Fareed Zakaria (Photo as it appears on www.trumanlibrary.org)

Noted political commentator and author, Fareed Zakaria, will join Yale University's Corporation as one of three new trustees starting Feb 1, 2006. Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International, is considered among the leading talking heads in this country. He also hosts a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) show called 'Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria.'

His appointment as a trustee was announced on Jan 17 by the University's President Richard Levin.

The University, which has been pursuing an 'internationalization' effort, said Zakaria would be a great addition along with the other two appointees, Jeffrey Bewkes, President and COO of Time Warner Inc., and Donna Dubinsky, co-founder and CEO of Numenta, and earlier co-founder of Handspring. 'All are recognized leaders in their fields, and each has been a wise counselor to me and active participant at Yale,' Levin said. 'Fareed Zakaria is a brilliant interpreter of contemporary world affairs. He will bring a wealth of insight to the governance of Yale as we seek to strengthen our connections around the world,' he added.

A 1986 alumnus of Yale College, Zakaria has achieved successes at a very young age. He became managing editor of Foreign Affairs, a leading journal in this country, at the age of 28.

He is also an award-winning columnist for Newsweek, a commentator for ABC News, apart from being Managing Editor and host of the PBS series. Zakaria was raised in Mumbai, India. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Yale with a major in history, he earned a Ph.D. in political science at Harvard in 1993 and ran a major research project on American foreign policy.

He has taught international relations and political philosophy at Harvard and Columbia universities. He has written for many publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The New Republic and the webzine Slate. He is the author of 'From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America's World Role' and co-editor of 'The American Encounter: The United States and the Making of the Modern World.'

His book 'The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad,' published in 2003, was a New York Times bestseller and the subject of Levin's welcoming address to the freshmen at Yale that year. It has been translated into 18 foreign languages. He serves on several boards, including the Trilateral Commission, the International Institute of Strategic Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations.