January 31 to February 2 Forum:
Featured Speakers

Moderators and Panelists:

Karen Bennett Hoeb

executive director for the Farmer Family Foundation. Previously, Mrs. Hoeb was President/Chief Executive Officer of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation until her retirement in 1996. She was named to the position in 1994, becoming the first paid professional leader in the Foundation’s history. Prior to being named President/Chief Executive Officer, she was the Foundation’s Executive Director since 1988. From its founding in 1963, several community leaders served in the position as volunteers. During her tenure, the Foundation’s assets grew from $65 million to more than $200 million; individual charitable funds increased from 350 to over 900. She began her career with Cincinnati Milacron in human resources management, and became one of the first female vice presidents in the Cincinnati banking industry when she was named a Vice President at Southern Ohio Bank in 1980. In 1982, Mrs. Hoeb was the founder and President of Jobs for Cincinnati Graduates, a nonprofit corporation designed to transition high school students from school to work. Mrs. Hoeb initiated this program in Cincinnati and in 1985 was retained by the State of Ohio, Department of Education to implement similar programs in seven other major Ohio cities. Jobs for Ohio Graduates continues to operate throughout the state of Ohio. She has served numerous community organizations as a committee, council, and board member, including service on the Corporate Advisory Board and Dean’s Advisory Board for the College of Business at the University of Cincinnati. Ms. Hoeb is a native of Indianapolis, Indiana and a 1965 graduate of the University of Cincinnati, College of Business where she earned a Bachelors of Business Administration.

Richard D. Legon

Rick Legon was selected as the Association of Governing Board’s fourth president in January, 2006. He previously served as AGB’s executive vice president and has been with the association since 1983. Rick has, with the AGB board of directors, developed a new and aggressive strategic plan for the association that emphasizes and supports the new work of boards – highlighted by the association’s focus on original research, expanded services and serving as the voice for higher education governance with policymakers. Rick brings an extensive background as a student of and practitioner in not-for-profit governance. He has consulted broadly with higher education institutions and their boards, and other not-for-profit organizations. He has overseen the development of AGB’s portfolio of services for institution-related foundations and their boards. The author and editor of several publications that focus on the work of boards, Rick has served as a board member of the University of Charleston in West Virginia, and currently serves on the board of visitors of Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia.

Stacy Palmer

Editor and founder of The Chronicle of Philanthropy since 1988. Ms. Palmer has played a key role in the development of the newspaper, which today has 45,000 paid subscribers, and its two Web sites, philanthropy.com and philanthropy.careers.com. Previously, Palmer was editor for government and politics at The Chronicle of Higher Education. She is a graduate of Brown University, where she majored in international relations. She has been an active alumna, serving on numerous boards and was chairman of the Brown Alumni Magazine.

Ann Parrish

Chair, University of Alaska Foundation, and founder and president of Innovative Cooking Enterprises, Inc, a company that supplies products in over 30 countries to major department stores, mass merchants, specialty stores and national booksellers. A certified public accountant, Ms. Parrish is involved in numerous professional and community organizations as well as in the political arena. She served for eight years on the University of Alaska Board of Regents, including two years as chair.

Michael Peregrine

Partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP representing nonprofit health care facilities and systems and other charitable organizations, with particular focus on the corporate, fiduciary duty, tax and charitable trust issues. In 2006, he was listed in the top tier of healthcare lawyers in Illinois and an expert on corporate governance issues in healthcare by the Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business. He was appointed by the American Health Lawyers Association as a fellow for 2006-07. He participates as a nonprofit law advisor to the American Law Institute. He is a faculty member of The Governance Institute, La Jolla, California. He is also a member of the editorial boards of both of the Bureau of National Affairs's Health Law Reporter and the Exempt Organization Tax Review. Most recently, Mr. Perrigrine has been noted for his role as a member of the Legal Framework Work Group of the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, convened to advise the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on federal oversight legislation for nonprofit organizations.

Sue Morten Rogers

Philanthropist and past president of the Miami University Alumni Association, and Regional Gifts Chair for Miami University’s current campaign. She has also helped Miami University’s New Jersey Alumni Chapter establish a scholarship fund for New Jersey students, and chaired an alumnae committee that raised an endowment for Chi O Corner – a site at Miami University that marks the sorority’s 100th anniversary on campus. She has just been appointed to the donor relations committee of the national Chi Omega Foundation. She is a 1957 graduate of Miami University with a BS in education.

David C. Saunders

Managing director, K2 Advisors, LLC and director, University System of Maryland Foundation. Full bio forthcoming.

Verne Sedlacek

President and chief executive officer of the Commonfund since 2003. Prior to that he served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Commonfund, and as a member of the Commonfund Group Investment Committee. Prior to Commonfund, Mr. Sedlacek was president and chief operating officer of John W. Henry & Company, Inc., president and director of Westport Capital Management Corporation and Global Capital Management Limited since 1998. Previously, he served as executive vice president and chief financial officer for the Harvard Management Company, where he was responsible for managing the areas of personnel, budgets, systems, performance, analysis, contract, credit, compliance, custody, operations, cash management, securities lending, and market risk evaluation for the then approximately $14 billion university fund. He also has served on many not-for-profit and for-profit boards. He earned an A.B. in Economics from Princeton University and was certified as a CPA by the State of New York in 1978.

David G. Walsh

Partner in the Madison office of Foley & Lardner, a national law firm. He recently served as a member of its management committee. He has represented communications entities for more than 30 years, developing particular skill in cable television and telecommunications law. Mr. Walsh has served as primary counsel in a number of significant litigations involving telecommunications law. He counsels and represents business clients in all phases of business activity, and has an extensive estate planning practice. He has served as an adjunct lecturer at the UW-Madison Law School, is a former owner of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball club, and serves on a number of for-profit corporations. He is a former chairman of the University of Wisconsin Business School Advisory Board and received the Distinguished Business Alumnus Award from the UW Business School in 1997. He is a graduate of UW-Madison and received his law degree from Harvard Law School. A Vietnam veteran, Mr. Walsh was a Lt. JG in the United States Navy in Southeast Asia in 1967-68.

Jason Zweig

Jason Zweig is a senior writer and columnist for Money magazine. He is also the editor of the revised edition of Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor (HarperCollins, 2003), the classic text that Warren Buffett has described as "by far the best book about investing ever written." Before joining Money in 1995, Zweig was the mutual funds editor at Forbes. Earlier, he had been a reporter-researcher at Time and an editorial assistant at Africa Report, a bimonthly journal. Zweig has a B.A. from Columbia College, where he was awarded a John Jay National Scholarship. A frequent commentator on television and radio, Zweig has also addressed the American Association of Individual Investors, the Aspen Institute, the CFA Institute, the Morningstar Investment Conference, and university audiences at Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford. Zweig is a trustee of the Museum of American Finance, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. He serves on the editorial boards of Financial History magazine and The Journal of Behavioral Finance. Zweig's book on the neuroscience of investment decisions will be published in 2007 by Simon & Schuster.

Facilitators:

Jim Adams

Executive Vice President of the VMI Foundation, Inc., and Executive Director of the VMI Development Board, positions he has held since June of 1998. A 1971 VMI graduate, Jim received a bachelor’s degree in English. He served two years on active duty in the United States Army, and retired in 1999 after 28 years of commissioned service (and six months of active duty during Desert Storm) in the Army Reserves. Before returning to VMI, Jim served as director of membership and development at the U. S. Naval Institute in Annapolis, Maryland, and he has been Director of Development at The Citadel, and Director of Public Relations at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and at VMI. His advanced degrees include a MA from James Madison University and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Tennessee.

David Bahlmann

President and chief executive officer of the Ball State University Foundation since 1990. He is responsible for supervising all programs and activities of the foundation and for the management, investment and administration of all private gifts received by the foundation for the benefit of Ball State University. Mr. Bahlmann has served as the national chief executive officer of both Camp Fire Boys and Girls and Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. He possesses a broad range of professional experience, including 15 years in law (having served as a prosecuting attorney, legal advisor to the speaker for the Indiana House of Representatives, and a practicing attorney) and 30 years in agency administration. Mr. Bahlmann is a graduate of Hillsdale College (A.B. Economics) and the Valparaiso University School of Law (J.D.).

Leslie Bram

Associate vice president and chief operating officer, University of Florida Foundation since 1994. She joined the foundation as associate general counsel in 1990. Ms. Bram also serves as the executive vice president of the board of directors of Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. She has held several university lectureships, worked as a private attorney in Philadelphia, and served as associate university counsel and assistant to the vice chancellor for development at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Leslie is a cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania College of Law. Her undergraduate degree is from Carnegie-Mellon University and she holds a master's in English from Northeastern University.

Rebecca Dukes

Vice president of university advancement for New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico since 2001. Rebecca is responsible for overseeing development, alumni and university communications. Her career spans 29 years of work in the non-profit arena, 18 of those years in health care organizations including the National Arthritis and Kidney Foundations as well as hospitals. Her move to higher education was made in 1994 when she joined Utah State University in Logan, Utah as director of planned giving. She was promoted to assistant vice president in 1999. From 1999-2001 she served as vice president for institutional advancement with Westminster College in Salt Lake City, the state's only private, non-denominational four-year college. Rebecca Dukes is a native of Ohio where she graduated with a bachelors of arts from the University of Akron.

Lisa Eslinger

Vice president for finance, Iowa State University Foundation in 2003. As vice president for finance she is responsible for all financial and investment activities of the foundation. Prior to that she served as controller from 1998-2003. She served as a senior manager with the international public accounting firm of KPMG, where she specialized in serving clients in the governmental and non-profit sectors. She has a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Northern Iowa.

Gerald Fischer

President and chief executive officer of the University of Minnesota Foundation since 1990. His career includes nearly twenty years with Ford Motor Company and affiliated companies, where he held several positions in the finance offices of Ford, Ford Credit, and Ford of Europe. In 1985, he became senior vice president of finance for First Bank System (now U.S. Bancorp) in Minneapolis and was appointed executive vice president, chief financial officer, and treasurer in 1986. Jerry received a BA degree in 1965 from the College of Wooster in Ohio and was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship to attend Yale University Divinity School the following year. He received an MBA from the University of Michigan in 1968. Jerry serves as a director of SurModics, Inc. and serves on the boards of The University Gateway Corporation and UMFIA. He is trustee board chair of the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, Michigan, and a former trustee of the College of Wooster and the Dale Warland Singers.

Elizabeth King

President and CEO of the Wichita State University Foundation since July 1, 2006. Prior to this appointment, Elizabeth held dual roles, serving both as the Vice President for University Advancement and the Executive Director of the WSU Foundation. She has over 30 years of experience in higher education and is the youngest vice president ever named at the university and only the second female vice president. Since her arrival, the Foundation’s assets have grown from $53.8 million to almost $170 million. In 1999, Wichita State received the CASE National Award for Most Improved Fundraising Program. In 2001, Elizabeth was selected by the Wichita Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professional for its Outstanding Fundraising Executive Award and in 2003, she was named to the inaugural class of the Wichita Business Journal’s top 20 “Women in Business”. Active in her community, Elizabeth is presently the President of the Downtown Wichita Rotary Club, which has a membership of over 400. Her highest professional honor was receiving the WSU Alumni Association Recognition Award in 2006. Elizabeth received her Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College and her Master of Education and Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of North Texas.

Jim Lanier

Senior fellow for board services for the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), and former president of the East Carolina University Foundation, Inc. and the ECU Real Estate Foundation. For over 20 years he served as vice chancellor for institutional advancement and chief executive officer of the foundations. In 2004, he chaired a joint task force for AGB and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) to develop a national illustrative model memorandum of understanding between universities and foundations. Jim has a number of publications including "The Committee on Directors" co-authored with E.B. Wilson. He received his A.A. from Louisburg College; his B.S. and M.S. from East Carolina University. He has been honored with Louisburg College’s two highest awards, the distinguished alumnus and president’s medallion.

Tom Longin

consultant and retired vice president for programs and research for AGB. Longin remains active on board governance issues as an AGB facilitator, and as executive editor Planning for Higher Education, published by the Society for College & University Planning. Prior to joining AGB, he served for 12 years as provost of Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY. He also served as vice president for academic affairs at Seattle University from 1982-1985; and before that he was dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences at Ithaca College (1976-82). He was a faculty member at Ithaca College, Virginia Tech and Carroll College in Montana. Tom is a charter leader of the Associated New American Colleges, a consortium consisting of 20 independent, comprehensive colleges across the country. Tom served as board chair of the Special Children's Center in Ithaca, NY and was a member of the Council for the Arts in Ithaca and the board of education for Trumansburg (NY) Central Schools. He is a trustee of Carroll College. He received his doctorate from the University of Nebraska, masters degree from Creighton University, and a bachelors degree from Carroll College.

John Martin

President of the University of Connecticut Foundation since 2003 and is a 35-year veteran of higher education management. In his first year at Connecticut, gifts increased by 20 percent to an all-time high of $75 million, and a $300 million campaign closed at $471 million. Martin previously was vice chancellor for advancement for the University System of Maryland and president of the University of Maryland Foundation, overseeing more than $500 million in assets. As vice chancellor, he was responsible for system public relations, economic development, and fund-raising activities. He oversaw a $700 million fund-raising campaign that was concluded at $906 million. He coauthored the chapter, "Active Fund-Raising for Active Foundations," for AGB's foundation handbook. He holds two degrees from the University of Bridgeport.

Sue Menditto

Director, accounting policy for NACUBO. She joined the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) in August 2002, coming from Bank of America, where she worked for 13 years. At Bank of America she was a vice president with progressively responsible positions in accounting and financial reporting, accounting policy, and organizational change management. Ms. Menditto began her career in public accounting and has been the CFO and Controller of a not-for-profit organization. Ms. Menditto leads NACUBO’s efforts on accounting issues that impact higher education. She is NACUBO’s expert on accounting standards, financial accounting and reporting, managerial analysis, research accounting and reporting, and Sarbanes-Oxley matters of interest to higher education. Ms. Menditto is staff liaison to NACUBO’s Accounting Principles Council and is charged with fulfilling higher education advocacy needs with the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and the Department of Education. She also represents higher education on the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council. Ms. Menditto informs the association’s research efforts on matters related to accounting issues in higher education, writes member communications and articles, and supports member professional development needs by providing content guidance for accounting workshops. She holds degrees in psychology and accounting.

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Tom Mitchell

Vice chancellor of university advancement and president of the University of California, Irvine Foundation since the summer of 2002. As the chief advancement officer, Mr. Mitchell develops and implements strategies and programs to obtain alumni, community, governmental, political, and financial support for the university. Under his direction during the last four years, annual private gift/grant support to the university has increased by nearly 190 percent (to more than $101 million); the number of gifts has increased by more than 46 percent; and the endowment has increased 70 percent. Mr. Mitchell serves as a member of the CASE Philanthropy Commission, and the Orange County Performing Arts Center Board of Trustees. He is a frequently sought-after speaker for national conferences on organizational management, strategic planning, capital campaigns, leadership gifts, and stewardship. He has authored and presented more than 200 papers on institutional advancement and managing institutionally-related foundations.

Len Raley

Vice Chancellor for Advancement and President and CEO of the University System of Maryland Foundation, Inc., a system of 13 institutions and research centers. Prior to the University System of Maryland, Leonard served as Executive Director of the Ohio University Foundation and Vice President for University Advancement. He has more than 25 years of experience in university advancement and foundation related roles, including working at the University of Maryland and Towson University.

Dan Saftig

President of the Iowa State University Foundation since July 2003. Saftig has overall leadership responsibilities for an organization that generated more than $92 million in private support for Iowa State University last year. Prior to joining the ISU Foundation, he was the vice president of marketing and communications for the Minnesota Medical Foundation at the University of Minnesota. During his tenure, the organization completed a $516 million campaign, the largest in its history. Saftig has more than 20 years experience in the fundraising business, including seven at Penn State University where he led the annual giving effort and other programs. He has also worked for the American Heart Association in Wisconsin and California; and Community Counseling Services, an international development and public relations consulting firm in San Francisco. He began his career as the sports information director at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. Saftig holds a bachelor's degree from the UW - La Crosse and a master's degree in nonprofit management from the University of San Francisco.

Curtis R. Simic

President of the Indiana University Foundation since 1988. He is the chief development officer for Indiana University. Simic also serves as the dean of the Big Ten Fund Raisers Institute. Prior to joining Indiana University, he served as vice chancellor for development and president of the University of California Berkeley Foundation from 1983-1988 where he directed all university fund-raising efforts for the campus. Simic served on the national board of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. Currently, he is a member of the board of governors, Indiana University Center on Philanthropy. Simic is the recipient of the Frank L. Ashmore Award for Service to CASE and the Advancement Profession, 1999 and the Herman B. Wells Legacy Award, Indiana University Foundation 1998. Mr. Simic has written several publications and articles for AGB about public college and university foundation boards. He has a graduate and undergraduate degree from Indiana University.

Bill Skinner

Board chair of the Ball State University Foundation and retired executive of the Ball Corporation. He was elected to the Ball State University Foundation board in 1991 and has served as the chair of several committees, secretary, vice chairman and chair. Skinner served as director of business development for the Ball Corporation starting in 1989, and led international operations, mergers and acquisitions for the company including a stint in Northern Ireland until he retired. Prior to his retirement he was a senior vice president of a $300 million Ball Corporation spin-off company called Alltrista Corporation (now Jarden) including two years in Hungary. From 1972-1989 he served as director, vice president, and president of several subsidiaries of the Ontario Corporation including their operations in the United Kingdom. After his retirement he volunteered to start a small business incubator in Muncie which he ran for two years. His professional path took him through a series of sales and senior management jobs in the aerospace industry for 25 years followed by 15 years in a variety of positions in consumer products and some aerospace related activities. He is directly responsible for three startup companies, two in Europe and one in California. He served as chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, president of the Rotary club, and the director of several not-for-profits organizations including a director of a $5 billion trust company. He has a civil engineering degree from the University of Michigan.

Diane F. Viacava

Vice president / senior credit officer in Moody's Higher Education/Other Not-for-Profits ratings team. Since 2001 she has served as primary analyst for a broad variety of institutions, including public and private colleges and universities, hospitals, independent K-12 schools, and other not-for-profit institutions throughout the country. Diane also was responsible for rating not-for-profit hospitals. She has authored key Moody’s publications, including annual medians and special comments on governance and swaps. She joined Moody's in 1991 as a senior analyst in the Financial Institutions group, specializing in the life insurance industry. Diane also managed a group in Moody's Structured Finance ratings group, as well as managing a number of non-ratings areas. Diane joined the Public Finance Group in June 2001. Diane has served as co-chair of a task force of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts examining the issue of disclosure of interest rate swaps within the municipal market by participants in the municipal market. Prior to joining Moody's, Diane worked as a health care credit analyst at Mellon Bank, N.A. and as Vice President / Credit Officer at Bankers Trust Company, specializing in insurance. Diane holds a M.B.A from the University of Pittsburgh; her undergraduate degree is in Accounting from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.

Sandy Wilcox

President of the University of Wisconsin Foundation since 1988. Prior to joining the foundation's staff, he was director of the legal section, office of development at Stanford University. Wilcox was head of the charitable trust division at the Continental Bank of Chicago. He also served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. Wilcox is a former trustee of Hanover College and a member of the American Bar Association. He is a frequent speaker on topics concerning charitable trust law. Mr. Wilcox received his bachelor's degree from Hanover College and his J.D. from Loyola University of Chicago.

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