The Dartmouth College Board of Trustees elected Christine Burnley Bucklin '84 to its 16 member Board yesterday.
Bucklin of Manhattan Beach Ca., is currently Chief Operating Officer of CarsDirect.com, an online car buying service based in Culver City, Ca., that provides new automobiles and related products and services.
"There are few things in life I would find more exciting than being a Trustee at Dartmouth College," Bucklin said.
She will begin her term as an Alumni Trustee on June 10, following commencement. Bucklin will succeed William H. King Jr. '63, who has served on the Board since 1991 and was elected Chairman of the Board in 1999.
King, in his capacity as Chair of the Board, said in a College press release, "We're delighted that Christine will be joining the Board. Her breadth of business and leadership experience and here dedication to Dartmouth will be very valuable in the Board's work. We look forward to her contributions."
The Dartmouth Board of Trustees consists of the President of the College, the Governor of New Hampshire and 14 other members -- seven Charter Trustees and seven Alumni Trustees. The Charter Trustees are elected by the Board itself and the Alumni Trustees are nominated by an alumni committee and approved by the Board. All elected members serve five-year terms, and usually do not serve more than two terms.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Bucklin said she was surprised when the alumni committee asked her to enter the process and serve if elected.
After making careful considerations about her life and whether she would be able to handle the job, she decided to do it.
When she found out she was elected she felt, "thrill and honestly a bit of surprise."
The other two candidates for the position were Charles Nearburg '72 and Ben Wilson '73.
Bucklin praised both of them for their dedication to Dartmouth.
She said that, in general, we are lucky to have alumni willing to remain involved with the College. "Dartmouth alumni loyalty is the envy of every other institution."
Bucklin's goal is to leave the College a better place than when her term begins. She said the College and the Trustees have been doing this, since she believes that it is a better place now compared to when she was here.
"I am deeply honored to be chosen by the Dartmouth alumni, who are famous for loving their college, to assume the responsibility of preserving what is distinctive about Dartmouth while driving the changes that are needed for excellence in the decades ahead.
"Dartmouth is a better college today then when I attended it, and I hope to contribute to making it even better over the next five years," she said in a College press release.
As far as specific goals and programs are concerned, Bucklin said that she is ignorant of the complexities and details of the Trustee role, and so she does not want to jump the gun by declaring particular programs right away.
Bucklin earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Dartmouth. She graduated summa cum laude with Phi Beta Kappa honors and gave the Class of 1984's valedictory address.
While at the College she was an officer of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, a member of Paleopitus, elected twice to the Committee on Standards and Conduct and served as an intern to the then-President of the College David McLaughlin.
Since graduating she has volunteered as a Class Agent and enrollment interviewer.
As a freshmen at the College, Bucklin received the Katharine Brock Prize for loyalty to Dartmouth and its ideals. As a senior, she received the Class of 1936 Award as the outstanding woman graduate in her class.
After graduating from Dartmouth, Bucklin earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was the first woman to be valedictorian of a graduating class.
She spent more than 10 years working for McKinsey & Company as a management consultant and partner. She led McKinsey's sales force and channel management practice and was a core member of its automotive, retail and marketing practices. She also initiated and led the Adopt-a-School Program for McKinsey's L.A. office.
Bucklin then joined idealab!, an Internet incubator, where she was entrepreneur-in-residence and worked directly with CarsDirect.com, idealab!'s largest portfolio company, before actually working for CarsDirect.com.
Recently, she was named one of the top 100 women in the automotive industry by "Automotive News."
Bucklin has two young daughters and is married to Randolph Bucklin, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.
