Editor’s note: The Daily’s editorial department acknowledges that this article is premised on a conflict of interest. This article is a special feature for Daily Week and does not represent the Daily’s standard journalistic practices. The interview with Macaya was conducted in September 2025.
Javier Macaya, an alumnus from the Class of 1991 and former business director for the Daily, was elected to the Tufts Board of Trustees last June, bringing his finance experience and Jumbo pride to the board.
Macaya — an investor and financial advisor currently based in London — started a five-year term in November 2025. He was heavily involved in the Daily, serving as executive business director for two years, an experience that shaped and informed his time at the university.
In an interview with the Daily, he discussed his time at Tufts, his application to be a trustee and his hopes for his board membership.
Although Tufts has changed since Macaya first matriculated in 1987, he still appreciates “the ever improving caliber and diversity of [the] student body, faculty, staff and leadership team.”
In the late 1980s, he was part of the Daily in the years after it became financially independent.
“We did some really exciting things. We started color SAP supplements during my years and my tenure there. Revenue [has] pretty much doubled, or more than doubled,” Macaya said. “Almost 35 years out, what I can say is that I’ve always considered that part of my experience at Tufts to have been the most rewarding. … When I then went out to try to get jobs coming out of Tufts, I got a great deal of mileage out of that experience.”
Since his time as a Tufts undergraduate, Macaya has remained involved in the Tufts community, serving on the Tisch College Board of Advisors, the board of the Initiative for Global Leadership and the International Advisory Board. He has funded internships for Tufts students and also fundraised for the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life. He also sent one of his daughters to Tufts.
Macaya said he remained involved with the university out of his personal interest in connecting with and supporting students.
“Tufts offers me an opportunity to remain connected with an elite university and with students that I do not cease to be completely in awe of,” he said.
Macaya views his involvement with the Board of Trustees as a continuation of his longstanding participation in the Tufts community.
His involvement with the board began after a phone call from Elizabeth Amador (A’91), president of the Alumni Council, who asked him to consider applying. He submitted his personal statement, letters of recommendation and application questions and was chosen to be voted on in an alumni election.
His dedication to the university shone through in his application process, as noted by the Alumni Council in a statement to the Daily.
“Javier Macaya epitomizes the ideal candidate for the Board of Trustees,” they wrote. “He was an engaged student; he is a successful businessman, an active and dedicated alumnus, who has long contributed essential counsel to the University, while also investing generously in the next generation of Tufts students.”
Macaya views the role of a trustee as being part of the governing structure of the university, making decisions that affect the entire university.
“I would think that the closest comparison to a trustee, in a corporate environment, would be a board of directors. These are the people that are looking at the issues, not the minutiae,” Macaya said. “They are looking at the broader strategy of the school, resource allocation for the school, how the school confronts the sort of issues that a university must face.”
As part of that effort to support Tufts in whatever way is needed, Macaya said he is excited to learn from his fellow trustees.
“I am entering with the appropriate amount of humility in terms of the accomplishments and contributions I may make, particularly in the early stages of my tenure,” Macaya said. “Indeed, a part of me cannot help but feel that I am ‘going back to school’ and I expect and look forward to learning a great deal from my fellow trustees.”
Macaya noted that, while he does not speak for the entire board, he still thinks the university should do its best to fulfill its responsibility to protect international students.
“I have some sympathy for schools that have been really thrown a curveball, because there have been matters outside of their control that [have] made honoring that promise more challenging,” Macaya said. “No university, Tufts being one of them, is going to, on its own, be able to change that.”
“Like myself, I know that every Tufts alumnus, whether young or old, American or foreign, wants to have ever-growing reasons to be proud of being a Jumbo,” he said.
