Craig Barrett and David Thompson Elected Board Chair and Vice Chair of the Carnegie Institution for Science
The Carnegie Institution for Science Board of Trustees unanimously elected former president and chief executive officer of chip maker Intel Corporation, Craig Barrett, as Chairman of the Carnegie Board of Trustees. David Thompson, former president and chief executive officer of the global aerospace and defense company Orbital ATK, was unanimously elected as Vice Chair. They succeed outgoing cochairs Stephen P. A. Fodor, cofounder of the microarray technology company Affymetrix and Suzanne Nora Johnson, former vice chairman of Goldman Sachs, and outgoing Vice Chair, Bruce Ferguson, President of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani.
Craig Barrett, a Carnegie Board of Trustee member since November 2014 and now Chairman of the Board, is currently chairman and president of BASIS Schools, Inc., an operator of charter schools in Arizona, Texas, and Washington, D.C. He is a leading advocate for improving education in the United States and has been involved in the creation, or has had leadership roles, in numerous organizations in this field. He retired as chairman of Intel Corporation in May 2009. He joined the company in 1974 as a technology development manager. In 1992, he was elected to Intel’s board of directors and was named chief operating officer in 1993. Barrett became Intel’s fourth president in May 1997 and chief executive officer in 1998. He was named the chairman of the board in May 2005.
Barrett earned a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D., all in materials science, from Stanford University. He joined the Stanford University Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and remained there until 1974, becoming an associate professor. Barrett was a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom and was a Fulbright Fellow to the Technical University of Denmark.
David Thompson, a Carnegie Board of Trustee member since May 2017 and now board Vice Chair, retired as president and chief executive officer of Orbital ATK in 2018. He cofounded Orbital ATK’s predecessor, Orbital Sciences Corporation, in 1982, and served as the company’s chairman, president, and chief executive officer when it merged with Alliant Techsystems in 2014. Orbital Sciences developed and deployed small- and medium-class space and rocket systems for scientific, defense, and commercial customers.
Prior to cofounding Orbital in 1982, Thompson was a special assistant to the president of Hughes Aircraft Company’s Missile Systems Group and was a project manager and engineer on advanced rocket engines at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. As a college student, he worked on the first Mars landing missions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and on Space Shuttle projects at the NASA Langley Research Center and Johnson Space Center.
Thompson earned a B.S. in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976, an M.S. in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology in 1977, and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1981.
Carnegie’s president Eric D. Isaacs remarked: “Both Craig and Dave bring an enormous amount of business experience in highly technical fields and share a deep passion for scientific discovery. Their leadership will be essential in helping to ensure that the Carnegie Institution for Science continues to excel in its mission of discovery and innovation long into the future.”
Outgoing cochairs of the Carnegie Board, Stephen Fodor and Suzanne Nora Johnson said: “It’s been a privilege to chair the board of the Carnegie Institution for Science to help insure that basic research remains a priority for our country. We are particularly pleased to hand the reigns over to Craig and Dave. Their expertise in scientific and business enterprises will provide an exceptional foundation for strengthening Carnegie’s role in the scientific community in the years to come.”
Both Fodor and Nora Johnson will continue to serve as Carnegie Board members.