Dartmouth's Alumni Council has chosen four nominees to contend for two seats on the College's Board of Trustees. The candidates, who will be elected by Dartmouth's 62,000-member alumni body in May, will be part of an effort to expand the size of the Board to 22 members.
In addition to the Council's four nominees, the Office of Alumni Relations is aware of two additional candidates waging write-in campaigns to get on the March ballot, College officials said.
Peter Robinson '79 and Todd Zywicki '88 will attempt to follow the example of T.J. Rodgers '70, who was elected to the last open alumni trustee seat after a write-in campaign. Petitions for write-in candidates are due Wednesday.
The Dartmouth spoke with the four Alumni Council nominees, and will profile write-in candidates after the nomination process concludes later this week. The Council nominees are all high-ranking leaders in their chosen professions. All participated in Greek life at the College and have remained involved in the life of the school through alumni leadership projects. Three of the four picked nominees attended law school.
Richard Lewis '84
The youngest of the nominees is Richard Lewis '84, chief executive of Curzon Global Partners, an international real-estate advisory firm.
Although Curzon is headquartered in London, Lewis remains active in alumni affairs and serves on the Board of Overseers of the Rockefeller Center. He agreed to participate in the trustee election in the light of an earlier contest in which he lost by only a handful of votes. Lewis said he continues to feel committed to the College.
"This is the place where I can rebalance my life and make good on the debt which I owe Dartmouth," Lewis said.
According to Lewis, the single most important issue facing Dartmouth is "attracting the very best educators."
"We don't have as many great professionals as we need to be the best institution in the country 20 years from now," Lewis said. "I would like to see ... academics fight to be asked to teach at Dartmouth."
Lewis also stressed the importance of admitting well-rounded students and maintaining the "size and style of the College." He said he believes the most challenging issue facing the College is "maintaining or reducing the cost of a Dartmouth education," citing the threat posed to attracting the greatest assortment of students to Dartmouth from around the world.
Sheila Cheston '80
The only practicing lawyer in the Alumni Council slate is Sheila Cheston '80, the senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of BAE Systems North America, a Washington-based defense, aerospace and information technology company.
Before entering the private sector, Cheston spent much of her career in public service, serving as the special associate counsel to President Bill Clinton in 1994 and later, from 1995 through 1998, as the general counsel of the Department of the Air Force, a political appointment approved by Senate confirmation. In addition to her work in public service, Cheston has experience in the classroom as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Cheston pointed to her public service in senior levels of the U.S. government and to her teaching background as defining marks of her candidacy. Cheston also noted that she was the sole female nominee.
Cheston said she accepted the nomination because she cares enormously for the College.
"I have a great sense of affection and affinity for it," she said.
Cheston outlined her priorities as a trustee, emphasizing the need to attract a talented and diverse student body, a faculty committed to teaching, nurturing "the whole student" and "ensuring a campus environment that encourages intellectual debate."
Gregg Engles '79
Gregg Engles '79 is chairman and chief executive officer of Dean Foods Company, the nation's largest processor and distributor of dairy products and a leader in the organic foods industry.
His work at Dean Foods began in 1993 when he founded Suiza Foods, which bought the Dean Company and retained its name. Before deciding against law as a career, Engles clerked for current Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Although Engles was the only candidate to admit hesitancy in accepting the nomination for trusteeship -- citing the young and thriving nature of his business and the recent birth of his first child as potential conflicts -- he said he was convinced that the call to serve was worthwhile.
"Dartmouth has given me an enormous leg up in my life," Engles said. "I didn't know if the opportunity would come around again for me to have a chance to give something back to Dartmouth."
For Engles, the most critical issue facing Dartmouth is a continuous one.
"I think that the most critical issue is that Dartmouth lives in an odd niche in the world of higher education," Engles said.
Engles described the College's limited resources, such as the size of its endowment, as a constant compromising factor in administrative decision-making.
"[Dartmouth] can't do all things to the standards it expects of itself," Engles said. "The most critical issue, then, is how Dartmouth is going to define its strategic vision."
Engles also offered a unique insight on the openings on the Board.
"Dartmouth is going to go through a leadership change, I would expect, during the next eight years -- during the term of the trustees who are elected in this election," Engles said, referring to the presumed retirement of College President James Wright in the near future.
"Making sure the institution has the right leadership in its administration is going to be a really important point in Dartmouth's history," Engles said. "I've had a lot of experience in managing through those periods of change, and I think I'll bring something to the Board in that regard."
Curt Welling '71
Curt Welling '71, Tu'77, the oldest of the trustee candidates and the only nominee to graduate from one of Dartmouth's professional schools, stressed similar points regarding the College's limited resources. Welling, the president and CEO of AmeriCares, a non-profit disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization, also served as president of the Alumni Council in the 1990s. A former investment banker and law-school graduate, Welling stressed the demands placed upon the College.
"We have an almost inexhaustible demand for resources," Welling said.
Welling highlighted his global experience in humanitarian aid as a distinct asset for the board.
"I think I have a perspective about things that are going on in a part of the world that investment bankers don't visit," Welling said. "I think I could inform a perspective on the Board that I think is important given Dartmouth's role in training people who are among the best and the brightest."
Welling considers Dartmouth one of the most important philanthropic undertakings of his life and said he regards trusteeship as "about as significant a way I could serve Dartmouth as anything I could think of."
