Tim Yeaton '80 Elected as Chair of RWU Board of Trustees

BRISTOL, R.I. – Tim Yeaton – a former president and CEO of multinational software and technology management companies, and who has a long history of engagement and service to the university – has been named the new chair of the RWU Board of Trustees. 

Yeaton is the second alumnus to serve as chair of the RWU Board of Trustees, following a term as a board vice-chair. For the first time in university history, the newly elected board officers serving with Chair Yeaton, are composed almost entirely of alumni: all three vice-chairs and the treasurer are alums, while the secretary is a faculty member at the School of Law. 

“As a very active alum and a leader across global technology and software industries, Tim Yeaton will continue to bring excellent leadership and experience to the Board of Trustees,” said President Ioannis N. Miaoulis. “We are at an exciting inflection point in RWU’s history and I am thrilled to have so many alumni and accomplished professionals serving on and leading our board. Their personal ties inform our continued development of academic excellence, experiential learning and research, and student success as we build a world-class university in which we learn, live and work.” 

A member of the Class of 1980, Yeaton has served on the board since 2010, previously on the RWU President’s Advisory Board, and as past president of the RWU Alumni Association. 

“In my 46 years as part of the Roger Williams community, I have seen its continued evolution to the exceptional university it has become today,” Yeaton said. “I am honored to serve as chair of the Board of Trustees and excited to work with President Miaoulis, the board leadership, and the faculty and staff, who are all just as committed to the success of the university as I am. We have a board of outstanding alumni and professionals from across industries that will help drive the university’s future, and I welcome everyone to join us in building this next chapter of Roger Williams’ history.” 

With a career spanning over 40 years in software and technology management and marketing, Yeaton most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Red Hat (now IBM), a leading provider of enterprise open-source solutions with more than 20,000 employees globally. Prior to that, he served as President and CEO of Black Duck Software, where he built a worldwide operation in more than 23 countries and saw the company ranked among the 500 largest software companies in the world by Software Magazine, and named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in the U.S. In 2012, Black Duck was voted “A Top Place to Work” in Massachusetts. He has also held the roles of President and CEO at Avaki; Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Equallogic (now Dell); and Executive Vice President of Products at Allaire/Macromedia (now Adobe). 

In 2010, Yeaton was a finalist for the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council’s CEO of the Year award. Earlier in his career, he was named one of the Most Influential People in the Open Source Software Industry in a survey of executives conducted by Mindtouch, and he was named a China Open Source Promotion Union (COPU) Think Tank Advisor, which recognizes the key global thought leaders in Open Source Software. 

Yeaton received a Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, in Management from RWU, and an MBA from Babson College. At RWU, he was a member of the Honors Society, captain of the men’s soccer team, a resident advisor, and later was honored as Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 2001. 

A first-generation college student from New Hampshire, he credits the university’s long commitment to experiential learning, high caliber of teaching and personal attention and mentorship from faculty in helping him discover his passion for marketing and build a path to a lifelong, successful career at some of the world’s top firms. Along with small class sizes, a close-knit community of students and vibrant student life experience, Yeaton says he truly thrived at RWU. 

“Everything I’ve done in my career I can trace back to my experiences at Roger Williams University,” said Yeaton, who now works as an independent investor and advisor to technology start-ups, as well as spending time with his wife, children and grandchildren. “The faculty and staff here are amazing and truly care about your success. That’s why I continue to volunteer my time in service to RWU, and now I get to help shape generations of students and alumni to create the lives of their dreams just as I have.” 

Over the next years, Yeaton looks forward to working with university leadership, faculty, staff and alumni to advance Roger Williams University’s Strategic Action Plan. 

“The vision of RWU’s Strategic Plan is incredibly compelling and takes advantage of all the unique things that Roger William brings to the table,” Yeaton said. “The university has developed strong leadership roles that drive the blue economy and coastal resiliency for our region and beyond. It is forging an innovative role in real estate that harnesses the university’s strengths across architecture, business, engineering, construction management and law. And it is going further with its work in the humanities, social sciences and history to give us a deeper sense of our place, our people and how our history has shaped us.”