UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Ten individuals were named to serve on the Penn State Board of Trustees, either through election or ex officio appointment, during the group's meeting today (May 5) at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center.
University alumni re-elected incumbents Robert C. Jubelirer and Alice W. Pope, and elected and Joseph “Jay” V. Paterno to the board for the first time.
Delegates of the agricultural societies re-elected incumbent Keith E. Masser and elected Lynn A. Dietrich to his first term on the board.
The board elected two trustees representing business and industry endeavors: incumbent Walter C. Rakowich and Mark H. Dambly, vice chair of the Board of Trustees, who has served on the board as a governor-appointed trustee since 2010. The board also re-elected Matthew W. Schuyler to a second term as an at-large trustee.
Engineering student Michael Hoeschele was elected to the board for a two-year term as the student trustee.
Kevin Steele, by virtue of his position as immediate past president of the Penn State Alumni Association as of July 1, 2017, will assume a two-year seat on the board, replacing Kay L. Salvino in that capacity.
The elected trustees will serve three-year terms, beginning July 1, 2017, and ending June 30, 2020, unless otherwise noted.
Board members elected by the alumni are:
Robert C. Jubelirer
Jubelirer served in the Pennsylvania Senate from 1975 to 2006. He was president pro tempore of the Senate for 21 years, and served as lieutenant governor. Jubelirer graduated from Penn State in 1959 with a degree in history and earned his law degree from the Dickinson School of Law in 1962. He is currently a partner with Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell and Hippel. He has been honored with the Dickinson School of Law Career Achievement Award; the Penn State Distinguished Alumni Award; and the Alumni Association Alumni Fellow Award. Jubelirer was first elected to the board by the alumni in 2014.
Joseph “Jay” V. Paterno
Paterno is currently president of Blue Line 409 LLC. Paterno spent 22 seasons coaching college football, including 17 years on the Penn State staff. Paterno has served on philanthropic boards, including the Mount Nittany Conservancy; was part of two successful presidential campaigns; and attended the 2011 White House Community Leaders Forum. In addition, Paterno's experience includes raising private equity, business ventures, philanthropy, public speaking, television appearances, writing and consulting. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Penn State in 1991.
Alice W. Pope
Pope serves as a tenured associate professor of child clinical psychology at St. John’s University in New York City. She is a three-time Penn State alumna, earning bachelor’s (1979), master’s (1983) and doctoral (1986) degrees in psychology. Her academic career includes faculty appointments at public and private universities. Pope was first elected to the board by the alumni in 2014.
Board members elected by the agricultural societies are:
Lynn A. Dietrich
Dietrich retired as director of engineering for Manitowoc Cranes Inc. and is the former vice president of product development for Grove Manufacturing in Shady Grove, Pennsylvania. Dietrich graduated from Penn State in 1973 with a bachelor of science degree in agricultural engineering. He is a member of the Franklin County Farm Bureau, American Farm Bureau, Pennsylvania State Grange, and Cumberland Valley Grange. He is a recipient of both the College of Agricultural Sciences Outstanding Alumni Award and the Distinguished Alumni Award, the University's highest individual honor.
Keith E. Masser
Masser, immediate past chairman of the Board of Trustees, is chairman and CEO of Sterman Masser Inc., a family owned and operated potato growing, packing and shipping company based in central Pennsylvania. He graduated from Penn State in 1973 with a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering and began his career as a project engineer with Proctor and Gamble. Masser has been honored as a College of Agricultural Sciences Outstanding Alumni and as a Mid-Atlantic Master Farmer. He was first elected to the Board of Trustees by delegates from agricultural societies in 2008, and elected board chair in January 2013.
Board members representing business and industry are:
Mark H. Dambly
Dambly was elected vice chair of the Board of Trustees in July 2016. Dambly is president of Pennrose Properties, a Philadelphia-based multifamily property management firm that he joined in 1992. Dambly also serves on the board of the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and he is a board member of the Riverfront Alliance of Delaware County, Regional Housing Legal Services, the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Apartment Association—East. A Penn State graduate in real estate and insurance, Dambly has served on the Board of Trustees since being appointed by Gov. Ed Rendell in October 2010.
Walter C. Rakowich
Rakowich retired in 2012 as CEO of Prologis, an industrial real estate company that he joined in 1994. Rakowich previously worked at Trammel Crow Co. and Price Waterhouse. He earned a bachelor of science degree in accounting in 1979 from the Smeal College of Business and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He serves on the Real Estate Advisory Board of the Institute for Real Estate Studies in the Smeal College of Business and has been honored as an Alumni Fellow by the Penn State Alumni Association. Rakowich was first elected to the Board of Trustees in 2014 representing business and industry.
Elected as an at-large trustee:
Matthew W. Schuyler
Schuyler, who was first elected to the Board of Trustees in 2015 as an at-large trustee, is chief human resources officer for Hilton Worldwide. He received his bachelor of science degree in accounting from Penn State in 1987 and an MBA in organizational behavior and human resources management from the University of Michigan. His Penn State volunteer service includes membership on the boards of visitors of the Smeal College of Business, College of Information Sciences and Technology, and School of Hospitality Management. He is a member of the National Academy of Human Resources and was honored in 2013 as a Penn State Alumni Fellow.
Elected as the student trustee:
Michael Hoeschele
Hoeschele, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, is a nuclear engineering major completing his fourth semester at Penn State. He is the current chair of the University Park Allocation Committee and a member of the College Republicans and Lion Scouts. Hoeschele’s anticipated graduation date is May 2019.
Immediate past president, Penn State Alumni Association:
Kevin R. Steele
Steele will assume a seat on the board by virtue of his position as immediate past president of the Penn State Alumni Association as of July 1, 2017. Steele earned a juris doctor degree from Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law in 1992 and is currently district attorney for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Steele began his service on Alumni Council in 2005 representing Penn State’s Graduate School in his role as president of the Graduate School Alumni Society. He has served in a leadership position with the council’s Grassroots Network Committee since 2006, becoming chair in 2011. In that capacity, he joined Alumni Council’s Executive Board and was elected vice president in 2013 before becoming the Alumni Association’s 79th president in 2015.
Penn State’s Board of Trustees is composed of six members appointed by the governor, nine members elected by alumni, six members elected by agricultural societies, six members elected by the board representing business and industry endeavors, one student trustee, one academic trustee, three at-large trustees, and the immediate past president of the Penn State Alumni Association. In addition, five members are ex-officio by right of their office, including Gov. Thomas W. Wolf (non-voting), Penn State President Eric J. Barron (non-voting), Secretary of Agriculture Russell C. Redding, Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera, and Secretary of Conservation and Natural Resources Cynthia A. Dunn.
For more information on Penn State's board members, visit http://www.psu.edu/trustees/membership.html.
The total distribution of the votes cast in the alumni election are listed below by the position of the candidates on the ballot.
Ballot position: Candidate – Vote total
1. CANDIDATE WITHDREW
2. Joseph "Jay" V. Paterno, '91, State College, Pennsylvania — 16,322
3. Robert J. Bowsher, '86, San Diego, California — 8,868
4. Alice W. Pope, '79, '83g, '86g, Brooklyn, New York — 14,744
5. Robert C. Jubelirer, '59, '62 JD, Boalsburg, Pennsylvania — 13,173
Write-In Votes — 1,728
Total Eligible Voters — 643,782
Total Ballots Cast — 21,233