Bill Helman ’80, who will start as chairman of the Board of Trustees in June, said he still remembers the words that inspired him to stay involved with the College after graduation. On his first day at the College, Helman recalled, then-president John Kemeny delivered a speech saying that the purpose of a Dartmouth education is enabling students to give back to society.
“I felt, when asked, I would do anything I possibly could to serve and to do the best I could to make Dartmouth the best it can be,” Helman said.
His time at the College, where he majored in history and was a member of Phi Delta Alpha fraternity, was a formative experience, he said.
“I grew up a lot on campus,” Helman said. “I learned how to communicate, how to get along. I learned how to write, how to argue, how to win, how to lose.”
He said he did not focus on a single subject in college, instead choosing to experiment and explore a variety of classes, regardless of his familiarity with a subject. He said that the close relationships he formed with professors positively impacted his time at Dartmouth.
Helman said his advisor, history professor Charles Wood, made him choose a major his junior year because he was taking such a wide range of classes.
After graduation, Helman went to Harvard Business School and then began work at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners. He said that he wrote to 20 different companies asking for a job and continued to look until Greylock Partners offered him a position.
Music department chair Steve Swayne, who served on the presidential search committee that Helman chaired, said Helman’s tenacity, passion and thoroughness will serve him well as the Board’s chairman. He said that, during the search that eventually selected College President Phil Hanlon, Helman was well-informed about all the candidates.
Helman’s experience matching CEOs with companies were beneficial during the presidential search, dean of graduate studies and engineering professor Brian Pogue, who also served on the search committee, said in an email.
“He was relentless in his search for the perfect fit for Dartmouth,” Pogue said.
Helman said he interviewed over 100 potential candidates, and that it was obvious to him that Hanlon was the best choice. He agrees with Hanlon’s focus on affordability, continued academic excellence and the improvement of student life, Helman said.
“Given that Bill was the one to find Phil,” Pogue said in an email, “I am certain that the two of them will get along ideally and will complement each other to ensure that key decisions can be made and things get done.”
Helman said that, compared to his time at the College, students are more career-focused and face greater pressure to earn good grades.
Paul Elmlinger ’80, a friend of Helman’s while at the College, said his inclusiveness and ability to listen make him a strong leader.
“He had an uncanny ability to be the type of guy you wanted to hang around with socially but who also struck you even back then as somebody who was a leader, both during and who would be a leader after he got out of Dartmouth,” Elmlinger said. “He had a natural style that compelled people to listen to him.”
Helman’s career path shows he is creative and unafraid of taking risks, Elmlinger added.
“He is a traditionalist in many ways,” Elmlinger said, “but at the same time he is never one to be bound by or have his decision narrowed by tradition.”
Helman said his goal is to create “an improved student life, one that does not hold Dartmouth back, but allows it to reach its full potential.”
He added that he tries to return to Hanover at least twice a month to get the pulse of campus by speaking with as many people as possible, whether they are students or faculty, about their vision for an ideal Dartmouth.
“We can all agree that Dartmouth is terrific,” Helman said. “But we might also agree that Dartmouth can be more terrific.”
