Mark Gorenberg ’76 has been elected the next chair of the MIT Corporation, the Institute’s board of trustees. He will assume the role on July 1.
Gorenberg, the founder and managing director of Zetta Venture Partners, succeeds Corporation Life Member Diane Greene SM ’78, who has served as chair since 2020.
“It’s a great honor. I’m very humbled to work with some of the most accomplished people that I have ever met,” Gorenberg says. “MIT is probably the best place on Earth for those of us who are curious and want to keep learning and helping the world solve problems.”
The chair of the MIT Corporation presides over all Corporation meetings and chairs the Executive Committee. The chair is a member (ex officio) of the Corporation Development Committee and the Governance and Nominations Committee, and a director (ex officio) of the Investment Management Company Board.
“From my very first Zoom meeting with MIT’s presidential search committee, I was taken with Mark Gorenberg’s insight, warmth and enthusiasm for MIT. Every interaction with him since has reinforced this impression of a natural leader who understands the Institute deeply and is extremely effective at inspiring others to support it too,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth says. “I look forward to working with Mark on the challenges ahead.”
“Mark loves MIT and has served the Institute in nearly every possible capacity, including the MIT executive committee and on the recent presidential search committee,” Greene says. “I know he’ll bring his warm and thoughtful leadership to the role of chair, and ensure support and continuity for the president, the Corporation, and all of MIT.”
Gorenberg joined the Corporation in 2001, becoming a life member in 2012. He has served on many of the Corporation’s committees, including the MIT Investment Committee (MITIMCo), the Executive Committee, the 2022 Presidential Search Committee, and the Development Committee. He has also served on the visiting committees for the departments of Linguistics and Philosophy, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Political Science, and Mechanical Engineering, as well as the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society.
A significant force in MIT’s fundraising activities, Gorenberg has participated in multiple committees and campaigns over the last two decades. He co-chaired the Campaign for a Better World, which raised $6.24 billion to help the people of MIT tackle humanity’s urgent global challenges. He also served on the steering committee for the Campaign 2000 and co-chaired the Campaign for Students. He was on the board of directors of the MIT Club of Northern California for 14 years and currently serves on the steering committees for the MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation and the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship.
After earning a bachelor’s degree from MIT in electrical engineering and master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota and Stanford University, Gorenberg went on to acquire over 30 years of venture capital experience, funding and serving on the boards of multiple successful startups and public companies. He is the founder and managing director of Zetta Venture Partners, which has invested in over 60 companies to date in machine-learning infrastructure and artificial intelligence-first applications. Prior to his career in venture capital, he was a software executive, entrepreneur, and a member of the original SparcStation team at Sun Microsystems.
In 2011, he was appointed by President Barack Obama to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a 21-person advisory group of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers.
Gorenberg aims to bring his diverse experiences to bear as he helps MIT continue its work as an institution with a global focus, dedicated to solving the world’s most difficult, urgent problems. “Now we’re moving to this era where MIT is not just a campus with an internet connection to the outside world, but a worldwide university that happens to have a campus,” he says.
He will become the Corporation’s chair just months after the inauguration of MIT’s 18th president, Sally Kornbluth.
“I’m very excited to have the opportunity to work with Sally Kornbluth and had the great pleasure of being on the Presidential Search Committee,” he says. “She is an incredible force and understands how to bring different people together and distill their views in a straightforward way.”
Gorenberg also credits his predecessor for her effectiveness over the last three years.
“I’m very humbled also to follow Diane Greene, who has been able to look clearly at MIT and accomplish a remarkable number of things,” he says. “For example, she was instrumental in working with the administration to tackle needs in computing, cybersecurity, and digital transformation. She will be a tough act to follow.”
