Michael Ira Sovern (December 1, 1931 – January 20, 2020) was an American legal scholar who served as the 17th president of Columbia University.
Perhaps most importantly, he greatly improved the university's financial health by balancing its budget and introducing strict budgetary controls.
A professorship in his name has been endowed at Columbia Law School, and the American Academy in Rome has established a fellowship in his honor.
He served as chairman of Sotheby's Holdings, Inc. from 2000 to 2012,[1][2] American Academy in Rome from 1994 to 2005,[3] the Japan Society from 1993 to 2005,[4] and the National Advisory Council for the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center.
He was a member of the board of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Pulitzer Prizes, AT&T, Pfizer, Warner–Lambert and JP Morgan Chase, among others.
Sovern was married four times: to the former Lenore Goodman in 1953, to the former Eleanor Leen in 1963, to the former Joan Rosenthal Wit in 1974, and finally to Dr. Patricia Margaret Walsh in 1995.
Doug Sovern was an award-winning news reporter for KCBS Radio in San Francisco and maintained the sovernnation political blog.