AT&T Executive James Cicconi, Las Vegas Sun Editor Brian Lee Greenspun, Biotech Expert Dr. William Haseltine, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, Black Entertainment Television Founder Robert Johnson, and Goldman Sachs President & co-Chief Operating Officer John Thornton have been elected to the Board of Trustees of the Brookings Institution.
Brookings is an 85-year-old non-partisan, independent organization which conducts research and publishes analyses of important public policy issues. The Board of Trustees is responsible for the overall supervision of the Institution, and approves proposed research projects.
“Brookings has a strong and active Board of Trustees, and the addition of these outstanding new trustees will only make it stronger,” said James A. Johnson, Chairman of the Board. “I look forward to working with them and to taking full advantage of their knowledge and skills.”
“I am thrilled to welcome six distinguished new trustees to the Board,” said Michael H. Armacost, President of Brookings. “They will enrich the organization with their wide range of accomplishments, interests, and professional affiliations. They all share a commitment to the Brookings mission of offering practical remedies for the most serious public policy challenges confronting the United States in the coming decades.”
The new trustees were elected during the Board of Trustees’ May 22 meeting. Biographical information on each follows:
James W. Cicconi is General Counsel and Executive Vice President for Law & Government Affairs at AT&T. He joined AT&T in September, 1998 after nine years as a partner at the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. Cicconi interrupted his legal practice in January 1989 to serve for two years in the White House as Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bush. From 1981 to 1985, he was Special Assistant to the President and Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff, James A. Baker III. He currently serves as a director of the El Paso Electric Company; vice president of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation; vice president of the Foundation for the National Archives; and as a director of the American Council on Germany, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, and the Federal City Council. He is also a member of the board of Ford’s Theatre.
Brian Lee Greenspun is President and Editor of The Las Vegas Sun newspaper, and President of the Greenspun Corporation and has overall responsibility for American Nevada Corporation, the developer of Nevada’s most successful planned community; Prime Cable, now COX Communications of Las Vegas; the Greenspun Media Group, which, together with The Las Vegas Sun, publishes Showbiz magazine, Las Vegas’ premier entertainment magazine, Las Vegas Weekly, Las Vegas Life, Vegas Golfer, and Vegas.com. Throughout his adult life, Greenspun has been active in the Boy Scouts of America, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and State of Israel Bonds. He has been a sponsor of The Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum, and The Las Vegas Sun Summer Camp Fund. Greenspun also serves on the President’s Community Advisory Board of the University of Nevada Las Vegas. In 1993, Greenspun was appointed by President Clinton to the White House Conference on Small Business Commission.
Dr. William A. Haseltine is Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive officer of Human Genome Sciences, Inc., (HGS) in Rockville, Maryland, a company he founded in 1992, which develops products to prevent, treat, and cure disease based on its leadership in the discovery and understanding of human genes. Haseltine holds a doctorate from Harvard University in biophysics and has taught at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. He has a distinguished record of achievement in cancer and AIDS research and has received numerous awards for his scientific work. He is the founder and editor of the on-line journal E-Biomed: The Journal of Regenerative Medicine. Haseltine has authored over 250 articles in scientific publications and has been awarded more than 50 patents for his discoveries. Since 1981 he has founded seven companies, each in a different area of medicine.
Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson is President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to becoming Rensselaer’s president, Jackson served as Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from 1995-1999. Dr. Jackson was Professor of Physics at Rutgers University from 1991 to 1995, and conducted research at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, from 1976 to 1991. She has been named a Fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Physical Society, and holds 10 honorary doctoral degrees. Dr. Jackson currently sits on the Board of Directors of Sealed Air Corporation, FedEx Corporation, and UtiliCorp United. Dr. Jackson is a Life Member of the M.I.T. Corporation (the Board of Trustees). She is both the first woman and the first African-American to serve as the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the first African-American woman to lead a national technological research university. Dr. Jackson was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1998, and received the Golden Torch Award for Lifetime Achievement in Academia from the National Society of Black Engineers in March 2000.
Robert L. Johnson is the founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BET Holdings II, Inc., the leading black-owned and operated media-entertainment company in the United States. A member of the Board of Governors for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH, Johnson serves on the following boards: US Airways; the Hilton Hotels Corporation; General Mills; Gerald Stevens; the United Negro College Fund; the National Cable Television Association’s Academy of Cable Programming; and the American Film Institute. Johnson is a recipient of the 1997 Broadcasting & Cable magazine’s Hall of Fame Award; CTAM’s Grand Tam Award; Cablevision magazine’s 20/20 Vision Award; an NAACP Image Award; the National Women’s Political Caucus’ Good Guys Award; a Distinguished Alumni Award from Princeton University; and the President’s Award from the National Cable Television Association.
John L. Thornton is President and co-Chief Operating Officer of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc, and a member of the Firm’s Board of Directors, its Management Committee and is co-Chairman of its Partnership Committee. He was Chairman of Goldman Sachs-Asia from 1996 to 1998 and served from 1995 to 1996 as co-Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs International, the Firm’s business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Thornton joined Goldman Sachs in 1980 and became a general partner in 1988. Thornton is a member of the Board of Directors of the Ford Motor Company, British Sky Broadcasting Group plc, the Pacific Century Group, Inc., and Laura Ashley plc. In addition, he is a member of the Asia Society Board of Trustees, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Goldman Sachs Foundation Board of Directors, the Hotchkiss School Board of Trustees, the Morehouse College Board of Trustees, the Yale University Investment Committee, and the Yale School of Management Advisory Board.