The Graduate and Professional Student Council elected Ben Kennedy Young Trustee at its general assembly meeting Tuesday night.
Kennedy, Trinity '00 and a second-year student at the Fuqua School of Business, was elected from a pool of three finalists after addressing the council and answering members' questions.
He will serve a three-year term on the University's Board of Trustees, assuming full voting privileges for the final two years.
"One of my goals is to make sure this position is valued by the Board of Trustees," Kennedy said after his election was announced. "I hope that my contributions to the Board will only enhance the value they see in the position so that it can be a sustainable job."
Kennedy, president of the Duke MBA Association, cited his extensive experience with Duke and in the business world during his speech.
"When I came here as an undergrad, I fell in love with the place, and I became actively involved," he said. During that time, he served as Duke Student Government vice president for academic affairs and was on the academic affairs committee of the Board of Trustees.
Kennedy told the the council he would be able to employ his undergraduate experience to gain credibility with the Board, especially when presenting dissenting arguments.
He added that he will draw on his understanding of issues and operations in Duke's undergraduate sphere to discuss options the Board will consider for the University.
Following his graduation, Kennedy served as a strategic research consultant, benchmarking analyst and senior analyst for Corporate Executive Board from 2000 to 2005 and summer consultant to Bain & Company in 2006. Five years after graduating, Kennedy made his way back to his alma mater.
"I then chose to return, and once again to get actively involved," he said. He said his experience in the business world will enable him to ask the difficult questions. The setting of a board meeting will entail an assertiveness that he has had less opportunity to pursue at work, he added.
During his speech, Kennedy related a conversation he had with Roy Bostock, former member of the Board of Trustees. He said Bostock told him that many Young Trustees fall victim to maintaining too narrow a focus on Duke, and Kennedy said that as Young Trustee he would seek a holistic view of the University.
Kennedy said he plans on meeting with each dean of the University's departments and students from diverse groups from each of the graduate and professional schools in order to develop a comprehensive view of Duke.
As the newest Young Trustee, he will draw on these meetings to inform his goals, he said. In his application, Kennedy listed attracting and retaining the best undergraduate and graduate students and engaging in real-world issues as key to Duke's success moving forward.
Kennedy was elected under a new process introduced this year, and Audrey Ellerbee, fifth-year graduate student in biomedical engineering and GPSC president, said she was glad the selection committee had had the foresight to implement the "town-hall style" component of the process.
Intended to foster conversation among the candidates and shorten the meeting, question-and-answer segments were consolidated to include all three candidates at once.
Although Ellerbee said she would have liked the council to have had a private session with each of the candidates, she thought the process went well.
"It was an improvement over previous years," she said.
Kennedy told the council in his application, during his speech and during the question-and-answer session that he has long loved Duke.
"I'm always going to be a part of this University," he said.
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