Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute Presents Alan M. Garber, 31st President of Harvard University, with the Yale Legend in Leadership Award

Alan M. Garber, 31st president of Harvard University, will accept the Legend in Leadership Award on January 27 at the Yale Higher Education Leadership Summit at the Yale School of Management in New Haven, Connecticut. The award will be presented by Maurie McInnis, Yale’s 24th president; Amy Gutmann, 8th President of the University of Pennsylvania; Jon Levin, 12th president of Stanford University; Ned Lamont, 89th Governor of Connecticut, and Harvard Classmate of President Garber; and Rafael Reif, 17th President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Summit organizer Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the Lester Crown Professor in Management Practice at Yale SOM, commented: “We are privileged to honor President Alan Garber, a scholar-leader who transformed from an accomplished health economist into American higher education’s most consequential defender of academic freedom. When President Garber assumed the presidency in January 2024, he inherited an institution reeling from the abrupt resignation of the prior president after only six months in office, antisemitism controversies, and a significant donor revolt—Harvard’s lowest moment in recent memory. Within 18 months, he, as the longest-serving provost in Harvard’s history, had united fractious constituencies, achieved a remarkable 74 percent faculty approval rating, and under his leadership, the university won a landmark federal court ruling declaring the Trump administration’s funding freeze unconstitutional. President Garber’s momentous April 2025 declaration that ‘no government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue’ made Harvard the first university to publicly defy the administration’s demands for control over academic decision-making. Judge Allison Burroughs’s 84-page September ruling, which vindicated Harvard’s position, established precedent that will shape the relationship between government and higher education for decades to come.

“Harvard also prevailed in a federal court when it secured a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from terminating Harvard’s right to host international students and scholars by revoking the university’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification.

“What distinguishes President Garber’s leadership is his exceptional capacity to synthesize apparently contradictory elements: the consensus-builder who challenged the federal government; the administrator who enacted meaningful internal reforms while resisting unconstitutional external mandates; and the deliberative scholar who proved decisive under existential pressures. Despite facing the freeze of more than $2.7 billion in federal grants affecting nearly 1,000 research projects, President Garber stabilized the university financially—allocating $250 million in bridge funding to sustain affected research and inspiring such confidence in leadership that Harvard received over 4,000 donations within 48 hours of his letter, more than 40 times the average number of daily gifts. Many came from individuals with no prior connection to the university. Nearly 100 faculty members pledged 10% of their own salaries to help offset the loss of federal funds, and he took a voluntary 25% pay cut.

“In a bold public statement of defiance against the federal overreach, over 80 current and former university presidents signed a Fortune op-ed in support of his leadership. The overwhelming encouragement continued at commencement when students, their families, and alumni greeted him with standing ovations and chants of his name. As Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker observed, President Garber is ‘both principled and pragmatic, both deliberative and decisive, and both respectful of tradition and intent on innovation.’ His courage to resist when capitulation seemed easier has made him not merely Harvard’s leader but higher education’s most vital champion of institutional independence.”

Garber became Harvard’s interim president in January 2024 and was named the permanent 31st president in August 2024. In December 2025, the Harvard Corporation extended his term indefinitely—an extraordinary expression of confidence during what Pritzker called “a period of intense challenge.” Prior to his presidency, Garber served as Harvard’s provost for more than 12 years under three presidents, the longest such tenure in the university’s history. As provost and chief academic officer, he oversaw a wide range of academic and cross-school activities, along with diverse Harvard units such as the Harvard Library, Harvard Art Museums, the Arnold Arboretum, and the American Repertory Theater, while holding professorships in four schools: Harvard Medical School, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Kennedy School, and the Harvard Chan School of Public Health.

Under Garber’s leadership, Harvard has implemented significant reforms to address campus climate while defending institutional autonomy, including: the establishment of task forces on antisemitism and anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian bias; the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism as part of the University’s non-discrimination and anti-bullying policy; the development of centralized disciplinary processes; and the launch of a wide array of efforts to promote open inquiry and constructive dialogue such as mandated training for teaching fellows and the incorporation of viewpoint diversity metrics into course evaluations. When pro-Palestinian protesters established an encampment in Harvard Yard in April 2024, Garber negotiated a peaceful resolution after 20 days without the violent confrontations that marred other campuses. The ADL quickly upgraded Harvard’s grade from an “F” in April 2024 to a “C” in 2025 following these institutional changes.

A distinguished scholar of health economics, Garber earned his undergraduate degree in economics from Harvard summa cum laude in just three years, followed by a master’s and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard while simultaneously pursuing his M.D. at Stanford. He became a faculty member at Stanford, serving simultaneously as a staff physician at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, rising to become the Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor. He founded Stanford’s Center for Health Policy and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research and led the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Health Care Program for 19 years. His research on the economics of healthcare produced over 150 academic papers with nearly 20,000 citations. He is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.

The Yale Legend in Leadership award was created 25 years ago to honor current and former CEOs and university presidents who serve as living legends, inspiring leaders across industries, sectors, and nations. Past recipients include: Amy Gutmann, eighth president of the University of Pennsylvania; Hanna Gray, tenth president, University of Chicago; Andrew Hamilton, president, New York University; Lawrence S. Bacow, 29th president, Harvard University; Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Donna E. Shalala, former president, University of Miami, and 18th secretary of health and human services; Johnnetta B. Cole, president emerita of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and seventh president of Spelman College; Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, and 18th president of Brown University; Steven Spielberg, filmmaker and CEO, Amblin Partners; Bernard Arnault, chair and CEO, LVMH; Ed Bastian, CEO, Delta Air Lines; Jensen Huang, founder, president, and CEO, NVIDIA; Mary Barra, CEO, General Motors; Indra Nooyi, chair and CEO, PepsiCo; Arne M. Sorenson, CEO, Marriot International; Brian C. Cornell, CEO, Target; Mary T. Barra, chairman and CEO, General Motors Company; Brian Moynihan, chairman and CEO, Bank of America; David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and co-executive chairman, The Carlyle Group; Leonard S. Schleifer, president and CEO, and George D. Yancopoulos, president and chief scientific officer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; Brian Roberts, CEO, Comcast; Marillyn Hewson CEO, Lockheed Martin; Jamie Dimon, CEO, JPMorgan Chase; and Ken Frazier, chairman and CEO, Merck. A full list of recipients is available online.

The summit theme is “Rebounding from Surviving to Thriving: Higher Education Regaining its Footing.” A group of 100 top university presidents and board chairs from globally renowned colleges and universities will engage in lively, candid discussions at this invitation-only leaders’ conference hosted at Yale SOM.

Conference leadership partners are TIAA, Russell Reynolds Associates, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Slate. The conference knowledge partner is McKinsey & Company.