Janet Yellen Joins the Salata Institute’s Inaugural Advisory Board

Former Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen will join the Harvard Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability as a member of a newly formed external advisory board, the organization announced last week.

According to the institute, Yellen and eight other climate policy and finance experts — including two executives from mining and steel companies — will advise the organization on its climate change research. Melanie P. Salata and Jean E. Salata, who donated $200 million to Harvard for the institute’s founding in 2022, will also serve on the board.

Yellen, who served as treasury secretary from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden, emphasized incorporating a climate change response in department policy, creating a Climate Hub and negotiating international climate finance initiatives.

Salata Institute Director James H. Stock wrote in an emailed statement that the institute decided to establish the board because “the climate challenge demands counsel from many corners.”

“We can increase the Institute’s impact by drawing climate-motivated individuals into the Institute’s orbit,” he wrote.

“Members of the Salata Institute Advisory Board (SIAB) serve as advisors, ambassadors, and supporters, advocating for the Institute’s mission and purpose within Harvard University and beyond,” he added.

In addition to Yellen and the Salatas, the board’s founding members include Perry Bellegarde, Board Chair of the First Nations Bank of Canada; former CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management David Blood; fundraising expert Jennifer Caldwell, former head of marketing at The Nature Conservancy; John H.N. Fisher ’81, co-founder of the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson; Andrew Forrest, founder of the Western Australian iron mining company Fortescue, Carbon Direct Vice Chairwoman Nili Gilbert ’99, Chairman and CEO of Primavera Capital Fred Z. Hu; and Aditya Mittal, the CEO of ArcelorMittal, a steel manufacturing company.

According to Stock, the external advisory board members are expected to “serve as international ambassadors” of Harvard’s climate work.

The board’s members, many of whom have served as professional fundraisers and sat on the board of charitable organizations, will advise the institute’s leadership in “strategy and philanthropy,” Stock wrote.

“They help identify opportunities for Harvard to find real-world solutions to various problems that stem from a complex and mounting crisis,” he added.

—Staff writer Iris J. Xue can be reached at iris.xue@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @iris_j_xue.