Stanford Report, February 28, 2013

Stanford Board of Trustees has elected four new members to five-year terms

By Kathleen J. Sullivan

The Stanford University Board of Trustees has elected four new members who will take their seats at the upcoming board meeting in April: Fred W. Alvarez, Gail B. Harris, Bernard Liautaud and Lloyd M. Metz.

The new trustees – whose five-year terms begin March 1 – were elected through the alumni nominations process. Every two-and-a-half years the Stanford Alumni Association's Alumni Committee on Trustee Nominations and the board's Committee on Trusteeship present four names to the board for election.

"The board is very fortunate to add this quartet of new members," said Steven A. Denning, chair of the Stanford University Board of Trustees. "I am delighted by the breadth, diversity and manifold accomplishments of the group. They will add immeasurably to the board's deliberations. My thanks to the alumni association for the diligent, discerning work that led to the selection of the four new trustees."

Fred W. Alvarez is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he leads the firm's employment law litigation practice. Alvarez, who is based in the firm's Palo Alto office, is considered a top expert in labor and employment law.

Alvarez earned a bachelor's degree in economics, with honors, from Stanford in 1972 and a JD from Stanford Law School in 1975.

His career also includes distinguished government service in two leadership positions – assistant secretary of labor for the U.S. Department of Labor from 1987 to 1989, and commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1984 to 1987.

Alvarez has held many other legal and civic leadership positions, including stints as president of the Bar Association of San Francisco and chairman of the American Bar Association's Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. He has served on the board of directors of the Stanford Alumni Association. He also served on the board of directors of the Stanford Law School Board of Visitors and chaired the board from 2009 to 2012.

Gail B. Harris is the lead director of Evercore Partners Inc., an independent investment banking advisory firm, where she serves as a member of the audit committee and chair of the nominating and governance committee.

Harris also is the president of the board of directors of New York Cares, the largest nonprofit organization for volunteering in New York City. She also serves on the boards of Cigna Life Insurance Co. of New York and several private companies.

She earned a bachelor's degree in political science, with distinction, from Stanford in 1974 and a JD from Stanford Law School in 1977.

Harris, now retired from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, which is headquartered in New York City, began her legal career there in 1977 and became a partner in the corporate department in 1984.

She is an adjunct professor of law at Ohio State University's Law School, participating in its Distinguished Practitioners in Residence Program.

Harris, who is a former chair of The Law Fund at Stanford Law School, is currently serving on the Dean's Advisory Council at the school.

She is a member of Stanford Associates, an honorary organization of Stanford's top alumni volunteers. In 2004, she received the Stanford Associates Governors' Award for her longtime service to Stanford Law School.

Bernard Liautaud is general partner at Balderton Capital, a leading venture capital firm in London that manages $2 billion in committed capital. The firm is focused on high-growth technology markets, such as e-commerce, consumer Internet and software. The firm also has had great successes within communications and security, semiconductors, consumer services, media and financial services.

In 1990, Liautaud co-founded Business Objects, which became the global leader in business intelligence solutions, with revenues of $1.5 billion in 2007. In 1994, the company was the first European software company to issue shares to the public on the NASDAQ Stock Market. Liautaud led the company to a successful acquisition by SAP in 2008; the company is now known as SAP Business Objects. Currently, Liautaud sits on SAP's supervisory board, which advises and supervises the company's executive board.

Liautaud, who earned a master's degree at École Centrale Paris in 1984, earned a master's degree in engineering management at Stanford in 1985.

In 2002, Time Magazine – Europe listed him in its "Digital Top 25." His career achievements were recognized with the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 2007, one of the highest honors awarded in France. Bernard and his wife, alumna Susan Liautaud, have been engaged with international outreach efforts for Stanford and have supported a range of programs, including bioengineering and medical research.

Lloyd M. Metz is a managing director of ICV Partners, an entrepreneurial, leveraged buyout firm based in New York City that invests in leading middle-market companies. He has been a director on five portfolio company boards and is currently lead director of two.

Before joining ICV Partners in 2002, Metz was an investment professional at the private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley.

Metz earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Stanford in 1990 and an MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1996.

He has been engaged as a Stanford volunteer in many capacities and now serves on the Stanford Associates Board of Governors.

Metz led a group of alumni to establish and endow the Okokon B. Okon III Fellowship in the School of Engineering, with much of the funding coming from first- time donors. For his efforts, he received the Stanford Associates Award of Merit in 2006. He has volunteered for the Leading Matters event in New York and with Outreach Volunteer Alumni Link, an initiative of the Office of Undergraduate Admission, since it began in New York City.

Currently, Metz is a trustee and member of the executive committee of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and is the treasurer and a board member of the National Association of Investment Companies.

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