Don Michael Randel

Don Randel has devoted his career to the performing arts, higher education, and philanthropy. During his tenure, Mellon launched innovative emergency response programs to help grantees weather the financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath.

Prior to his time at Mellon, Mr. Randel was the president of the University of Chicago, where he led efforts to strengthen the humanities and the arts on campus and facilitated a deeper connection with the City of Chicago. He served for 32 years as a faculty member at Cornell, where he was also provost, vice-provost, department chair, and associate dean and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Mr. Randel is a musicologist whose scholarly specialty is the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Spain and France.

Mr. Randel has served as the editor of the Journal of the American Musicology Society as well as numerous musicology reference books.