Two Dartmouth alumni were elected by the Board of Trustees to five-year terms on the Board, the College announced yesterday.
The alumni elected Jose Fernandez '77 to take the place of Stephen Bosworth '61 and the Board chose Leon Black '73 to replace outgoing Charter Trustee Stanford Roman '64. Bosworth and Roman, who served two five-year terms on the Board, will depart July 1.
The new Trustees, who both hail from New York, are "leaders in the business and philanthropic worlds" and will complement the existing members well, Board Chairwoman Susan Dentzer said in a press release.
Candidates to be Alumni Trustee are selected by the Alumni Council in December before an election. Of the three candidates on the shorter list, one is elected by a vote undergraduate and graduate alumni, Associate Director of Alumni Relations Patricia Fisher-Harris '81 said.
The winning candidate is then approved by the Board, Fisher-Harris said, adding that few candidates are rejected.
About a quarter of the 60,000 eligible alumni submitted either electronic or paper votes by the April 30 deadline, Fisher-Harris said. The number of votes received for each candidate -- Fernandez, Mark Harty '73 and Chansoo Houng '82 Tuck '87 -- were not available.
Candidates for Alumni Trustee and Charter Trustee do not run campaigns for election. The Charter Trustee is simply selected by the Board and approached about joining.
Black said he found out officially about his election only yesterday, though he added he is thrilled about his upcoming "labor of love."
"It's a place I hold near and dear," he said.
"My wife's still annoyed that I still call it the best four years of my life," Black added jokingly.
Black, the founder of the successful Apollo Management equity investment firm in New York, graduated magna cum laude with a degree in philosophy and received an MBA from Harvard University in 1975.
An active member of the President's Leadership Council and the Dean's Council, Black founded the Leon D. Black Professorship in Shakespearean Studies. He serves on the board of directors at seven corporations and as a trustee of eight schools and arts organizations, including the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Fernandez learned of his appointment to the Board on Monday during a phone call from College President James Wright. "It's still sinking in that I actually will have a chance to make a difference at a place I love very deeply," Fernandez said.
Dartmouth and Hanover have both changed "a lot" since his undergraduate years, the native of Cuba said.
"The coursework is different in that it's much more varied, the student body is much more diverse, Hanover is not so much a sleepy community as when I was there," Fernandez explained.
Few of the changes made by the College or the Trustees have been for the worse, Fernandez said.
"I think they have performed well," he said. "It's been an important period in the last five or 10 years with the Student Life Initiative and other initiatives."
Fernandez said he wants to wait until he is better acquainted with the issues before deciding on what reforms, if any, are needed.
"I'm sure there are things that the College -- like other institutions -- could improve upon," he said, adding that during his tenure he will "try to improve on what needs improvement and what's well enough, leave that alone."
A history major and member of Kappa Sigma Gamma fraternity -- now known as Chi Gamma Epsilon -- Fernandez participated avidly in the outdoors as an undergraduate, using sculls on the Connecticut River and skiing cross-country in his free time.
"I came from pretty much of an urban setting, and I really tried to take advantage of the rural aspects of Dartmouth," he said.
After graduation, Fernandez earned a law degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1980, and then spent time in Spain at a law firm -- and trying out for professional basketball teams.
Since returning from Spain, he has practiced international law for 20 years with O'Melveny and Myers in New York. In addition to serving as chair of his class' 20th reunion, he has been involved in the American Bar Association's Inter-American Law Committee.
The Board consists of the President of the College, the Governor of New Hampshire, seven alumni-selected Trustees and seven appointed Charter Trustees.