U. names eight new trustees to Board

The University announced eight new members of the Board of Trustees on June 14.

The new trustees are Shelby Davis '58, Carl Ferenbach '64, Charles Gibson '65, Ellen Harvey '76, Robert Murley '72, John O'Brien '65, Mark Siegler '63 and Brady Walkinshaw '06.

"I am very pleased with the election of the new members of the board of trustees," President Tilghman said in an email.

"They all bring unique perspectives," she added. "These individuals will continue to uphold the reputation of Princeton's board as being particularly balanced and effective."

The board oversees the general management of the University and approves the endowment investments and the operating and capital budgets. The trustees also have power over changes in major policies and programs, including tuition, admission and faculty hiring.

Though not all 40 members of the board are required to be alumni, the eight new members all graduated from the University.

The trustees elected Murley, who served on the board from 1995-2005, to a second 10-year term as a charter trustee.

Murley, vice chairman of Credit Suisse in the Americas, is one of the three co-chairs of the Princeton capital campaign — a multi-billion-dollar fundraising effort to support such goals as instituting the new four-year residential colleges, improving the performing and creative arts programs and increasing financial aid.

Davis, who was elected by the board to a four-year term, started the Davis United World College Scholars Program in 2000. The program offers financial aid to students who come from the United World College's schools around the world. There are more than 80 students at Princeton from the program, Davis said.

"I have had an abiding interest in Princeton since I graduated," Davis said in an interview.

As his scholarship program suggests, Davis has a particular concern for the international community at Princeton.

"One of my great interests is trying to get Americans to learn more about the world," Davis said. "I would like to have Princeton students learn more about the world through international students and have the world, through these international students, learn more about Americans."

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Davis is also the son of Shelby Cullom Davis '30, who was one of the co-founders of the Concerned Alumni of Princeton. The organization, which criticized, among other things, the admission of women to the University, received attention earlier this year when Samuel Alito '72 was discovered to have been a member.

"Let bygones be bygones," the younger Davis said about his father's past issues with the administration. "He gave a lot of money to Princeton in the end and did do a great deal for the Princeton history department. I am proud of what he did in that sense."

Gibson, previously an anchor on ABC's "Good Morning America" and now the sole anchor of "World News Tonight," will also serve a four-year term as a trustee elected by the board.

Ferenbach and Harvey will also serve for four years. Ferenbach, managing director of the Berkshire Partners investment firm, has acted as an annual giving and capital giving volunteer. Harvey, senior vice president at the Mercantile Bankshares Corp, has volunteered in the development office for many years.

The classes of 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 elected Walkinshaw to a four-year term as a young alumni trustee.

"I ran for the position because I feel passionate about a lot of issues surrounding diversity at Princeton and issues surrounding campus life," Walkinshaw said in an interview.

As the newest young alumni trustee, Walkinshaw is the most recent graduate of the University serving on the board.

"I think I bring a very recent knowledge of these issues that I am concerned with," Walkinshaw said, "particularly with all of the changes that are going on with campus life right now with the introduction of four-year residential colleges."

Princeton alumni elected O'Brien and Siegler as alumni trustees for four-year terms. O'Brien was a running back for the undefeated 1964 Princeton football team and received the Princeton Varsity Club's Citizen Athlete Award last year for his contributions to sports and society.

Siegler spoke at the University this year as part of the Wilson School's 75th anniversary celebration. He is the Lindy Bergman Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Chicago.