Culminating an 11-year leadership tenure, chairman of the Board of Trustees Peter R. Dolan will step down this November. The board has elected Jeffrey M. Moslow, the current vice chair, as his successor.
“Serving as chair of the Board of Trustees for the past 11 years has been one of the great privileges of my life,” Dolan wrote in a statement to the Daily. “As a proud Jumbo, I sincerely believe in Tufts’ ability to transform lives and make the world a better place, and I think the board, along with [university presidents] Tony [Monaco] and now Sunil [Kumar], has helped the institution take some giant leaps forward.”
Kumar announced the board’s leadership transition in an email to the Tufts community on Wednesday. In the message, he explained that Dolan initially expressed a desire to step down as chair in 2021.
“[Dolan] remained on the board until now to provide stability and continuity amidst the COVID pandemic and through the presidential transition,” Kumar wrote. “He has been incredibly supportive during my first year as president and I have been fortunate to have his counsel and advice at every step.”
The former CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dolan graduated from Tufts in 1978 and joined the Board of Trustees in 2001. Since becoming chairman in 2013, he has helped steward Tufts through over a decade of developments, Kumar wrote.
“We’re more diverse than ever,” Dolan wrote. “We have grown the endowment and its ability to help fund the university’s operations. We have increased financial aid, welcomed the [School of the Museum of Fine Arts], introduced University College, and grown our civic engagement programs.”
Under Dolan’s leadership, Tufts was officially recognized as one of the country’s leading research institutions with its induction into the Association of American Universities in 2021. Dolan oversaw the $1.5 billion Brighter World fundraising campaign, concluded in 2023, which supported the construction of the Science and Engineering Complex, Joyce Cummings Center and numerous infrastructure projects across the university. The long-awaited Green Line Extension stop also arrived to the Medford/Somerville campus during Dolan’s tenure.
Throughout his time as chairman, Dolan has faced pressure from student activists to reconsider some of the university’s financial holdings. In 2023, Tufts Climate Action filed a legal complaint against the Board of Trustees for its continued investment of university funds in the fossil fuel industry, alleging conflicts of interest by Dolan and trustee Daniel Zilberman for their ties to oil and gas companies. More recently, the board has faced ongoing pressure from protesters who demand that Tufts divest from Israeli companies amid the Israel-Hamas war.
The current movement on college campuses for divestment from Israel has placed heightened focus on the role of trustees, who serve as some of the university’s chief financial decision-makers. As chairman, Dolan is responsible for approving Tufts’ mission and purpose, monitoring the university’s financial health and overseeing institutional matters including the university’s budget, tuition and academic programs.
Dolan will formally cede his role to Moslow at the board’s annual meeting in the fall.
“I’m honored and humbled that my fellow trustees have the confidence in my leadership of our board; it’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly,” Moslow wrote in a statement to the Daily. “While we are a dynamic group with a diversity of backgrounds and skills, we share a singular goal of partnering with the administration in support of our mission to provide transformative opportunities to Tufts students.”
Moslow, who graduated from Tufts in 1989 and was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2011, is a private investor and retired partner of Goldman Sachs, where he served as the head of investment banking services. He has been a member of the School of Arts and Sciences Board of Advisors since 2007 and co-created the Tufts Finance Initiative in 2013, a program that helps Tufts students break into the finance and business industries.
“Our challenge and opportunity moving forward is to sharpen what makes Tufts truly distinctive by building on our strong foundation to recruit the best faculty, advance our research enterprise, and enhance the student experience to ensure all Jumbos can pursue and achieve their passions, wherever they might lead,” Moslow wrote. “I look forward to joining with my fellow board members, President Kumar, and the entire Tufts community as we work to propel Tufts forward to even greater heights.”
