Stanford's Board of Trustees elects two new members

By Kathleen J. Sullivan

Bret Comolli and Angela Filo will begin their service on the Stanford University Board of Trustees April 1. (Photos, l-r: Nancy Rothstein Photograpy; Lisa DeNeffe)

The Stanford University Board of Trustees recently elected two new members: Bret E. Comolli, executive chairman of Asurion Corp., a mobile technology services company, and Angela S. Filo, founder of the Yellow Chair Foundation.

They will begin their five-year terms on April 1.

"Bret's distinguished business career and military service recommend him highly to the board, and I am very glad to welcome him as a fellow trustee," said Steven A. Denning, chair of the Board of Trustees. "His leadership qualities and commitment to a variety of Stanford programs, including Stanford Medicine, are widely respected and have added immeasurably to the university."

Denning also said he was delighted to welcome Filo to the board.

"Her experience as an educator, photographer, artist and journalist will add invaluable perspective to the board," Denning said. "Her impressive commitment to education, civil liberties and the environment will serve Stanford well."

Bret E. Comolli

Comolli, who became executive director of Asurion in 2010, served as the company's chief executive officer from 2001 to 2010.

During his tenure, the privately held company expanded from 200 employees and $90 million in revenue to 18,000 employees and $6.5 billion in revenue, with operations in 14 countries.

Prior to Asurion, he served as the chief executive officer of Kendara Corp., and held senior management positions at Excite@Home and at Risk Management Solutions. He also worked at McKinsey & Company, where he consulted with Fortune 500 companies on strategic, operational and organizational issues.

Comolli earned an MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) in 1989, after serving for five years as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, including a position as company commander.

He earned a bachelor's degree – with a concentration in civil and mechanical engineering – at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1982.

At Stanford, Comolli serves on the board of directors of Stanford Health Care, where he is chair of the quality and service committee.

He also serves on the Major Gifts Committee for the $1 billion Campaign for Stanford Medicine, which will make investments in research, teaching and patient care, and build a new Stanford hospital. Stanford launched the campaign in 2012.

In addition, Comolli is the chairman of the GSB Management Board.

The GSB recently announced that Comolli will receive the 2015 Military Service Appreciation Award. The award was established in 2009. The two most recent winners were George Shultz, former U.S. Secretary of State, and Denning.

Comolli is a member of the national advisory board of the Haas Center for Public Service at Sanford.

He also serves on the board of Coaching Corps, which offers after-school sports programs for girls and boys who live in struggling communities.

Since 2005, he has been a member of CTIA – The Wireless Association, the trade association for the wireless communications industry.

Angela S. Filo

Filo established the Yellow Chair Foundation, which awards grants to organizations focused on education, civil liberties, gender equity and the environment, in 2000. She leads the day-to-day operations and programmatic work of the family foundation, which is based in Palo Alto.

In 2014, the foundation awarded grants to 36 organizations, including Bing Nursery School, which is part of Stanford's School of Humanities and Sciences, and Stanford New Schools, which supports the East Palo Alto Academy, a small public charter high school. The foundation also awarded grants to national organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Sierra Club, and to international organizations, including the Global Fund for Women.

At Stanford, Filo is a member of the advisory council and the dean's task force at the Graduate School of Education.

Previously, she served on The Stanford Challenge K-12 Advisory Council and as a volunteer for her 20th reunion in 2013. Filo earned a bachelor's degree in human biology at Stanford in 1993, followed by a master's degree in journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1999.

Filo and her husband, David (MS '90), have supported several areas at the university, including establishing professorships in the Graduate School of Education and the School of Engineering, and helping to launch the Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship.

Filo also is a photographer and educator.

Her photography and public art installations, which examine how economic cycles transform the landscape, are held several collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the City of San Jose and Fidelity Investments.

Filo is a former journalism and photography teacher at Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto, and a former member of the board of directors of the Student Press Law Center in Washington, D.C. Currently, she is the co-chair of the American Civil Liberties Union's Centennial Campaign.

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