Justice since 1996. While on the bench, she served as the chair of both the Gender Equality Advisory Board and the Jury Management Advisory Committee. Prior to her appointment to the Superior Court by Governor William Weld, she was an attorney at the firm of Hill & Barlow. In addition, she served as a Commissioner on the State Ethics Commission, a Fellow of the Boston Bar Foundation, Vice Chair of the Boston Bar Association, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and the Center for Law and Education. Commissioner Burnes is a member of the visiting committee for Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and the Board of Trustees and Board of Overseers for Northeastern University. She received a B.A. from Wellesley College and a J.D. from Northeastern University Law School. In 2004, she received the Citation for Judicial Excellence from the Boston Bar Association.
MICHAEL A. COOPER is Of Counsel with Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the country's preeminent law firms. He has extensive experience in business-related litigation, including antitrust and securities claims, and representing law firms. His responsibilities within the firm have included advising on ethical issues and coordinating the firm's pro bono activities. He served as President of the Association of the Bar of New York City from 1998-2000, and as President of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2005-2006. Mr. Cooper is a donor of the Ethics Center, and a graduate of Harvard College (1957) and of Harvard Law School (1960). Mr. Cooper has served on the Center's Advisory Board since its inception in 2000.
ROBERT W. DECHERD served as chairman and Chief Executive Office of Belo Corp., one of America's leading news and information companies, from January 1987 until February 2008. He then assumed the role of non-executive chairman of Belo Corp. and became the chairman, president and Chief Executive Officer of A.H. Belo Coirporation, the company spun off from Belo Corp. comprising The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal and The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA). He has been a director of Kimberly-Clark since 1996, and served as the company's lead director from 2004-2008. Mr. Decherd served on a Presidential commission related to the broadcast industry during the Clinton Administration and an FCC Council during the Bush Administration. At Harvard, Mr. Decherd's affiliations include Vice Chair of his Class Steering Committee, on which he served from 1989 to 1992. From 1989 to 1993, he was a member of the Visiting Committee to the College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He has been a member or officer of The Harvard Crimson Graduate Board since 1973, and co-chaired The Crimson's national capital campaign from 1987 until 1991. Mr. Decherd iand his wife, Maureen, in 1998 endowed the H. Ben and Isabelle T. Decherd Financial Aid Endowment at Harvard College.
LILY SAFRA is chair of the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation, where she continues the tradition of philanthropy she shared with her late husband, Edmond J. Safra. The Safras have been actively involved with charitable institutions around the world, especially those focusing on enriching the human condition. Mrs. Safra is a member of many boards in the fields of medical research, education, human rights, as well as numerous cultural institutions. At Harvard, her late husband, Edmond, who founded the Republic Bank of New York, established the Jacob E. Safra Professorship of Jewish History and Sephardic Civilization, the Robert F. Kennedy Professorships in Latin American Studies, and the Jacob Safra Courtyard at the Harvard Hillel. In 2004, a generous gift from her Foundation provided support for the Center's core activities, including faculty and graduate fellowships, faculty and curricular development, and interfaculty collaboration. With a further extraordinary gift in 2010, in memory of her husband, Edmond, Mrs. Safra continued to build on Dennis Thompson's rich legacy, while recognizing the significance that new research plays in the Center's development. In recognition of this generous gift, the Center was renamed The Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.
JEFFREY SAGANSKY is Chief Executive Officer of Peace Arch Entertainment, a leading independent distributor of high quality films and television programming. He is also Chairman of Winchester Film Capital and of Elm Tree Partners. His previous positions include President of Tri-Star Pictures, co-President of SONY Corporation's entertainment division, and head of programming for CBS. In 1998 he became President and CEO of Paxson Communications Corporation (owner of PAX-TV). Earlier in his career he worked in programming at NBC to develop shows such as Cheers, St. Elsewhere, Family Ties and Remington Steele. Mr. Sagansky serves on the boards of the E.W. Scripps Company and American Media. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and established the Albert and Charlotte Sagansky Scholarship Fund in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.