Bruce Karsh Named to Duke Universitys Board of Trustees
Bruce Karsh, a member of Duke University's class of 1977, will begin his term Dec. 1
DURHAM, N.C. -- Bruce A. Karsh, president of a Los Angeles-based financial management firm, has been elected to Duke University's Board of Trustees, the university's 37-member governing body.
His appointment becomes effective Dec. 1.
Karsh graduated in 1977 with highest honors from Duke, where he received a bachelor's degree with distinction in economics and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He went on to earn a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Karsh is also a director of the Duke University Management Company (DUMAC) and currently serves as vice chair. DUMAC is responsible for managing the university's endowment and other investment assets.
"My board colleagues and I are delighted that Bruce will be joining the Duke University Trustees," said board chair Peter Nicholas. "He brings a great deal of knowledge and experience that will help in our many responsibilities, especially in our financial stewardship of the university."
Karsh is president and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, LLC, an institutional money management firm formed in 1995 with $27.5 billion of assets under management. Prior to co-founding Oaktree, Karsh was a managing director of Trust Company of the West and its affiliate, TCW Asset Management Company, and he was the portfolio manager of the TCW Special Credits Funds for seven years. Before joining TCW, he worked as assistant to the chairman of Sun Life Insurance Company of America and of SunAmerica, Inc., its parent.
Karsh also has been an attorney with the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers. Following law school, he served as a judicial clerk to Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy when Justice Kennedy was a federal circuit court judge.
Among his civic and related activities, Karsh serves as a director on the boards of Littelfuse, Inc., a leading global company in the circuit protection industry; Right to Play (formerly Olympic Aid), a non-profit organization committed to improving the lives of the most disadvantaged children and their communities through athletics; and The Painted Turtle, a non-profit organization that is building and will operate a camp in Los Angeles for children with life-threatening diseases.
Karsh succeeds Lanty Smith of Greensboro, N.C., who resigned as a trustee in June after he was elected to the board of trustees of The Duke Endowment. Founded in 1924 by James Buchanan Duke, The Duke Endowment is one of the nation's largest private foundations. University trustees are prohibited from serving simultaneously on The Duke Endowment's board.