Board of Trustees nominates two new members

Pitt’s Board of Trustees Nominating Committee named two Pitt community members as new candidates for membership on the board.

During a 10-minute conference call meeting Friday morning in Posvar Hall, the Committee nominated Jane Bilewicz Allred and James P. Covert as the board’s new candidates.

Additionally, the Committee nominated Stephen R. Tritch for re-election as chair of the board and Eva Tansky Blum as chairperson-elect. Tansky Blum, executive vice president and director of community affairs for PNC Bank and chair and president of The PNC Foundation, will become the board’s chair after Tritch completes his term in June 2015. The Committee also nominated Morgan K. O’Brien, president and CEO of Peoples Natural Gas Company LLC, for re-election as vice chair.

The board will approve the nominations at a public meeting Friday, June 20 at 10 a.m. in the William Pitt Union, according to Ken Service, vice chancellor for communications.

Service said when looking for new membership, the nominating committee seeks people whose talents can contribute to furthering the board’s goals. As Pitt alumni, Allred and Covert have maintained strong ties to the University throughout their respective careers.

Allred, retired president of Allred Marketing, Inc., a business-to-business technology marketing company, is the immediate past-president of the Pitt Alumni Association and has served on its board since 2008, according to a University statement released today. A recipient of Pitt’s 225th Anniversary Medallion and the inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award from the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Allred also established the Allred Endowed Writing Fund to support the University Writing Center.

Covert, a four-year letterman and two-time All-American selection while on Pitt’s football team, played for the Chicago Bears from 1983 to 1990. In 2007, he joined the Institute for Transfusion Medicine where he helped form a partnership with Pitt to conduct clinical research in blood and blood disorders.

The Committee also nominated eight members for re-election to the board — Mary Ellen Callahan, Robert M. Hernandez, Terrence P. Laughlin, F. James McCarl III, Keith E. Schaefer, William E. Strickland, Jr., John A. Swanson and Sam S. Zacharias.

Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg, who will retire this August, commended the nominations.

“The University has benefitted from its contributions in the past and will continue to benefit from the wisdom and insights of its members as Pitt moves through the coming transition in leadership,” Nordenberg said in the statement.