Press Releases

Thurgood Marshall Jr. Becomes Trustee for the Ford Foundation

NEW YORK, November 27, 2006 -- The election of Thurgood Marshall Jr. to the Ford Foundation Board of Trustees was announced today by Kathryn S. Fuller, chair of the Board.

Marshall is a partner at Bingham McCutchen LLP and a principal at Bingham Consulting Group, both of Washington, DC. He will join the Board at its January 2007 meeting.

"Thurgood is an exemplary leader whose commitment to justice and opportunity makes him an ideal addition to our Board," said Fuller. "His breadth of experience and dedication to public service will help him guide the Ford Foundation to many new accomplishments in the years ahead."

Thurgood Marshall Jr.'s professional background includes service in each branch of the federal government and in the private sector. Prior to joining Bingham McCutchen, he served in the Clinton White House as assistant to the president and cabinet secretary from 1997 to 2001, acting as liaison between the president and the executive branch agencies. He served as a senior member of the Continuity in Government team and directed the White House response to natural disasters and transportation emergencies, including commercial aircraft crashes.

Prior to his appointment as cabinet secretary, Marshall was director of legislative affairs and deputy counsel for Vice President Al Gore. Before that, he was counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, as well as the Governmental Affairs Committee.

He began his legal career as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Barrington D. Parker of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Marshall has also served on the boards of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the National Women's Law Center, and on the Ethics Committee of the United States Olympic Committee.

He is the son of Thurgood Marshall, who in 1967 became the first African-American justice on the Supreme Court.

The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has been a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide, guided by its goals of strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and advancing human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Russia.