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Charles R. Conn

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Jump to navigationJump to search Charles R. Conn (born 22 August 1961) is Warden of Rhodes House, Oxford, the global CEO of the Rhodes Trust and the Rhodes Scholarships. His career has also spanned time in Silicon Valley as a technology entrepreneur and working as an environmental foundation manager and grant maker. He sits on the boards or advisory committees of Patagonia, the Arcadia Foundation, the Oxford Internet Institute and the Atlantic Salmon Foundation.

Education.
Conn studied at Boston University's University Professors Program before reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Balliol College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar from Massachusetts. Conn worked at the Boston Consulting Group and gained an MBA at Harvard Business School.

Career.
Conn was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he focused on growth strategies and energy.[3]He was a co-author of 'Staircases to growth' in McKinsey Quarterly and 'Revolution in Upstream Oil & Gas' in the same publication. He co-founded Citysearch in 1995, and in 1997 the California Software Industry Council named him Entrepreneur of the Year. Conn oversaw the merger with Ticketmaster, acquisition of Match.com and the company’s public share offering. He became Chairman of Ticketmaster Online-Citysearch in 2001.

Conservation Work.
Conn subsequently worked for more than a decade as Senior Advisor to the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation[2] where his conservation projects included the preservation of wild salmon ecosystems and the Palmyra Atoll research station. He has published articles on conservation and conservation biology, including in the 25th anniversary edition (December 2011) of the journal Conservation Biology, and on the advantages of Foundations adopting a long-term perspective.

Other notable work.
He is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. Conn also sits or has sat on several company and non-profit boards or advisory committees, including Patagonia, the Arcadia Foundation, and the Atlantic Salmon Foundation.[2] He acts as an adviser and investor in start-up technology companies that focus on clean energy solutions and related areas.

Rhodes Trust
Conn became Warden and CEO of the Rhodes Trust in June 2013. He is the second Rhodes Scholar, the first American and to hold this position, and the first Warden of Rhodes House not to have served previously on the University of Oxford faculty.

During his time as CEO of Rhodes House, Charles Conn led a project to transform the Rhodes Trust into a 21st century institution. This involved raising more than £250m to secure the endowment for existing country scholarships and expand the Scholarships globally. During this time the annual number of Scholars increased from 83 to 101, adding China, UAE, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palesetine, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, East Africa, West Africa and new global Rhodes Scholarships. During Conn’s tenure, the Trust deepened the Scholarship experience with a character, service and leadership program, and re-vitalized its intellectual mission and sense of lifelong fellowship with a convening program of current and alumni fellows including an annual forums on healthcare, new ventures, ethical leadership, education, climate change, LGBTQ rights and other topics. The Trust also worked to build a fellowship of fellowships and pioneered several new partnerships, including with The Atlantic Philanthropies to set up the Atlantic Institute and with the Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation to establish Schmidt Science Fellows.[16] undefined Other partnerships included the Said Foundation, Templeton Foundation and Schwarzman Scholars program. *

Since moving to Oxford, Conn has become a Trustee of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa, and an Advisory Board Member of the Oxford Internet Institute.[17] In January 2014, he became a Professorial Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford University.[18]

Conn announced his retirement as Warden of Rhodes House for the end of his five year term, in August 2018.[19]

Personal life
Conn was married to Beverley Robertson,[20] they have three children together.

His current partner is Ms. Camilla Borg,[21] who is a member of the staff of Rhodes House as Director of Special Projects.[22]