Kenneth E. Olivier, investment manager, joins Stanford's Board of Trustees

By Kathleen J. Sullivan

Kenneth E. Olivier, a Stanford alumnus and former leader of a San Francisco investment company, will join the Stanford University Board of Trustees on Dec. 1. (Courtesy Kenneth E. Olivier)

Kenneth E. Olivier, '74, chairman emeritus of Dodge & Cox, an investment management company headquartered in San Francisco, was recently elected to the Stanford University Board of Trustees.

He will begin a five-year term on Dec. 1.

Steven A. Denning, chair of the Board of Trustees, said he was pleased to welcome Olivier to the board.

"I have had the opportunity to work with him on the Stanford Management Company Board in recent years and have seen his deep devotion and commitment to Stanford," Denning said. "His extensive experience in finance and management will benefit the board and Stanford today and in the years ahead. Ken and his wife, Angela Nomellini, have long been dedicated friends of the university."

Olivier is a former chairman and chief executive officer of Dodge & Cox. Also, he served as a trustee and chairman of the Dodge & Cox Funds and as a member of various investment policy committees.

Olivier began his career at Dodge & Cox in 1979. The company, which was founded in the midst of the Great Depression, is an independent investment management firm owned entirely by active employees. Dodge & Cox manages equity, fixed income, and balanced separate accounts and mutual funds for individuals and institutions.

As of Sept. 30, Dodge & Cox had slightly more than $250 billion in assets under management.

At Stanford, Olivier is a member of the board of directors of the Stanford Management Company, which invests and manages the university's endowment and other financial assets. He also is a member of the advisory board of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

Olivier earned a bachelor's degree in political science at Stanford in 1974. He earned a law degree at the University of California Hastings College of Law in 1977, followed by an MBA at Harvard Business School in 1979.

He has been an active volunteer for his Stanford class reunions. He also served on the major gifts committee for Stanford's Campaign for Undergraduate Education, a five-year campaign (2000-2005) that raised more than $1 billion for a variety of university initiatives, including new undergraduate programs and scholarships.

Over the years, Olivier and his wife, Angela Nomellini, '75, have actively supported Stanford in many ways, including establishing a professorship in international studies, a professorship in educational technology in the Graduate School of Education, and a scholarship in athletics.

Currently, Olivier serves on the board of the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco, whose mission is to inspire and enable young people, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, to realize their full potential. He also serves on the board of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a global network of policy research centers whose goal is to advance the cause of peace. 

In addition, Olivier serves on the boards of Summer Search Silicon Valley, which helps low-income youth become college-educated leaders, and Trout Unlimited, which works to protect and restore North America's coldwater fisheries and their watersheds.

Olivier, who is a chartered investment counselor and a chartered financial analyst, is a past president of the Security Analysts of San Francisco.

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