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Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been chosen as director of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne announced Tuesday.
Rice will take over the position named after philanthropists Tad and Dianne Taube on Sept. 1, succeeding Thomas Gilligan, who has been director for five years. He announced his departure in 2019, according to the university.
Rice, 65, was secretary of state from 2005 to 2009 under former President George W. Bush, the second woman and first African American woman in that position. She also served as Bush’s national security adviser. She is currently the Denning Professor in Global Business at the university’s Graduate School of Business and the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on public policy at the Hoover Institution.
She joined Stanford University in 1981, serving as provost from 1993 to 1999. She has been a Hoover Institution senior fellow since 1991. Since leaving government, she has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in American foreign policy and authored or co-authored nine books, the university noted.
“We are very fortunate to have Condoleezza Rice assume the helm of the Hoover Institution. Her accomplishments as a scholar, strategic thinker, and public servant and her deep commitment to Hoover make her the ideal leader for defining the next chapter in Hoover’s long and distinguished history,” Tessier-Lavigne said. “I and many other leaders at Stanford have greatly valued her wisdom and counsel and look forward to welcoming her to our executive leadership team.”
In a statement released through the university, Rice said she is looking forward to assuming the helm at Hoover and shaping the future of an institution that addresses some of the most difficult challenges facing the country and the world.
“I’m honored to be named as Hoover’s next director. Both the Hoover Institution and Stanford University are places that believe in the study and creation of ideas that define a free society. The nurturing of these ideas, the value of free inquiry and the preservation of open dialogue are the backbone of democracy,” she said. “It will be a privilege to lead the institution as it moves into its second century and to work with the outstanding fellows who seek dynamic solutions to the incredible challenges on the horizon.”
John B. Taylor, a Hoover senior fellow and chair of the 10-member search committee, lauded her appointment as director.
“There is no one, anywhere, better suited than Condoleezza Rice to lead the charge to build upon the legacy of the Hoover Institution and launch it into its second century of generating ideas and actions that lead to greater economic freedom and political freedom in the United States and around the world,” he said in the university’s announcement.
Tessier-Lavigne also thanked outgoing director Gilligan for his service to the institution.
“Tom has added to the breadth and depth of Hoover’s impressive fellowship, initiated new programs to broaden the impact of its research and well-positioned the institution for its second century,” he said.
Hoover Institution, known as a conservative think tank, started as a library in 1919 and evolved into one of the world’s leading academic public policy research centers. The institution promotes economic prosperity, national security and democratic governance, according to its website.
