Harvard’s Top Board Adds Blackstone CFO, Ex-Cabinet Secretary

Blackstone Inc. Chief Financial Officer Michael Chae and Sylvia Mathews Burwell, a former secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration, will join Harvard University’s governing board as the school faces stepped-up pressure from President Donald Trump.

Burwell, who has also served as president of American University, brings deep experience in the federal government and higher education to Harvard Corp., the university said in a statement Tuesday. Chae has wide-ranging financial expertise and is already on the board of Harvard Management Co., which oversees the school’s $57 billion endowment.