Richard E Cavanagh

RICHARD E. CAVANAGH, 64, is the former President and Chief Executive Officer and a former Trustee of The Conference Board, Inc., a leading research and business membership organization. He served in that position from November 1995 through May 2007. Previously, he was Executive Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University for eight years, where he now teaches management courses. Prior to Harvard, he spent 17 years with McKinsey & Company, Inc., the international management consulting firm, where he led the firm?s public issues consulting practice. Mr. Cavanagh is a director and non-executive chairman of the BlackRock Mutual Funds (100 closed-end funds), a director of the Guardian Life Insurance Company, and a director and senior advisor of The Fremont Group. He holds a BA degree from Wesleyan University and an MBA degree from the Harvard Business School. Director since 1999. Mr. Cavanagh has significant management and leadership experience in the business policy, strategic consulting, governmental and educational sectors. He served as President and CEO of The Conference Board for twelve years, as an Executive Dean of Harvard University?s Kennedy School of Government, as a partner at McKinsey & Company and Chairman of the Educational Testing Service. As a past staff member of the White House Office of Management and Budget and Kennedy School faculty member, he also brings a public affairs viewpoint to the Board. In 2002, Mr. Cavanagh created and convened the blue-ribbon Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprise, which called for a wide range of reforms in corporate governance practices, many of which, once controversial, have since been adopted by a majority of large U.S. companies. Recently, he served as a member of The Conference Board?s Task Force on Executive Compensation, which made significant recommendations on best corporate governance practices for executive compensation. His service as a director of the BlackRock Mutual Funds and Guardian Life Insurance Company also gives him financial and regulatory experience. He has been a Board member for over ten years and as a result has a well-developed knowledge of the Company.