Louis V. Gerstner

Chairman of board, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; vice chairman, board of trustees, American Museum of Natural History; director, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; chairman, Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; member, National Academy of Engineering. Former member of the board, Bristol-Myers Squibb, The New York Times, American Express, AT&T, Caterpillar, Lincoln Center, American China Society, Council on Foreign Relations.

Created The Teaching Commission to raise U.S. teacher performance and accountability; co-chaired Achieve, an organization of Governors and business leaders to improve academic standards for public schools; established Reinventing Education, a partnership with 21 states and school districts to eliminate barriers to school reform. Recipient of honorary doctorates from numerous U.S. universities for business accomplishments and work with public education. Awarded the designation of honorary Knight of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 2001.

Co-author, Reinventing Education: Entrepreneurship in America’s Public Schools and author, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance, the account of IBM’s transformation.