Ford Foundation trustees set policies relating to grant making, geographic focus, spending, investment, management, governance and professional standards, and they oversee internal and independent audits. They also set the compensation and review the performance of the president and all foundation officers. Our Board of Trustees is currently composed of 15 members, including the president. Nominated by a trustee committee and appointed by the full board, trustees generally serve two six-year terms. The board, board committees and individual trustees are evaluated on an annual basis by our Executive Committee. Foundation trustees bring a vast range of knowledge and experience to the task of governing the foundation. Over the years, trustees have hailed from four continents and have extensive experience in the worlds of higher education, business, law, government, nonprofit management and the civic sector.
- Kathryn S. Fuller
- Chair of the Board
- Washington, D.C.
- Luis A. Ubiñas
- President
- New York, N.Y.
- Kofi Appenteng
- Partner
- The West Africa Fund
- Redding, Conn.
- Afsaneh M. Beschloss
- President and Chief Executive Officer
- The Rock Creek Group
- Washington, D.C.
- Anke A. Ehrhardt
- Vice Chair for Academic Affairs and
- Professor of Medical Psychology
- Department of Psychiatry
- College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University
- Director
- HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies
- New York State Psychiatric Institute
- New York, N.Y.
- Juliet V. García
- President
- University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College
- Brownsville, Tex.
- Irene Y. Hirano
- President
- U.S.-Japan Council
- President and Chief Executive Officer
- National Center for the Preservation of Democracy
- Los Angeles, Calif.
- J. Clifford Hudson
- Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
- Sonic Corporation
- Oklahoma City, Okla.
- Yolanda Kakabadse
- Senior Adviser
- Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano
- Quito, Ecuador
- Robert S. Kaplan
- Professor, Management Practice
- Harvard Business School
- Boston, Mass.
- Senior Director
- The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
- New York, N.Y.
- Thurgood Marshall Jr.
- Partner
- Bingham McCutchen
- Principal
- Bingham Consulting Group
- Washington, D.C.
- Richard Moe
- President
- National Trust for Historic Preservation
- Washington, D.C.
- Narayana N.R. Murthy
- Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor
- Infosys Technologies Ltd.
- Bangalore, India
- Peter A. Nadosy
- Managing Partner
- East End Advisors, LLC
- New York, N.Y.
- W. Richard West Jr.
- Founding Director Emeritus
- National Museum of the American Indian
- Washington, D.C.
The President
The trustees select the president, who implements board policies and oversees foundation programs and operations on a day-to-day basis. The trustees and the president share the responsibility of representing the foundation in the public sphere along with other senior staff. The president continually re-examines our work, looking for opportunities to hone our strategies and improve our effectiveness. The president meets with people around the world to help deepen the foundation's grasp of different perspectives on how to solve problems. In addition to overseeing operations, the president works to communicate what we have learned to a broad array of audiences and strives to strengthen the philanthropic sector's performance, legal compliance and transparency.
The Board's Oversight of Grant Making
Our Board of Trustees determines the substantive areas and geographic focus of the foundation's grant making. Within the budget approved by the board, the foundation makes about 2,000 grants throughout the year. The board has delegated authority for approving these grants to the president and senior staff. However, all trustees serve on one of the board's three program committees, which help design program strategy. Membership on the committees rotates so that trustees serving 12 years become steeped in the work of all three program areas and contribute to their development and assessment. The trustees review approved grants at their regular board meetings, which take place three times a year. At those meetings, and during annual board visits to grantees worldwide, trustees meet grant recipients and learn about their work.
Trustee Independence
The Ford Foundation places high value on the independence of our board members. We require that a majority of our trustees be independent, that all trustees serving on the Audit and Membership (nominating) committees be independent and that trustees on the Audit Committee satisfy additional standards of independence. When the staff proposes that the foundation fund an organization with which a trustee is affiliated as an employee, officer or trustee, that grant must be reviewed and approved by the Audit Committee. The grant action document, which is reviewed and approved by management before submission to the Audit Committee, discloses the nature of the trustee affiliation and confirms that the trustee played no role in the initiation or negotiation of the grant.