The committee charged with replacing Conrad K. Harper on the University’s top governing board is hoping to fill his vacancy with another African American, according to two people close to the search.

Harper, who resigned from the Harvard Corporation last month amid bitter disagreements with his fellow trustees, was the only African American ever to serve on the seven-member board since its inception in 1650. Those close to the search said the University was intent on selecting a black alum to replace him.

The individuals spoke only on the condition of anonymity because the search process is considered confidential, they said. Both of the sources said they were encouraged by Harvard’s decision and spoke to The Crimson in order to dispel concerns among faculty who have criticized the Corporation’s homogeneity.

One leading candidate for the open seat is said to be Deborah C. Wright ’79, president and chief executive officer of Carver Bancorp, the $595 million banking company in New York. She joined the Board of Overseers, Harvard’s larger and far less powerful advisory group, in 2001 and is now one of four African Americans on the 30-member board.

Wright would be just the second woman on the Corporation, alongside Nannerl O. Keohane, who joined at the beginning of last month, replacing Hanna H. Gray, the former president of the University of Chicago. A larger female presence on the board could help University President Lawrence H. Summers, who is himself a member of the Corporation, deflect criticism of his commitment to the advancement of women at Harvard.

Wright declined to comment through an assistant, referring all questions to the University. A Harvard spokesman would not discuss the search.

According to those close to the search, another black female, Ann M. Fudge ’77, is also being considered for the board.

Chair and chief executive officer of the advertising firm Young & Rubicam, Fudge was elected to the Board of Overseers this year. As a former director of the Federal Reserve, Fudge has close ties to one member of the search committee, Roger W. Ferguson Jr. ’73, who sits on the Fed’s elite Board of Governors.

Ferguson is one of two African Americans on the search committee, which was formed last week. The other is M. Lee Pelton, president of Willamette University and a former senior tutor of Winthrop House. Along with two white women and two white men, they comprise an unusually diverse group for the University.

Although minorities are scarce on Harvard’s governing boards, the University is well in line with the racial and gender—makeup of typical university boards in the United States. A study released last month by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges found that 88 percent of private university board members in 2004 were white while just eight percent were black. Seventy-two percent were men.

The 36 current members of Harvard’s two governing bodies, the Corporation and the Overseers, include 27 whites, 4 blacks, 3 Asians, and 2 Hispanics. There are 22 men and 14 women.

Corporation members have previously tried to dispel the notion that certain seats on the University’s top governing board are reserved for minorities and women.

“It is probably a good thing to have a woman on the Corporation,” James R. Houghton ’56, the board’s senior fellow, said in an interview last year after Hanna H. Gray announced she would step down from the board. “But there is not a woman slot on the Corporation.” Gray was succeeded by Keohane, a woman.

Houghton is again leading the charge in searching for Harper’s replacement, but he did not respond to repeated requests for comment this week. Neither did the other five members of the search committee: Keohane, Ferguson, Pelton, Robert D. Reischauer ’63, and Patti B. Saris ’73.

The committee’s search for Harper’s successor is an especially sensitive one considering the circumstances of Harper’s sudden and acrimonious departure. In a resignation letter to Summers last month, Harper criticized the Corporation for stifling discussion of the president’s performance and salary raise, calling on Summers to step down.

Some faculty members have suggested that, in order to ensure balanced debate on the board, Harper’s replacement should be a critic of Summers’ leadership.

—Staff writer Zachary M. Seward can be reached at seward@fas.harvard.edu.