About UChicago Argonne, LLC
Board of Governors
B. Joseph White
- Member, UChicago Argonne, LLC Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory
- President, University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Board of Trustees approved White as the University's 16th president on Nov. 11, 2004; he took office Feb. 1, 2005. University of Illinois President B. Joseph White , 58, has spent nearly three decades affiliated with the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor , where he received his doctorate in business administration in 1975. He served there as interim president, dean of the business school and faculty member.
He is the Wilbur J. Pierpont Collegiate Professor, professor of business administration, and research professor in the Life Sciences Institute at U-M, leading the development of the Project for a Positive Healthcare Future. The project focuses on improvements in efficacy, patient and provider empowerment and efficiencies that can result from advances in biology, engineering and information science applied to the practice of medicine.
White is a native of Detroit who was reared in Kalamazoo. He earned his bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, in international economics from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1969 and an MBA, with distinction, from Harvard University in 1971. He first joined the U-M faculty as assistant professor of organizational behavior and industrial relations in 1975; was associate professor from 1978-80; associate dean in the U-M Business School 1987-90, interim dean 1990-91; president of the U-M William Davidson Institute 1993- 2001; dean of the Business School 1991 -2001, and interim president in 2002. The William Davidson Institute is a center of expertise on economic and business development in emerging market economies.
While he was dean of the U-M Business School for a decade, the school achieved a number of top rankings for its programs, increased its annual fund-raising from $5.5 million to $26.5 million and grew the value of its endowment from $35 million to $260 million.
White also has private-sector experience, including six years at Cummins Engine Co., Inc., 1981-87, first as vice president for management development and then as vice president for personnel and public affairs. On a leave of absence from U-M in 2003, White assisted the Fred Alger Management Co., an asset management firm in New York City, in its recovery from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. Alger lost many of its investment team members in the attacks.
White is an independent director or trustee of several companies, including Equity Residential, headquartered in Chicago; Gordon Food Service; Kaydon Corporation; and Kelly Services. He is a director of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and the Committee of Management of the William L. Clements Library. He has chaired the boards of several large healthcare organizations, including the University of Michigan Health System, St. Joseph Hospital in Ann Arbor and the Catherine McAuley Health System.
He has written, taught and lectured extensively on leadership, management and organizational matters. He received an honorary degree from Wabash College in 2003.
He and his wife, Mary White, are the parents of two grown children and have two grandchildren.
