President and Fellows of Harvard College
The President and Fellows of Harvard College is the smaller of Harvard University's two governing boards, the other being its Board of Overseers.
History
In 1650, at the request of Harvard President Henry Dunster, the Great and General Court of Massachusetts issued the body's charter, making it now the oldest corporation in the Americas; the subsequent Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts confirmed that, despite the change in government, the corporation would continue to "have, hold, use, exercise and enjoy" its property and legal privileges. Although the institution it governs has grown into Harvard University, the corporation's formal title remains the President and Fellows of Harvard College., Jared Sparks, James Walker and Cornelius Conway Felton
The corporation was probably originally intended to be a body of the school's resident instructors, similar to the fellows of an Oxbridge college. However, it fell into the now-familiar American model of a governing board—an outside body whose members are not involved in the institution's daily life, which meets periodically to consult with the day-to-day head, the president. The Corporation is self-perpetuating, appointing new members to fill its own vacancies as they arise.
For most of its history, the Corporation was consisted of six fellows in addition to the president. But after the abortive presidency of Lawrence Summers and a large endowment decline in 2008-2009, a year-long governance review was conducted. In December 2010, it announced that the Corporation's "composition, structure, and practices" would be greatly altered: the number of fellows would increase from seven to 13, with prescribed terms of service, and several new committees would endeavor to improve the group's integration with the activities of the University as a whole, especially its long-term planning.
Current Fellows
There are currently thirteen members of the Corporation.| Name | Degree | Year appointed | Occupation |
| Lawrence Bacow | JD 1976, MPP 1976, PhD 1978 | 2011 | President of Harvard University. |
| Jim Breyer | MBA 1987 | 2013 | founder and CEO of Breyer Capital |
| Kenneth Chenault | JD 1976 | 2014 | former CEO of American Express |
| Paul Finnegan, Treasurer | AB 1975, MBA 1982 | 2012 | co-CEO of Madison Dearborn Partners |
| Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar | AB 1993 | 2019 | Justice of the Supreme Court of California |
| William F. Lee, Senior Fellow | AB 1972 | 2010 | co-managing partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr |
| Carolyn Martin | PhD 1985 | 2018 | President of Amherst College |
| Jessica Mathews | AB 1967 | 2013 | former President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |
| Karen Mills | AB 1975, MBA 1977 | 2014 | former Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration |
| Penny Pritzker | AB 1981 | 2018 | former United States Secretary of Commerce |
| David Rubenstein | JD 1973 | 2017 | co-CEO of The Carlyle Group |
| Shirley M. Tilghman | LLD 2004 | 2017 | former president of Princeton University |
| Ted Wells | JD 1976, MBA 1976 | 2013 | partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison |