Bill Poorvu
Bill Poorvu is an entrepreneur and educator with more than sixty years of experience in his fields. He holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard University. He was Harvard Business School’s first adjunct professor and first adjunct professor to be given emeritus status, as well as an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. There, he was instrumental in the creation and development of its real estate courses. He is the author of The Real Estate Game and Creating and Growing Real Estate Wealth.
In his not-for-profit activities, he is a Life Trustee of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the National Public Radio Foundation. He also serves on the University Council of Yale University, as well as Yale and the Carnegie Corporation’s investment committees.
Bill has served on various government commissions, including the US State Department’s Overseas Presence Advisory Panel, and was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2013. He currently chairs the Advisory Committee of the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Lia Poorvu
Lia Poorvu received a BA from Wellesley College and an AM in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University. Subsequently, she taught French language, literature, and civilization for forty years, ending her career at Tufts University after twenty-five years in 2001. Lia has been involved with various cultural, social service, and educational boards including Wellesley College, Schlesinger Library Council, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston Baroque, Adolescent Consultation Services, WGBH, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Partnership. She was awarded the Palmes Académiques: Chevalier in 1990 and Officier in 2008 for creating and directing a program awarding internships at the Council of Europe for ten years. In addition, she was a recipient of the 2016 Massachusetts Governor’s Award in the Humanities.
Lia’s love for the arts and humanities comes from her parents and grandparents who embodied the joy of teaching and learning. Through their lives, they imbued her with a deep appreciation of the value of history, which informs her daily.