Anne Meinig Smalling ’87 was elected on Tuesday as the next chair of the Cornell Board of Trustees, succeeding Kraig Kayser MBA ’84. She will be the first woman to serve as chair, and her three-year term will begin on July 1.
Smalling has served as a trustee since 2017. She is currently the chief executive officer and managing partner of HM International, LLC, a privately owned managing and manufacturing company that acquires and invests in industrial product businesses. The company specializes in the distribution of food service, natural gas and more.
“We have much to be proud of at Cornell and much to share about all this university does to build knowledge and make the world a better place,” Smalling told the Cornell Chronicle.
Her father, Peter Meinig ’61 BME ’62, previously served as a trustee from 1991 to 2002 and as chairman emeritus from 2002 to 2011. During his term, Cornell students and faculty accused him of holding a conflict of interest when the University began considering whether it should lease land in the Marcellus Shale to gas drilling companies. This was primarily due to Meinig’s previous position on the Board of Directors of Williams Companies, one of the nation’s largest natural gas companies.
At least 74 students, faculty members and members of the community signed a letter requesting that Meinig recuse himself from any decision-making in the leasing deliberation. The University denied that there was any conflict of interest because they are “not engaged in any contractual transaction with any company in which Mr. Meinig has a financial interest,” wrote Deputy University Spokesperson Simeon Moss ’73 in an email to The Sun in February 2010.
Meinig died in 2017. Smalling told the Cornell Chronicle that if he were alive today, he would be “pretty proud” of her election.
Smalling will replace Kayser, who served one three-year term as chair and serves on the Board of Directors of Moog, a weapons manufacturing company.
Last semester, he was also accused of having a conflict of interest as the University consistently rejected calls for divestment from weapons manufacturers involved in the Israel-Hamas War and disciplined students involved in pro-divestment protests.
“The University Board of Trustees is responsible for strategic management of all investable funds,” according to Cornell University’s LinkedIn page.
The price of Moog’s shares has nearly doubled since the Israel-Palestine conflict started in 2023, with Chief Executive Officer Pat Roche citing “ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East” as the reason for the increase in revenue. Kayser has served on Moog’s Board of Directors since 1998 — an involvement that student activists criticized in statements to The Sun. The Sun’s Editorial Board in November 2024 called for Kayser’s resignation from the Cornell Board of Trustees.
Kayser called Smalling an “outstanding choice” for chair, telling the Cornell Chronicle, “Anne has demonstrated over decades of service to Cornell a commitment to our land-grant mission and core values.”
The Meinig family is one of Cornell’s most generous donors, funding the Nancy E. and Peter C. Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, the upcoming Meinig Fieldhouse Project, several endowed professor positions and programs like the Meinig Family Cornell National Scholars. The family was also granted the 2022 Cornell Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award.
The connection between the Meinig family and Cornell Engineering dates back to her grandfather, Carl Meinig ’31 BEE ’33.
Smalling currently leads the Board of Trustees’s Executive Committee and serves on other committees that oversee board composition and governance, student life, finance and compensation. She also co-chairs Cornell Engineering committees leading “To Do the Greatest Good” campaigns.
While at Cornell, Smalling studied human development at the College of Human Ecology and was captain of the varsity tennis team.
Correction, February 6, 11 a.m.: This article was updated to remove an incorrect statement about the University’s response to outreach about the leadership transition.
