New College of Florida has announced the appointments of William R. Johnston and Felice C. Schulaner to the College’s board of trustees. Mr. Johnston and Ms. Schulaner, who is a New College alumna, were appointed by the Florida Board of Governors and will replace Lt. General Rolland V. Heiser and Maj. General Raymond E. Mason, Jr., both of whose terms expire this fall. Johnston and Schulaner’s terms are for five years and begin in January 2010.
Highly regarded throughout financial circles, William R. Johnston served from 1996 to 2003 as the President and Chief Operating Officer of the New York Stock Exchange and has a long and distinguished record on Wall Street. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University, where he has remained actively involved over the years, and has served on the boards of Hollins College in Virginia, Friends of DeSoto National Park and Omicron Delta Kappa, of which he is a member. He also has served on advisory boards for the Lubin School of Business at Pace University in New York, Goizueta School of Business at Emory University and the Jepson School of Leadership Studies of Richmond University. Johnston and his wife Betsy now make their primary home in Bradenton, Florida.
Felice C. Schulaner is a graduate of New College and very active in the work of the New College Foundation and the New College Alumnae/i Association. She, too, has had a distinguished career in the New York metropolitan area, having served in senior executive positions with Macy’s and American Express. She most recently served as Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Coach, Inc. With her strong strategic sense and her deeply personal appreciation of the New College mission, Schulaner promises to bring a particularly valuable perspective to the future work of the College’s Board. She and her husband Dennis live on Siesta Key in Sarasota, Florida.
Florida Board of Governors’ Chair Sheila M. McDevitt and member Gus A. Stavros, who interviewed Johnston and Schulaner for their appointments, were enthusiastic about the strength of New College’s pool of candidates for the positions.
“I was tremendously impressed by all of the candidates for New College,” said Stavros during a statewide conference call in which the Board of Governors announced the new board appointments for all members of the State University System. “It is certainly not every day that we have the good fortune of getting a former head of the New York Stock Exchange on one of our college’s boards.”
McDevitt echoed his sentiments saying, “New College really hit a home run with these candidates.”
In many ways, Johnston and Schulaner’s appointments mark a passing of the torch for New College’s Board of Trustees. General Rolland Heiser was an original member of the board when the College gained independence in 2001 and is a past member of the Florida Board of Governors. He is also a past president of the New College Foundation, which he led for nearly two decades and of which he remains a trustee emeritus. General Ray Mason is also a longtime member of the boards for both New College and the New College Foundation.
According to New College President Mike Michalson, both have played significant roles in the history and development of the College.
“Suffice it to say that people as intertwined with New College’s history as Ron Heiser and Ray Mason will remain a part of our institutional life, especially as we anticipate the College’s fiftieth anniversary next year,” Michalson said. “Not only has their work on the College’s Board been exemplary, but their combined impact on the College’s successful development would be difficult to duplicate in any other pair of individuals. Our institutional debt to them both is a deep one, and I personally look forward to their continued involvement with New College in the years ahead.”
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