DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA — OCT 20, 2025
The Board of Trustees (BoT) is the university’s governing body, responsible for overseeing Duke’s financial decisions and its investment company, DUMAC. But how much do we really know about who serves on that Board? This series examines the financial interests and political entanglements of key trustees to reveal how their connections and incentives may conflict with the values and interests of the Duke community — including its students, faculty, and workers.
Every Monday from October 6 through November 6, we’ll feature a member of Duke’s Board of Trustees as part of Follow the Money Mondays.
OCT 20 — WHO IS MARY BARRA? Chair and CEO of General Motors | Duke BoT Member, Vice Chair
Mary T. Barra is Chair and CEO of General Motors. She owns 433,527 shares of General Motors stock worth more than $25,120,722 as of October 20, 2025.
General Motors is one of the US companies profiting from the Israeli occupation and genocide in Gaza. GM provides engines and other parts for multiple vehicles used by the Israeli military in its occupation and genocide in Gaza.
Israel buys these parts using US taxpayer money.
OCT 13 — WHO IS KAREN KING? Managing Director and COO of Silver Lake | Duke ‘94 | Duke BoT Member, Finance Committee Chair
Karen M. King is the Managing Director and COO of Silver Lake, a private equity firm focused on technology and technology-enabled investments. Together with Zionist mega-donor Larry Ellison and his company Oracle, Silver Lake struck a deal to acquire a major share of the new U.S. company that will control TikTok.
On October 3, 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with American social media influencers to discuss ways to boost pro-Israel messaging online. Reports indicate that influencers are likely being paid approximately $7,000 per post on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram through Bridges Partners, a firm working on behalf of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Netanyahu has described the Silver Lake-Oracle-TikTok deal as one of the most important and consequential transactions taking place right now, saying it could play a significant role in advancing support for Israel. Given Ellison’s strong pro-Israel advocacy, it is likely that this influence will come into play during the development of the U.S. version of TikTok’s algorithm and content moderation systems, over which Silver Lake is anticipated to exert considerable oversight.
OCT 6 — WHO IS TIM COOK? CEO of Apple | Duke MBA ‘88 | Duke BoT Member
Tim Cook is the CEO of Apple. His net worth is estimated at $2.5 billion. Like other tech leaders, he has been flattering Donald Trump in return for US investment in his company. He recently gifted Trump a 24k gold plaque to thank him for a $600 billion investment.
Apple is complicit in multiple dimensions of Israeli apartheid and genocide. Current and former Apple employees in Apples Against Apartheid have called on Tim Cook to acknowledge genocide in Palestine and Congo. This complicity includes underhiring of qualified Palestinians in Apple’s Israel offices, economic complicity, retaliatory firings, collective punishment of anti-genocide Muslims and Jews, including the ongoing shutdown of the Muslims@Apple Diversity Network Association channel, and refusal to acknowledge loss of Palestinian life. Apple also has a research and development institution in Tel Aviv. In October 2023, Apple, alongside Google and Waze, disabled live traffic updates in Gaza and various parts of Israel at the request of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) before the start of a military operation. In April 2024, Apple employees and shareholders released an open letter urging the company to end donation matching for groups tied to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and settlement expansion in the West Bank. They called for a review of eligible charities, including Friends of the IDF and others supporting illegal Israeli settlements.
Are these the people we should trust to make decisions about Duke’s future during this critical time?
Stay tuned for next week’s Follow the Money Monday feature on October 13.
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