Six new members named to Board of Trustees

Six new members named to Board of Trustees

New Trustees include four alumni and two Society of Jesus members

Fairfield University announces the election of six new members to the Board of Trustees of Fairfield University . They are: Mark J. Beckwith '80 , Christopher C. Desmarais '93 , Robert J. Murphy '71 , Katie Jacobs Robinson '89, Dennis M. Baker, S.J. , and Rev. Terrence P. Devino, S.J. The election of new members took place at Fairfield University's Board of Trustees meeting held October 3, 2014.

Image: M Beckwith Mark J. Beckwith '80 is a retired partner and money manager with the Wellington Management Company, a private, independent investment management company serving over 2,000 institutions in over 50 countries. Prior to being elected partner in 2000, he served as a global energy industry analyst for the firm. From 1989 to 1995, he worked as a buy-side analyst for Tom Taylor Investment Advisors, and Silcap LLC, and from 1986 to 1989 as a sell-side equity analyst at Drexel Burnham Lambert, and as a research analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman from 1981 to 1985. A graduate of Bethel High School in Conn., he received his BS in mathematics from Fairfield University and his MS in statistics from Stanford University. An avid tennis and basketball player and fan, he coaches youth basketball, has served on the board of the Ridgefield Basketball Association, and supports the Connecticut Food Bank.

Image: C Desmairis Christopher C. Desmarais '93 is a Managing Director of GAMCO Asset Management Inc. as well as the Director of Socially Responsive Investments. His responsibilities involve business development and relationship management of the firm's long-only and alternative investment capabilities for institutional, endowment and family office clients across the country. Mr. Desmarais has direct oversight for all of the firm's SRI equity products and is a co-portfolio manager of The Gabelli SRI Fund - an open-end mutual fund adhering to social guidelines.  In addition, Mr. Desmarais manages the firm's involvement with Charles Schwab, Fidelity and TD Ameritrade. He has served as a member of the Charles F. Dolan School of Business Advisory Board at Fairfield University since 2005 and as Chairman since 2010. Mr. Desmarais is a graduate of Fairfield University with a BA in Economics.

Image: R Murphy Robert J. Murphy '71 is the Vice President of Administration for ABC News, part of the ABC Television Network and The Walt Disney Company, where he has played key roles in the re-launch of Nightline and the political coverage of the 2008 and 2012 elections. Prior to becoming vice president in 2007, he was Senior Vice President of Multi-media, where he was responsible for producing news content across a variety of broadcast, cable, internet, and wireless platforms. He was made Senior Vice President for Hard News at ABC in 1993, where he was responsible for the coverage of all the ABC news bureaus, as well as flagship programs like World News Tonight and World News This Morning . He joined ABC in 1976, on the Washington bureau desk, and served in Washington until 1981, when he moved to New York to oversee television news coverage. Prior to joining ABC he was staff assistant to Congressman Peter Rodino during the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment inquiry of President Richard Nixon. He is also chair of the board of directors of Abraham House, an agency of the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York that serves as an alternative to incarceration and the families impacted by it. He is a 1971 graduate of Fairfield University and holds an MBA from the College of William & Mary.

Image: K Robinson Katie Jacobs Robinson '89 is a member of the ownership group of Delaware North Companies, a global leader in hospitality and food service. Her grandfather founded the company in 1915, and today it has more than $3.0 billion in annual revenue and 60,000 associates serving half a billion customers in the United States, Canada, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Delaware North is one of the largest privately held companies in the world. Mrs. Robinson has been involved in numerous civic and philanthropic events and organizations. She has also participated in several nonprofit boards, including the Children's Advocacy Center Board, the Bronx Charter School of Excellence and the American Hunter Jumper Foundation. She has also been very involved in the Windward School and recently chaired its annual gala raising a record-setting amount for Windward's new school to be opened in Manhattan. Mrs. Robinson is also an accomplished equestrian who has successfully competed on a national level for the past 30 years. Mrs. Robinson is a 1989 graduate of Fairfield University and received a M.Ed. degree from Boston College in 1992.

Image: D Baker Dennis M. Baker, S.J. , is a Jesuit scholastic studying theology at Boston College in his last year of preparation for priestly ordination. He will be ordained to the priesthood on June 13, 2015, in New York at Fordham University. He is a trustee of Regis High School and recently served as vocation coordinator for Manhattan and Brooklyn for the New York Province. He was a member of the history faculty at Xavier High School in Manhattan, where he also coached basketball and baseball. Other posts include teaching history at Canisius High School in Buffalo and St. Peter School in Lewiston, N.Y. His recent ministerial experience includes work for the Judicial Vicar's office of the Archdiocese of Boston, as a Food Center volunteer at St. Anthony Shrine and Ministry Center in Boston, chaplain to the Fordham University baseball program, and a tutor at Cristo Rey High School in New York. A native of Niagara Falls, NY, he earned his BA in history from Fordham University, an MS in Criminal Justice Administration from Niagara University, and an MA in philosophy from Fordham. He will be granted his M. Div. degree from Boston College School of Theology in May 2015.

Image: T Devino Rev. Terrence P. Devino, S.J., is Vice President and University Secretary of Boston College, and special assistant to president Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., and director of Manresa House, the University's center for vocational discernment. Prior to joining B.C. in 2010, he worked at the University of Scranton as the Assistant Vice President and subsequently Vice President for University Ministries. He was responsible for the leadership of the university's Campus Ministry, the International Service Program, and the Community Outreach Office. Prior to his time in Scranton, he spent three years as associate chaplain at Fairfield University. He has also worked as a patient and family relations representative at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and director of the Jesuit Urban Center in Boston. A former diocesan priest in Springfield, Mass., Fr. Devino was ordained in 1987, and joined the Society of Jesus in 1994. He earned a BA in Urban Studies from Worcester State University, his M. Div. degree from the School of Theology and Pastoral Ministry at Seton Hall University, and a certificate in Spiritual Direction from the Center for Religious Development at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology.

The Board of Trustees of Fairfield University is a group of individuals empowered to act as a body to make policy and fiduciary decisions and to govern the affairs of the institution. The Board of Trustees is composed of members who are nominated because of their stature and influence in their community and their respective expertise. While Board members are not involved in the day-to-day operation of the University, they are responsible for seeing that the mission of the University and its goals and objectives are carried out in the operations of the institution.

Posted On: 10-21-2014 03:10 PM

Volume: 47 Number: 92