Cornell President David J. Skorton has been elected the incoming vice chairman of the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF). As vice chair, he will become the chair after a two-year term. Skorton was elected by BHEF's membership at its summer 2006 meeting.

"I am convinced that leveraging the combined strengths of business and higher education will make a real difference," Skorton said. "Together, we can have a greater impact in a number of critical areas, such as K-12 outreach, than we could hope for by working separately."

BHEF is a national organization composed of Fortune 500 CEOs, chief executives of leading colleges and universities, and foundation executives. The forum addresses educational issues of strategic importance to both business and higher education and works to influence public policy on those issues. The organization is a leading voice in the public-policy debate regarding the need to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics education; it recently launched an initiative to improve student achievement in preK-12 education, particularly in science and mathematics. Skorton became a member of BHEF while president of the University of Iowa.

"David Skorton's role at the helm of a major Ivy League research institution and his expertise in medical research equip him to be a formidable leader of BHEF as it pursues major initiatives to improve math and science education in the U.S.," said outgoing chair Mark Wrighton, chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis.

Skorton, who assumed office as the 12th president of Cornell on July 1, holds faculty appointments in internal medicine and pediatrics at Weill-Cornell Medical College in New York City and in biomedical engineering at the College of Engineering in Ithaca. A seasoned administrator, board-certified cardiologist, biomedical researcher, musician and advocate for the arts and humanities, he was president of the University of Iowa for three years, beginning March 2003, and a faculty member at Iowa for 26 years.