After graduating from the Hotel and Johnson Schools, Bill, a Pittsburgh native, moved to Seattle to join the hospitality practice of the accounting and consulting firm KPMG. After four years there, he was hired away by his client Westin Hotels and Resorts, where he became a vice president. After the sale of Westin in 1987, he was recruited to join a biotech startup for a year, and then in 1988 joined then public software company, Aldus Corporation, as a senior executive, helping to grow their annual revenue from $30 to $250 million over five years. He helped engineer and manage a merger of the company with Adobe in 1994 and then left to start his own firm to help entrepreneurs raise venture funding. After three years, he and two other partners started Voyager Capital in 1997, a venture firm that invests in digital media, digital marketing, and software companies. Voyager is currently on its fourth fund, with approximately $500 million under management.
Bill has been an active Cornell volunteer in Seattle for many years. In 2012 he was nominated to run, and was elected, to a four-year term as an alumni trustee. He recalls that one of the other nominees, Meredith Rosenberg, was on a panel with him at a Cornell entrepreneurship conference. Ironically, both of them had been told they had been elected, but since the information had not been publicly announced, each was in the dark about the other’s having been elected. They’ve come to be good friends through their Board work.
Quarterly Trustee meetings are large affairs. In addition to the 64 voting members, all the key administrators and deans attend, so there are upwards of 80-90 people at a meeting. Typically, the Trustees review any matters requiring final Board approval (e.g., tuition increases), discuss major issues (e.g., divestment from fossil fuel companies), receive high-level summaries of University operations, and hear reports on topics such as investment returns, construction progress, student life issues, etc.
Most of the real work of the Trustees occurs in the smaller committees that meet about five times a year, to which Trustees are assigned based on their experience and interest. Bill is on the Finance, Audit, and Student Affairs committees and also served on the Alumni Affairs committee at one time. Given his background in finance, the first two committees are natural fits. The finance committee reviews the annual operating and capital budgets and tuition proposals, discusses aspects of the University’s business model and the implications for funding key initiatives and programs. The audit committee meets with the University’s senior financial staff and the outside auditors, and approves the audit results and risk mitigation plans.
Bill noted that the general University business model is challenged at present. Research funding, especially from the federal government, has been cut back, as has state funding for the statutory colleges. National concern about rising student debt increases pressure not to raise tuition, or to keep such increases as low as possible. Donations to Cornell continue to be strong, but they don’t fully offset the declines in other funding sources. Another key financial challenge is paying for deferred maintenance, since major donors usually want to see their names on buildings, but have less inclination to fund the upkeep of the buildings.
One of the developments that could impact the business model is distance learning through initiatives such as eCornell. The Johnson School, the Hotel School, and the College of Industrial and Labor Relations are active in eCornell. (Bill is on the advisory boards of eCornell and the Johnson School, and is also on the advisory board of the University of Washington’s Extension Program.) It’s a good way to leverage, repurpose, and remarket content developed for in-person courses, and has been effective in delivering continuing education to industry.
One of the things that surprised Bill was the significance of Weill/Cornell Medicine (the recently announced new name for the medical school). It consumes nearly half the University budget, which perhaps isn’t so surprising when one considers its associated hospital facilities and its New York City location. Cornell Tech is now also a significant part of the capital budget, as its buildings continue to rise. And Cornell is a large landowner, as every county in New York has an extension service, which is part of the College or Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Several things have stood out for Bill as being the most interesting aspects of his three years on the Board. One is getting to know his really high-caliber, bright, connected fellow Trustees, be they students, faculty, employees, or alumni. Another is understanding the complexity and scope of the University and its present and future challenges. The work of the Finance Committee is interesting because it ties everything together, examines the business drivers of the University as a multi-billion-dollar business, and deals with critical tradeoffs in resources and priorities. The Student Affairs Committee is interesting because it offers a perspective on what concerns the current generation: including social, housing, Greek, gender and sexual harassment issues, and so on. Understanding current student attitudes and concerns helps Bill in his business (and vice versa), as Voyager invests with young entrepreneurs. Finally, serving on the Board during the early days of Cornell Tech is particularly exciting for Bill given his tech background, as it represents an opportunity for the University to play a significant role in impacting the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.