Stanford University

News Service


NEWS RELEASE

1/7/03

Andrea M. Hamilton, News Service: (650) 724-5708, andrea.hamilton@stanford.edu

Board of Trustees elects four new alumni-nominated trustees

The Board of Trustees elected four new trustees to the board at its December meeting.

The Alumni Association conducted the nomination process for this group of trustee candidates, and its nominating committee, together with the board's committee on nominations, selected the final nominees. Groups of four alumni-nominated trustees are selected every two-and-a-half years to serve a five-year term, so that eight such trustees serve at any time.

Thanks to an energetic outreach effort by the Alumni Association, its staff and its trustee nominating committee, there was an enormous pool of enthusiastic candidates to choose from. For the first time, the association's nominating committee used an online application process to solicit applicants. Early last year some 30,000 e-mails were sent, targeting in particular recent graduates from the classes of 1991 through 1998. An additional call for nominations ran in the monthly online alumni newsletter, @Stanford, followed by more e-mails to recent graduates from the law, business and medical schools. The committee also solicited nominations from volunteers who participated in the Campaign for Undergraduate Education's "Think Again" tour.

As a result of these efforts, 420 alumni applied for the four open seats on the board ­ twice as many applicants as the largest number in the past. After reviewing this large pool and interviewing a group of semifinalists, the Alumni Association's committee presented a short list to the Board of Trustee's committee on nominations. Together, the two panels proposed four names to be brought to the Board of Trustees for election.

The newly elected trustees, who begin their terms in March, are Jon Blum, Young Boozer III, Michael Choo and Dr. Joy Simmons.

Jon Blum received his A.B. from Stanford in international relations and economics in 1984. After receiving an MBA from Columbia in 1986, Blum eventually joined Morgan Stanley, where he is a managing director, responsible for global hedge fund clients. He resides in New York.

As a Stanford student, Blum was an ASSU senator and founding chairman of the Stanford Student Volunteer Telethon. Since graduation, he has served as Class Agent and has been a volunteer for Keystone, Cornerstone and the Leadership Gifts Committee; last year he was a member of the Think Again Steering Committee. Recently, he launched a pilot program in New York with the Stanford Career Development Center to establish an alumni mentoring network for undergraduates.

Young Boozer III graduated in 1971 with an A.B. in economics. He received his MBA from Wharton in 1973. He is now the executive vice president of Colonial BancGroup in his home state of Alabama.

Boozer's extensive involvement with Stanford ranges from his most recent role as chair of the Stanford Alumni Association Board from 2000 to 2001, to acting as a perennial host to Stanford football players in the Blue-Gray All-Star football game in Montgomery, Ala., on Christmas Day. He has received numerous Stanford Associates awards, and frequently hosts members of the Stanford community who pass through Montgomery.

Michael Choo graduated from Stanford in 1996 with an A.B. in public policy. He worked at Goldman Sachs & Co. and govWorks Inc. before receiving his MBA from Harvard last year. He is an associate at WL Ross & Co., a New York-based private equity firm that specializes in investing in distressed companies.

At Stanford, Choo was a student body president in 1995-96 and deputy chair of the ASSU Senate in 1994-95. He served as a student representative to the Board of Trustees Committee on Academic Policy, Planning and Management from 1994 to 1996. As an alumnus, Choo was chair of his fifth reunion committee and a leadership gifts volunteer. He also has served as a representative of the Stanford Asian Pacific American Alumni Club.

Dr. Joy Simmons received her A.B. in human biology in 1974 and went on to medical school at UCLA. After receiving her M.D., she specialized in radiology and joined Southern California Permanente Medical Group in 1983. Currently, she is the subsection chief of computerized tomography and sonography at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center.

Dr. Simmons has pioneered several initiatives at Stanford as both student and alumna. As a freshman in 1970, she co-founded the Black Pre-Med Society. She was a founding member of the Stanford Black Alumni of Southern California, and its president from 1996 to 1999. She originated and hosts each year an event to bring together all Stanford applicants of color in the Los Angeles area, their parents, and Stanford alumni of all ages and careers. She also volunteered for the Think Again campaign in Los Angeles and the Undergraduate Reception/College Fair.

Board Chair Isaac Stein applauded the new trustees' election. "All four of these alumni have proven themselves as committed volunteers for Stanford. We are delighted to welcome them to the Board of Trustees." Stein also praised the Alumni Association staff and nominating committee for their exceptional efforts organizing the process. "The committee not only generated a much larger applicant pool than ever before, but then went through an exhaustive selection process which yielded excellent candidates."

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By Andrea M. Hamilton

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