Duke University has named the head of China\'s sovereign wealth fund to its board of trustees.

The university said in a statement that Xi-Qing Gao has joined the board for a five-year term.

A 1986 graduate of the Duke Law School, Gao served in various positions on Wall Street and in China before, in 2007, becoming the head of the China Investment Corp. That organization manages some $200 billion in state assets and has made high-profile bets on firms such as private equity giant Blackrock and investment bank Morgan Stanley.

Duke also has named two students to its board. Ryan Todd, a 2008 graduate who will enter law school this fall, will have a three-year young trustee term in which he has voting power his last two years. And doctoral student Xing Zong, a Chinese native, will serve a two-year term in which he has voting power in the final year.

Each of our new trustees possesses impressive abilities, says Robert Steel, chairman of Duke\'s board of trustees and new chief executive officer of Charlotte\'s Wachovia Corp. Their backgrounds will be extremely valuable to the board as it seeks to help Duke achieve its strategic goal of preparing its students for a global society.