The Brookings Institution elected a banker and a corporate financial officer to its Board of Trustees today. Marie L. Knowles, executive vice president and chief financial officer of ARCO, and Lawrence K. Fish, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Citizens Financial Group, Inc., both have extensive experience in international finance.
“I am thrilled to bring on both Marie and Larry to the board,” said James A. Johnson, chairman of Brookings. “They both offer extensive strategic and pragmatic financial expertise.”
During more than two decades at ARCO, Knowles has served in areas dealing with crude oil trading, corporate finance, investor relations, and corporate planning. She joined the company as a senior financial analyst and also has served as assistant treasurer for banking, where she directed short-term investments, liabilities, and foreign exchange. She also has been senior vice president and president of ARCO Transportation Company.
Knowles serves on the boards of Vastar Resources Inc. and Phelps Dodge Corporation. Her civic and philanthropic activities include her membership on the national board of the Smithsonian Institution, the board of governors of The Music Center, and the advisory board of the University of Southern California (USC) School of Engineering. She holds two master’s degrees from USC — in chemical engineering and business administration.
Fish, who joined Citizens Financial Group in 1992, led the company as it quadrupled in size to become the third largest commercial bank holding company in New England and one of the fifty largest in the United States. He also directed the revival of the Bank of Boston as its chairman and chief executive officer. In his seventeen years at the bank, he served in senior positions in Brazil, Japan, Hong Kong, England, and Boston.
Fish is the founding chairman of the Rhode Island Commission for National and Community Service, and an overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He also has served as a trustee and executive committee member of the New England Conservatory of Music and Drake University.
He is an honors graduate of Drake and holds a master’s degree from Harvard University Graduate School of Business. He has received honorary degrees from Providence College, Bryant College, Roger Williams University and Johnson & Wales University.