Stanford’s Board of Trustees elects two new members

The Stanford University Board of Trustees recently elected two members: Felix J. Baker, a managing partner of Baker Brothers Investments, and Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo! and founder of AME Cloud Ventures, who served as a trustee from 2005 to 2015.

They will begin five-year terms on October 1.

Jeff Raikes, who took office July 1 as chair of the Board of Trustees, said Baker and Yang will bring unique and invaluable perspectives to the board.

“Felix Baker has extensive expertise in the field of biomedicine,” Raikes said. “He has also demonstrated a strong volunteer commitment to the university as an adviser to Stanford’s biosciences institutes, which are devoted to unlocking the mysteries of the human brain and body, and generating scientific advances that will ultimately improve human health.

“Jerry Yang, who is an exceptional Silicon Valley entrepreneur, has a long history of service to Stanford. He served as a trustee from 2005 to 2015, played key roles in university fundraising campaigns and as an adviser to Stanford Engineering and Stanford Earth. Today he is serving as an adviser to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program. Jerry and his wife, Akiko Yamazaki, another Stanford alumnus, are known for their deep philanthropic commitment to Stanford.”

Raikes said Baker and Yang, who earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at Stanford, will also bring an appreciation for the university’s commitment to teaching, learning and research to the board’s deliberations.

“Our board will benefit greatly from their expertise and experience,” he said.

Felix Baker

Baker, who began his career as a fund manager in 1994, co-founded Baker Brothers Investments in 2000 with his brother, Julian. The investment firm, which is headquartered in New York City, manages long-term investment funds for major endowments and foundations.

At Stanford, Baker serves on an advisory council that oversees three interdisciplinary biosciences institutes: Stanford Bio-X, Stanford Neurosciences Institute and Stanford Chemistry, Engineering & Medicine for Human Health (ChEM-H).

Baker has been involved in Stanford’s interdisciplinary sciences programs since 2003, including serving on the Bio-X Advisory Council. He also served on the task force of Stanford Neurosciences Institute and Stanford ChEM-H, which will share a state-of-the art facility that is expected to open in 2019.

Baker is a Stanford alumnus who earned a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1991 and a doctorate in immunology in 1998. He is an active volunteer for his class reunions.

Currently, Baker serves on the board of directors of Seattle Genetics, Genomic Health, Alexion Pharmaceuticals and several private companies. He previously served on the board of directors of several other biotechnology companies, including Synageva, BioPharma, Ardea Biosciences and AnorMed Inc. Over the years, Baker and his firm have played an important role in the funding and development of numerous drugs to treat unmet medical needs in multiple therapeutic areas.

Baker’s father, Keith, is a professor of early modern European history at Stanford, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1988.

Jerry Yang

Yang, who co-founded Yahoo! in 1995, served on its board and as a member of its executive team until 2012. He served as chief executive officer of Yahoo! from 2007 to 2009.

In 2012, he founded AME Cloud Ventures, which invests in seed-stage to later-stage technology companies that are focused on gathering or creating unique data at every stage of the data stack – from infrastructure all the way to applications, mobile technology and sensors. AME Cloud Ventures is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

At Stanford, Yang served on the Board of Trustees from 2005 to 2015, including as a vice chair. Currently, he is a member of the advisory board of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program and of the director’s advisory committee for the Cantor Arts Center. He also serves on the School of Engineering’s Accelerator Task Force.

Previously, Yang served as a co-chair of the Campaign for Undergraduate Education (2000-2005) and on the executive committee of The Stanford Challenge (2006-2011), which raised $6.2 billion for a new model of research and teaching on the environment, human health, international affairs and other issues. Yang also served on the advisory council of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and of the School of Engineering, and served on the task force of the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences.

As philanthropists, Yang and his wife, Akiko Yamazaki, ’90, have been supportive of many areas of the university, including naming the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building – best known on campus as Y2E2. In addition, they established an undergraduate scholarship fund, contributed to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program, and supported Stanford Athletics, Bing Overseas Studies and the Bing Concert Hall.

At Stanford, Yang was also involved in endowing the Yahoo! Founders Professorship and the Filo/Yang Faculty Fund.

Yang, who earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in electrical engineering at Stanford in 1990, has also served as co-chair of his reunions for Reunion Homecoming.

Currently, Yang sits on the boards of Alibaba, Workday and Lenovo, and serves as a senior adviser and board observer of Didi Chuxing. He also serves as a director of the Monterey Peninsula Foundation and a trustee of Dunhuang Foundation (USA). He is a member of the Committee of 100 and the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served on the boards of Cisco Systems and Asian Pacific Fund of San Francisco.