Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.

Benno Schmidt "is Chairman of the not-for-profit Council on Aid to Education, which provides assessment and strategic planning services to colleges and universities in the United States and around the world. CAE also is the leading source of information about private support for higher education in the United States.

"Schmidt also serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York, the largest urban public university in the world, and the third largest public university system in the United States. He headed Mayor Giuliani's Task Force on CUNY, and in 1999 wrote a widely-praised report which has been the blueprint for CUNY's extraordinary renaissance.

"Schmidt has been Chairman of Edison Schools since 1997 and served as Edison's chief executive officer from 1992 to 1998. Edison manages and provides curriculum, training, and assessment systems to public schools in the United States and the United Kingdom serving more than 100,000 students.

"President of Yale University from 1986 to 1992, Schmidt was known for his outspoken defense of freedom of expression and the values of liberal education. He had great success as a fundraiser, and during his presidency Yale's endowment had the highest rate of growth of all private universities. Schmidt launched one of the largest building programs in Yale's history, fashioned a model partnership between the university and the city of New Haven, and helped build a number of new interdisciplinary programs, especially in environmental sciences and policy and in international studies.

"Before Yale, Schmidt was the Dean of Columbia University Law School where in 1973 he became, in his fourth year on the faculty, one of the youngest tenured professors in Columbia's history. He was named Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law in 1982. He is a leading scholar of the First Amendment, of the history of race relations in American law, and of the history of the Supreme Court.

"Schmidt graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School. After law school, he served as law clerk to Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. He then spent two years in the Department of Justice before joining the Columbia Law School faculty.

"Schmidt serves on the board of the New York Historical Society and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and The American Academy of Arts and Sciences."

• Advisory Council, E.G. West Centre