WESLEYAN WELCOMES SEVEN NEW MEMBERS TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
LEO Y. AU ’71
Leo Au is a retired senior vice president and corporate treasurer of Mellon Financial Corporation, a global financial services company previously headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa. At Mellon, he held senior positions in finance, foreign exchange, and capital markets. As treasurer, Au had primary responsibility for asset/liability management, capital management, currency exposure management, corporate risk management, and employee benefits finance. He received an MA from the University of Chicago and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Harvard Club of Naples, Fla. At Wesleyan, Au majored in sociology and was involved with WESU. An active volunteer, he served as an Alumni Association officer and received a Wesleyan University Service Award in 2011. This is his second time serving on the Board of Trustees.
MARC N. CASPER ’90
Marc Casper has been president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific, the largest company serving the life sciences industry, since October 2009. Prior to joining Thermo Fisher in 2001, he served as president, chief executive o cer, and a director of Kendro Laboratory Products. A member of the board of trustees of Brigham & Women’s Hospital, he is also on the boards of the U.S.-China Business Council and U.S. Bancorp. At Wesleyan he majored in economics, was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and served as co-director of WESU-FM sports. An avid fan of ice hockey, he was the manager of the Cardinals men’s ice hockey team and now leads a group that owns the Manchester (N.H.) Monarchs. He earned an MBA with high distinction from Harvard Business School.
JOHN H. HALL ’65, P’92
John Hall is Of Counsel at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York City. He became a partner in the firm in 1979 and thereafter served as head of the firm’s litigation department and its pro bono program. He currently provides post-conviction representation to persons sentenced to death in Alabama and Texas, regularly working with the Equal Justice Initiative, headed by Bryan Stevenson, Hon. ’16. Hall has served on the boards of many legal services organizations, including The National Center for Law and Economic Justice. Since 1985, he has been a member of the board of Prep for Prep, a leadership development pro- gram for students of color. Hall earned his law degree, magna cum laude, from Columbia, where he was an editor of the Law Review. At Wesleyan University, he majored in English and was a member of the lacrosse team and the Chi Psi Lodge. An active fundraiser for his class, he served on the 50th Reunion committee and was given the Wesleyan University Service Award in 2015.
HONG QU ’99
Hong Qu, the chief technology officer for Fusion, specializes in helping media companies drive customer growth through design thinking. He was previously a member of the startup teams for both YouTube—where he designed, coded, and launched key features of the product—and Upworthy—where he built a state-of-the-art content management system optimized for social media and real-time analytics. At Wesleyan, Qu majored in East Asian studies and economics. He spent the summer of his sophomore year on campus working in the library and volunteering to give campus tours. In his senior year, he was the online editor for the Wesleyan Argus. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Asian American Arts Alliance.
ELIZABETH HUN SCHMIDT ’89
Betsey Schmidt is the chief curriculum and innovation officer for Ascend Learning Inc. With its mission to provide children with a world-class liberal arts edu- cation that equips them for success in college and beyond, the nonprofit charter school management organization runs nine K-12 schools in low-income central Brooklyn neighborhoods. Schmidt, who holds a PhD in American literature from New York University, has taught at the college level. She has also worked in publishing, at both The New Yorker and
The New York Times Book Review, where she edited poetry. An English major at Wesleyan, she received an Olin Fellowship to extend her senior thesis into an in-depth study of Elizabeth Bishop’s juvenilia and her mature writing about childhood. Schmidt has published literary journalism and cultural criticism widely.
ADAM USDAN ’83
Adam Usdan is a founder of Trellis Partners. From 1994 to 1997, he served as an advisor to Neuberger Berman, an investment advisor. Prior to that, he spent seven years with Odyssey Partners. A member of the board of overseers of the Graduate School of International Economics and Finance at Brandeis University, he is also a board member at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services and has been a member of the board of the Park Avenue Synagogue. He is a mem- ber of the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veteran’s Healthcare Advisory Board and the Weill Cornell Dean’s Council, and he also serves on the boards of Gri n Mining and Juhl Energy. As an undergraduate, Usdan majored in English. He earned an MBA from Northwestern with majors in finance, marketing, and accounting. This is Usdan’s second time serving on the Wesleyan board of trustees.
DONNA S. ZILKHA P’10,’10,’16
Donna Zilkha, an expert on educational policy and U.S. school and college admissions, is executive direc- tor of College and International Services at Aristotle Circle, an education technology company. Beginning her career 35 years ago as a lawyer with Shearman & Sterling, she subsequenlty readjusted her professional focus with the arrival of her children and a move to France. There, she joined the board of education of the town of Neuilly and also became head of a national public interest group for parents of students in public education. She is the mother of three Wesleyan alumni: Alexis ’10, Rebecca ’10, and Laetitia ’16. With degrees from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and Columbia Law School, Zilkha is a frequent speaker on the topic of college admissions for student, government, and family groups internationally.