What are your qualifications for serving as a trustee of the Corporation?

I have many years of experience in both the private and the public sectors. In each of these contexts, I was required to collaborate with others, to develop consensus, and to create and grow productive collegial relationships, even with those who disagreed with me. I know that boards are not an appropriate place for personal agendas, and that they are most effective when they come to agreement by reconciling and accommodating diversity of opinion. I know that the job of a board director or trustee is to foster this kind of collaboration – not to bring proceedings to a stalemate.

While working in the private sector, I lived in France for 14 years and worked with clients from all over Europe and Africa. This gave me the gift of an open mind — a readiness to consider diverse points of view and to think in new ways about issues and problems. Thinking in more than one language and functioning entirely in other cultures taught me that listening can be much more important than talking. I never assume that anyone else thinks like I do or that my way is the only way.

As an elected representative in Connecticut state government, I was deeply involved in education issues, and came to understand a great deal about state policies that can and do affect Yale. As SVP of corporate affairs worldwide for Suez Environnement, then the world’s largest water company, I developed a strong commitment not only to water conservation, but also to other environmental policies that are of great interest to the Yale community. This commitment later led me to play a leadership role in passing several key pieces of environmental legislation in Connecticut.

In elected office, I was fortunate to have been able to see how it felt to represent a substantial constituency, which itself represented enormous variation in political viewpoints. So I have the experience of reconciling those viewpoints and of deciding how to vote to support them. It’s not an easy exercise, but I always relied most heavily on facts and constituent input, and I always made it a priority to explain my votes thoroughly to constituents. I have demonstrated that I know how to do these things, and I would certainly do them again as trustee.

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