The University of Maryland Foundation (UMF) Board of Directors has elected a new slate of officers for 2000-2001. The officers provide leadership to the board which in turn manages funds entrusted to the Foundation, establishes its policies, and provides assistance to member institutions to meet their financial goals.

The new officers are as follows:

Roger R. Blunt, chairman

Lance W. Billingsley, reelected as vice chairman

Charles W. Cole, reelected as vice chairman

J. Stark Thompson, vice chairman

John W. Dillon, reelected as secretary

Walter R. Fatzinger, treasurer

The UMF is an affiliated foundation of the University System of Maryland. It assists the 13 USM institutions in investing funds, and it holds and manages funds. In recent years, several USM institutions pooled their endowments with the UMF to receive a higher rate of return on their investments.

The USM's Make a Lasting Impression Capital Campaign continues to grow toward its goal of $700 million by 2002. As of the end of February, more than $530 million has been raised.

Blunt is president of Blunt Enterprises of Oxon Hill, MD, a holding company for two construction firm subsidiaries, Tyroc Construction and Essex Construction. Blunt served as co-chair of the 1998 National Capital Task Force for the Washington Board of Trade, where he continues to serve as a board member. A former member of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents, Blunt is on the board of Leadership Maryland. He is former chair of the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities.

Thompson is president and chief executive officer of Life Technologies, Inc. in Gaithersburg, MD. He previously served as director of Duont de Nemours & Co.'s $300 million Diagnostic Systems Division. Thompson is a member of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute Board of Visitors.

Fatzinger is president and chief executive officer of ASB Capital Management, Inc., the money management subsidiary of Chevy Chase Federal Savings Bank. He was formerly with First Maryland, where he headed the Washington, D.C. area banking and trust department. Fatzinger served as president and director of the Mary and Daniel Loughran Foundation, Inc., donor of $470,000 to the University of Maryland Foundation for scholarships.

Newly elected UMF members, each of whom will serve a three-year term, are:

Richard F. Blewitt, co-founder of Rowan & Blewitt, an issues and crisis management consulting firm. Blewitt also serves as a member of the University of Maryland University College Board of Visitors and was chairman of its Presidential Search and Screening Committee which led to the selection of a new president for UMUC last year.

Mary K. Bush, president of Bush & Company, an international financial advisory firm. She formerly served as financial advisor at the District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority. Bush also has been the senior executive at Fannie Mae for international financial market matters and was U.S. alternate executive director of the International Monetary Fund Board. She also served as executive assistant to the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department.

B. Gary Dando, a partner at Ernst & Young. Dando is a member of the Board of Directors and president of the Business and Management Foundation for the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park. He also co-chairs its Bold Vision-Bright Future fundraising campaign, as well as College Park men's basketball coach Gary Williams' Coaches vs. Cancer campaign.

Michael S. Knapp, president of CitiFinancial. Prior to becoming president, Knapp was division executive for Citibank's Japan consumer banking operations for seven years. While there, he was the driving force behind many of the customer innovations that made Citibank the country's number one financial institution.

James L. Miller, chairman of the Board of Directors and chief executive officer of U.S. Foodservice, based in Columbia, MD. He also serves as its president. Miller previously served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Northern Division of PYA/Monarch. Before joining PYA/Monarch, he was a vice president at SYSCO Corporation.

Richard W. Phoebus, Sr., chairman, president and CEO of Home Federal Savings Bank in Hagerstown, MD and director of F&M Bancorp in Frederick, MD. Phoebus is chairman of the Washington County Airport Commission and the Washington County Health System. He is a member of the Frostburg State University Board of Visitors and the Maryland Health and Higher Education Facilities Authority.

Mark Sapperstein, director and vice president of Maryland Permanent Bank and Trust Company in Owings Mills, MD. Sapperstein has developed and constructed various commercial and residential projects throughout Maryland, including Ocean City and Baltimore County. He is a director of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and a member of the Foundation for Fighting Blindness.

Noting the continuing investment success of the UMF, its president, John K. Martin, credited the board with providing sound financial guidance, as well as establishing a level of influence unsurpassed in Maryland's public sector.

"Our organization, like any other, can only be as good as the team that leads it," Martin said. "This board of directors is simply phenomenal at getting the job of investment management and guidance done with due diligence, to the point where we can claim to be among the nation's very best public institutions for building endowment."

The total endowment for all 13 USM institutions has grown from $60 million in 1988 to $611 million today.

Contact:

Chris Hart
Phone: 301/445-2739
Pager: 301/507-2316
E-mail: chart@usmd.edu

University System of Maryland
3300 Metzerott Road
Adelphi, MD 20783-1690, USA
301.445.2740