Gaston Caperton, the former governor of West Virginia, will be the next president of the College Board, the organization’s trustees announced last week.
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He will be the first person with a background in public policy and business rather than academe to serve in that post in the College Board’s 100-year history, said Peter Stanley, a member of the board of trustees and the chairman of the search committee.
The New York City-based College Board, which sponsors the SAT, the nation’s most widely used college-entrance exam, is a national, nonprofit membership organization of schools, colleges, and other educational institutions.
The decision to hire a nonacademic does not signal a shift in the College Board’s priorities, Mr. Stanley said. But he added that Mr. Caperton possesses a “very, very attractive ability to work in the public-policy domain.”
“He has a deep knowledge of education,” Mr. Stanley said. “He’s a man with a proven track record.”
Mr. Caperton, 59, who founded and currently runs the Institute on Education and Government at Teachers College, Columbia University, will succeed Donald M. Stewart, who has headed the College Board for 12 years. Mr. Caperton will assume the title of president July 15.
Before becoming governor, Mr. Caperton was a fellow and instructor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He owns and operates a furniture plant with his son.
‘The Right Vision’
The former governor “has got the right vision for the College Board,” Thomas W. Payzant, the chairman of the organization’s board of trustees and the superintendent of the 64,000-student Boston public schools, said in an interview. “He brings significant experience from the private sector and teaching experience at the academic level to the College Board at a time when we need a range of experience to lead us to the next millennium.”
In an interview last week, Mr. Caperton offered few details of his plans for the College Board.
“One of my top priorities the first year I’m in office is to develop an inspiring strategy and clear and measurable goals to move this organization forward,” he said.
