Advance, Cornell ILR School's publication for alumni and friends.
Issue link: https://advance.epubxp.com/i/132084
King-Shaws Laying Tracks for Those Who Follow "W hen I was a student at Cornell, I remember thinking, 'One day, I want to be able to put my name on something so that those who come behind will know I was here,'" says Rubén Jose King-Shaw, Jr. '83. King-Shaw, who has also served on the Cornell Council, is in his second term as chair of the ILR Advisory Council. "As chair, I've come to be a champion of fundraising for the ILR School, and for Cornell in general," he says. King-Shaw, managing partner and chief investment officer at Mansa Capital Management LLC, fulfilled that 30-year On his agenda is "supporting efforts to promise to himself in 2012, when he and his ensure that the ILR experience continues wife gave the naming gift for ILR's Ithacato be current and consistent, and anticibased conference cenpatory of the changter, now known as ing world." "Nowhere else is there a Patricia G. and Rubén collection of students, faculty, "Nowhere else is Jose King-Shaw, Jr. researchers and resources Hall. The King-Shaws there a collection of have also contributed students, faculty, dedicated to the continued endowed funds for researchers and evolution of work." diversity initiatives resources dedicated and scholarships. to the continued evolution of work," he says. "We have an obliThose aren't King-Shaw's only gifts to his gation to preserve the school's special alma mater: He has been equally generous character and that special calling." in providing leadership and service. In May 2011, King-Shaw was elected to King-Shaw's service to the university began Cornell's Board of Trustees. He serves on in the late eighties, when he joined and the board's finance and audit committees. later became president of the Cornell Club of Miami and the Florida Keys. "At the end of my term on the board, I hope I will have had an impact on making "I appreciated my Cornell experience and the 'any person, any study' vision of graduated with the real sense that I had Cornell more real, better preserved and accomplished something special," says more broadly applicable to all," he says. King-Shaw, who splits his time between his "Today, we think of 'any person, any Boston and Miami residences. "So, I was study' as a throwaway line. When it was very open to building a closer and perhaps uttered in 1865, it was revolutionary. different kind of relationship as an alumnus." "The people who came before me laid down the tracks that I got to ride on," he King-Shaw, whose career has taken him says. "I've always felt this awareness that I from advising governors to advising the didn't get here alone, and I'm not the first two most recent U.S. presidents, says he to get here. So, for me, it's important that will always be grateful to ILR for making it my wife and I lay down tracks for those all possible. who follow." "The ILR School introduced me to issues of health care policy 20 years before they became 'cool,'" he says. "My career as a private equity investor and the work I've done in public service are a direct result of that. I've been fortunate to leverage this knowledge base around something I care so passionately about, and to work with some of the nation's leaders to try to get it right." ILR ALUMNI MAGAZINE A new generation has started to lay tracks of its own. Daughter Alexandra "Lexi" King-Shaw is a sophomore at ILR, where she serves on the executive board of the Minority ILR Student Organization. 11 11