Perry Elected Trustees’ Chairman

Roger L. Perry Sr. ’71, president of Chapel Hill-based East West Partners, will chair the UNC Board of Trustees for the next year, and Karol V. Mason ’79 of Atlanta will serve as vice chair. In the trustees’ elections Thursday, Rusty Carter ’71 of Wilmington also was re-elected secretary. The three were elected by the 13-member Board of Trustees, which is responsible for governing the University.

Perry became a trustee in 2003 and has chaired the buildings and grounds committee and served on the compensation committee. He was reappointed to a new four-year term as a trustee by the UNC System Board of Governors last spring. As chairman, he succeeds Nelson Schwab III ’67, co-founder of the Charlotte-based merchant banking firm Carousel Capital.

Mason is a partner at the law firm Alston and Bird LLP. Carter is president of the Atlantic Corp. of Wilmington.

Three new trustees appointed earlier this year by the UNC System Board of Governors also participated in their first meetings this week. They are:

• Phillip L. Clay ’68 of Boston and chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
• Alston Gardner ’77 of Atlanta and Chapel Hill and a partner in Fulcrum Ventures, an Atlanta-based private equity firm focused on information technology, biotechnology and health care services companies; and
• Sallie Shuping Russell ’77 of Chapel Hill, managing director of Quellos Private Capital Markets LLC.

“Serving as chair of the trustees is an honor and a humbling responsibility,” Perry said. “Helping the University maintain and enhance its contribution to the health, economy and social well-being of the people of North Carolina is an obligation everyone at Carolina has. Having the chance to be a part of that mission is a rare opportunity for anyone who loves Carolina and the people of the state of North Carolina as I do.”

A native of Spring Lake, Perry received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Carolina. He has served the University as a member of the Carolina First Campaign’s Steering Committee, co-chair of the Raleigh Carolina First Campaign and a guest lecturer at the Kenan-Flagler Business School. He previously was a member of the UNC Board of Visitors and helped lead fund-raising efforts for the Finley Golf Course renovation. Perry has played a key role in town-gown issues as a trustee and volunteer, most recently as part of the Chancellor’s Leadership Advisory Committee for Carolina North.

Mason received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Carolina and earned a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1982. She has chaired the trustees’ audit and finance and conflicts of interest committees. She has been a member of the GAA’s Board of Directors and received the GAA’s Distinguished Young Alumna Award in 1991. She also has served on the UNC Board of Visitors, the Arts and Sciences Foundation board of directors and the National Development Council.

Carter graduated from Carolina with a bachelor of arts in journalism. He has chaired the trustees’ university affairs committee since 2002. Carter has served on UNC’s Board of Visitors, Morehead Scholarship Selection Committee, the steering committee for the Carolina First Campaign, School of Journalism and Mass Communication board of visitors and the Educational Foundation Inc. He also served in the University’s National Development Council and the journalism scholarship selection committee.

Clay also is a professor of city planning at MIT. He graduated from UNC with a bachelor’s degree with honors and earned his doctorate in 1975 from MIT. He received UNC’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2002. Widely known for his work in U.S. housing policy, Clay is president of the Board of Directors of the Community Builders, the largest nonprofit developer of affordable housing.

Gardner graduated from Carolina with a bachelor’s degree. He is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Kenan-Flagler Business School, where he teaches and serves on the board of visitors. He is a member of the steering committee for the Carolina First Campaign, chaired the International Studies advisory board and helped lead efforts to build the FedEx Global Education Center.

Russell graduated from Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in English and earned an MBA from Columbia University in 1983. Her service on Carolina boards has included the UNC Board of Visitors and the board of directors of the Foundation Investment Fund Inc. She is a member of the board of directors of the UNC Health Care System.

Related coverage is available online:

• Schwab Elected Trustees’ Chairman
  News report from July 2005