MENLO PARK, Calif.— Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has been named board chair of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the foundation announced today. A nonprofit executive, former state supreme court justice, scholar and academic leader, Cuéllar has served as a Hewlett board member since 2014. He chaired a task force on the board’s guiding principles and has served on the investment, nominating and governance, and audit committees. Cuéllar’s term as board chair begins in March 2022. He succeeds Stephen C. Neal, chairman emeritus of Cooley LLP.
“At a time when the world faces enormous challenges in areas ranging from climate change and equitable growth to public education, I’m honored to support the Hewlett Foundation’s critical mission of achieving lasting change for the benefit of humanity,” Cuéllar said. “It’s a special privilege to work with such an extraordinary board and remarkable staff at an institution that nurtures a culture of learning and embodies a commitment to partnerships based on trust.”
“I am thrilled that Tino Cuéllar will be the next board chair of the Hewlett Foundation,” said Larry Kramer, president of the Hewlett Foundation. “He combines a profound commitment to serving the public interest with open-mindedness to innovative solutions and deep expertise and intellectual clarity about the pressing challenges facing the United States and the world.”
As president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Cuéllar leads a global think tank that offers decisionmakers around the world independent insight and innovative ideas that advance international peace and cooperation. Cuéllar previously served as Justice of the Supreme Court of California, where, in addition to his role deciding cases, he oversaw reforms of the California court system’s operations to better meet the needs of millions of limited-English speakers. For two decades, he also served on the faculty of Stanford University, where he was the Stanley Morrison Professor of Law, Professor (by courtesy) of Political Science, and Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.
In the Obama administration, Cuéllar led the White House Domestic Policy Council’s teams responsible for civil and criminal justice, public health, and immigration. He also led the Presidential Transition Task Force on Immigration (2008-2009) and co-chaired the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Commission (2011-2013). He serves on the boards of Harvard University (the President & Fellows of Harvard College) and the American Law Institute and has chaired the boards of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and Stanford Seed. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Social and Ethical Implications of Computing Research.
A naturalized U.S. citizen born in northern Mexico, he attended a public high school in California’s Imperial Valley before graduating from Harvard and Yale Law School, and receiving a Ph.D in political science from Stanford. He began his legal career at the U.S. Treasury Department and clerked for Chief Judge Mary Schroeder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is married to Judge Lucy H. Koh of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.