The Board of Trustees of Art Center College of Design announced in a press release today that Robert C. Davidson, Jr. has been elected board chairman. Davidson is the first African-American to serve as board chairman at Art Center, and among the first African-Americans to assume board leadership of a member institution within the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design.
Davidson has served on the executive, audit, and governance committees and most recently as chair of Art Center’s presidential search committee which led to the appointment of Dr. Lorne M. Buchman as president.
Dr. Buchman stated, “I had the great privilege of getting to know Bob during the presidential search process. He proved to be deeply committed to Art Center and dedicated to helping me establish a clear vision for the College, engaging students, faculty and the entire Art Center community in imagining the future of art and design education.”
Davidson said, “It is an honor and a privilege to be asked to serve as board chairman for an institution as distinguished as Art Center. As the college celebrates its 80th anniversary, it is with a sense of excitement and renewed commitment that we will partner with Lorne to help Art Center achieve new levels of greatness.”
The president’s residence at Morehouse College is named in his honor, where he received an honorary Doctorate of Laws degree . Other honors include the Bennie Award for Leadership from Morehouse College, the Raoul Wallenberg Save the Children Award from the Shaare Zedek Medical Center Jerusalem, and Black Businessman of the Year from the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black MBA Association.
Davidson is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Surface Protection Industries, which he founded in 1978. He co-founded and served as vice president of the Urban National Corporation, a private venture capital firm that raised over $10 million for investments into minority-controlled businesses. He sits on the board of a number organizations, including Morehouse College, the White House Fellows Commission, and the University of Chicago Graduate School Advisory Council. He has been a director of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, Armory Center for the Arts, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the African-American Museum of Art, and other non-profits.
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