Mandel, a charter trustee and founder of the financial management firm Lone Pine Capital, was elected to the Board in 2007, and had previously headed the Investment Committee. The Board elected fellow charter trustee Haldeman, now the chief executive officer of Freddie Mac, in 2004.
"I am honored that my colleagues have asked me to serve as Chairman of the Board, particularly following the outstanding leadership that [Haldeman] has provided during the past three years," he said in the press release. "I am excited about the opportunity to work with [Kim], my colleagues on the Board and the entire Dartmouth community in realizing an even greater future for this College that we all love."
Mandel could not be reached for comment by press time.
Kim and Haldeman praised Mandel's dedication to the College and skill as an investor.
"There's no one who knows Dartmouth better or loves Dartmouth more," Kim said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "He's really a professional in the field of investing, and he's also just a great guy."
Mandel was integral to the College's budget reduction process, acted as the trustee representative at various meetings across the country and served as a member of the presidential search committee that brought Kim to the College, according to Kim.
"His contributions in so many ways have just been so outstanding that I think that the Board felt very strongly about nominating him as chair," Kim said.
Haldeman said Mandel has many qualities that make him an ideal leader.
"He is a good manager of people," Haldeman said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "As chair, he will be able to well articulate the goals of the College."
Haldeman added that Mandel has been crucial to the success of the Board over the past three years, and said he is confident that Mandel will continue to maintain the Board's policy of communication with its various constituencies.
"I think the Board should continue to be visible in the Dartmouth community both on campus and with alumni," he said. "Over the past several years we have worked hard to be very visible and communicate very frequently with the folks on campus as well as alumni, and I think that has been a very, very healthy thing for Dartmouth."
Mandel will also play an important role as Kim builds his senior management team and looks to hire a senior financial executive, an athletic director and a dean for Dartmouth Medical School, Haldeman said. Kim emphasized that although there was "a very deep batch" of possible candidates, the trustees agreed unanimously on the decision to elect Mandel as chair.
"I think there was recognition that there were many that could've played the role, but there was also absolute clarity that [Mandel] was the ideal choice," Kim said.
Some members of the campus group Students Stand with Staff previously raised concerns that Mandel's involvement with Lone Pine Capital, with which the College has held investments, might be a conflict of interest. Kim and Haldeman dismissed such criticism.
"I can tell you that Dartmouth College itself has among the strictest policies on conflict of interest, in the sense that anyone who is a related party investor must stay out of any deliberations about those investments," Kim said. "And anyway, not only does Dartmouth have very strict policies but the state of New Hampshire has even stricter policies, and so any time we make an investment in a related party fund, we have to put an advertisement in the paper which we do."
Mandel has complied with all applicable conflict of interest regulations, according to College director of media relations Roland Adams.
"Since Mr. Mandel joined the Board of Trustees in 2007, he has in accordance with Dartmouth policy on such matters recused himself from both discussions and actions by committees of the Board and the Board as a whole about investing with any firm in which Mr. Mandel has a significant role," Adams said in an statement.
Since Mandel will step down as chair of the Investment Committee, the concern is unfounded, Kim said.
"There's no increase certainly, and perhaps even a decrease, in his closeness to the investment portfolio," Kim said.
Haldeman said in the press release that it has been "a great privilege" to serve Dartmouth and his fellow trustees as Chairman and praised the Board's decision to bring Kim to the College.
"The past three years have been a period of transition during which we have made a number of important and necessary changes, but I am most proud of the Board's role in bringing to the College a visionary new president in Jim Yong Kim," he said in the press release.
Kim praised Haldeman's work in laying the foundation for the future of the College, adding that everyone who loves Dartmouth owes him a "deep debt of gratitude."
"[Haldeman]'s contribution to the College during the past three years simply cannot be overstated," he said in the press release. "He is a leader of great judgment, able to build consensus even on the most challenging issues."
Kim said he is confident that Mandel will provide the same level of steady and effective leadership as Haldeman.
The Board also announced that Trustee William Helman '80 will succeed Mandel as chair of the Board's Investment Committee when Mandel steps down. Mandel previously served as managing director and consumer analyst at Tiger Management Corporation, a mass-market retailing analyst at Goldman Sachs and a consultant at Mars & Company. After attending Dartmouth, Mandel attended Harvard Business School, where he graduated in 1982. He is currently a trustee of Teach for America and a former trustee of The Children's School and Phillips Exeter Academy, his alma mater. He is a founder and board member of the Lone Pine Foundation, which aims to help children and families in the greater New York City area, according to the press release.
Staff writer Greg Berger contributed to the reporting of this article.
