Past Recipients
Linda Koch Lorimer
2008 Award Recipient

Vice President of Yale University

Linda Koch Lorimer has been Vice President of the University since 1994. One of six Officers of the University reporting to the President, she has been tapped to lead a number of new ventures at the University, including the launch of the Office of New Haven Affairs, the Tercentennial Initiative, the Office of International Affairs and, earlier this year, the new Office of Digital Content. Her administrative areas of responsibility embrace Yale’s external relations (public affairs, alumni affairs, marketing and licensing, and internationalization) and an array of institutional functions ranging from corporate governance to safety and security.

One of a small number of women to have served on the boards of four major public corporations, Ms. Lorimer is currently the Lead Director of the McGraw-Hill Companies and a director of the Sprint/Nextel Corporation.

From 1986 to 1993, Ms. Lorimer was President of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. She was President of the Board of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, which represents over six hundred universities and colleges. She has served as the Vice Chair of the Board of the Center for Creative Leadership and as a director for more than twenty regional or national non-profit organizations. She has been awarded
four honorary degrees for her efforts to advance women and women’s education.

She has served as a member of the Yale Corporation, the University’s governing board, and held a series of administrative appointments at Yale from 1978 to 1986, including service as the youngest Associate Provost in the University’s history.

A graduate of the Yale Law School, she practiced law in New York City at Davis Polk & Wardwell, before returning to Yale. She is also a graduate of Hollins College, where she currently serves as a trustee.

She is married to Charles Ellis, the founder of Greenwich Associates, and she has two children – Kelly who works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Peter who is a senior at Duke University.