Prof Louise Richardson, the Irish vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, is to become president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the philanthropic fund. She will take up her post on January 1st, 2023, at the end of her seven-year term in Oxford.
Richardson, who grew up in Co Waterford and then went to Trinity College Dublin, was previously principal and vice-chancellor of the University of St Andrews, in Scotland, and executive dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, in the United States. An expert in terrorism and counterterrorism, she was the first woman vice-chancellor of Oxford and St Andrews, and will also be the first woman to head the Carnegie Corporation, taking over from Vartan Gregorian. She is already a trustee.
“I will be leading a foundation dedicated to my twin passions of education and peace,” she wrote in a message today to Oxford students.
As vice-chancellor Richardson negotiated the university's partnership with AstraZeneca to develop, manufacture and distribute their coronavirus vaccine at the cost of production to nations around the world.
"Louise Richardson is an outstanding public intellectual and an academic of great distinction, and we are honoured to have her join us as president of the corporation," said Thomas H Kean, chairman of the Carnegie foundation's board of trustees, former chair of the US 9/11 commission and former governor of New Jersey.
“In addition to her many professional accomplishments, Louise possesses the personal attributes we consider most important for the position: integrity, leadership, international breadth and a proven dedication to our work in democracy, education and international peace and security. We could not ask for a better steward of the corporation.”
