Mark Zuckerberg has kept relatively mum about antisemitism at Harvard — but he’s expected to break his silence on Friday as he endorses a Silicon Valley mogul to join a strong panel that supervises the embattled Ivy League university, On The Money has learned.
Sam Lessin — a tech investor and former Facebook worker who also happens to be married to The Information founder Jessica Lessin — is pushing for a spot on Harvard’s Board of Overseers, a gaggle of roughly 30 which is meant to keep an eye fixed on the Harvard Corporation and the university’s president.
On Friday, Lessin is slated to speak on a Zoom call at 6:30 p.m. ET with Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan concerning the way forward for Harvard and why the Facebook founder is supporting Lessin’s bid.
This will likely be the primary time Zuckerberg, who’s Jewish, has publicly discussed Harvard and the longer term of the college because the attacks on Israel.
“Antisemitism at Harvard is incredibly disappointing and an enormous problem,” Lessin told On The Money. “It needs to be solved nevertheless it’s also the canary within the coal mine when it comes to a free speech problem.”
![Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Ackman](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ackerman-harvard-zuckerberg-still2.jpg?w=1024)
After the Oct. 7 attacks, Lessin said he called Harvard “and said I wouldn’t be donating anymore until governance and administration improved and the campus was clearly putting academics first.”
“Most of my friends who did the identical left it at that, but I don’t think that’s enough,” Lessin added.
Lessin has already notched endorsements from Thrive Capital founder Josh Kushner, former Oscar Health CEO Mario Schlosser and former Zappos COO Alfred Lin in addition to executives from General Catalyst, Sequoia, Y Combinator, Bessemer, and Tiger Global.
Harvard’s Board of Overseers has these days develop into a point of interest of Pershing Square founder Bill Ackman, who’s nominating his own slate of candidates after leading a campaign against Claudine Gay, who resigned earlier this month.
The Board of Overseers is the college’s second-highest authority after the Harvard Corporation, with “the facility of consent to certain actions resembling the election of Corporation members” — they will likely be chargeable for approving or rejecting the college’s next president. Board members hold seats for six years.
![Sam Lessin](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/sam-lessin.jpg?w=683)
While the 4 candidates Ackman is pushing are all war veterans and under 40, they don’t have an understanding of the tech world, Lessin told On The Money.
The truth is, almost nobody involved in Harvard leadership seems to have a background in tech, he adds. That is at a time when artificial intelligence and social media have never been more essential — and majors like computer science and applied mathematics have never been more popular.
At the very least five members of the Board are leaving this 12 months — but under an arcane rule, only two latest appointees might be write-in candidates.
The opposite three could have to be nominated by Harvard’s alumni association.
The group might be bureaucratic, making it difficult to get latest blood onto the board.
The voting platform also might be glitchy, Lessin notes.
On Friday, Lessin and other write-in candidates expect to be told by Harvard officials what number of votes — out of the three,238 needed to get on the ballot — they’ve received before the Jan. 31 nomination deadline.
“My email inbox is filled with tons of of people that can’t work out how to arrange accounts,” Lessin said.
It’s unclear why Silicon Valley is so under-represented in Harvard leadership. A part of this has to do with Bay Area’s approach to business, “Silicon Valley is all about constructing latest stuff — they discount brand equity,” Lessin adds.
“In tech, I believe loads about platforms — we’d like trusted institutions like Harvard,” he adds.
Lessin also notes that Harvard’s alumni are more “decentralized” than those on the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School, a gaggle of financiers mostly based in Recent York who successfully ousted Liz Magill as president.
In fact, at the very least a handful of notable Harvard alums — like Zuckerberg and Bill Gates — never actually finished their degrees.
Reps for Harvard and Zuckerberg didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.