“One of the things that Fordham does well is manage a constant flow of new talent onto the Board of Trustees,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University. “The board’s diversity of expertise and points of view enables us to respond to strategic opportunities and challenges in a timely and effective way. I am deeply grateful to our board members—ably led by Bob Daleo—for their generosity and dedication to Fordham.”

Some of the trustees, like financial services executive James Rowen, practically grew up on Fordham’s campus, beginning with Fordham Prep. Others have ties that bind to family, like attorney Maryanne Lavan, who has honored the memory of her late brother, a Fordham graduate, with an endowed scholarship. For others, the Fordham mission is a mission shared with family. Real estate executive Jorge B. San Miguel started his term as a trustee just a month after his brother, Luis E. San Miguel, completed his service on the Fordham board.

 The new trustees will bring both arts and science perspectives in addition to their primary expertise. Investor James Buckman is a former board member of the New York Philharmonic, and Gregory C. Chisholm, S.J., a Harlem pastor, holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from MIT.

Most bring perspectives on contemporary civic issues and ethics from a variety of fields. Insurance executive John Lumelleau is a champion of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City. Andrew Hinton served as a federal prosecutor focusing on white-collar crime. Anthony Carter is a nationally recognized expert on diversity and inclusion. And Michael Dowling’s rise from hardscrabble Irish immigrant to leader of New York’s largest system of hospitals and long-term care providers reflects that of Fordham’s own Irish-immigrant founder, Archbishop John Hughes.

Here, in brief, are their biographies:

James E. Buckman, FCRH ’66, PAR ’05
Buckman is the retired vice chairman of York Capital Management, a New York-based hedge fund firm with approximately $14 billion under management. Currently a private investor, Buckman had a long career as a corporate general counsel, much of which he spent in the hospitality industry, particularly with the Cendant Corporation. After Cendant’s dissolution, he became a board member of the Wyndham Destinations, Inc., one of Cendant’s spinoff companies, and continues to serve as director of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Inc. Earlier in his life he served as a first lieutenant in the Connecticut Air National Guard, the Georgia Air National Guard, and the United States Air Force Reserve. He is also a former board member of the New York Philharmonic, where he and his wife, Nancy, have endowed a chair in the orchestra for a cellist. He is a trustee of Fordham Preparatory School, where he is also a member of the Hall of Honor. At Fordham, the Buckmans have an endowed a chair in the theology department—the James and Nancy Buckman Applied Chair in Christian Ethics—and the James and Nancy Buckman Endowed Scholarship. Buckman co-chaired the University’s Excelsior Campaign and in 2009 received the Fordham Founder’s Award. The Buckmans have three daughters, Elizabeth, Anne, LAW ’05, and Julia.

Anthony P. Carter, FCRH ’76, PAR ’15
In 2015, Carter retired as vice president, Global Diversity & Inclusion, and chief diversity officer for Johnson & Johnson. Under his leadership, the company was consistently named one of the top 10 among the 50 best American companies for diversity by DiversityInc magazine, earning the number one position in 2009. Carter has been recognized by Black Enterprise magazine as one of the top chief diversity officers in America.  At Fordham, Carter served as chair of the University’s search committee for a chief diversity officer, was a member of the University’s Diversity Task Force, and was Fordham’s executive champion while he was at Johnson & Johnson. In May of 2017, Carter was the speaker for the Gabelli School of Business diploma ceremony and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Fordham. He also served on the University’s President’s Council and supports Fordham’s CSTEP program. Carter grew up in the South Bronx in a family of 10 children whose parents died when he was young. He and his wife, Wendy, have three children, Austin, Ashley, and Dayne, FCRH ’15.

Gregory C. Chisholm, S.J.
Father Chisholm is currently pastor of the Parish of St. Charles Borromeo, Resurrection and All Saints in Harlem.  He is also dean of the Central Harlem region of Roman Catholic parishes. He joined the New England Province of the Jesuits in 1980 and was ordained a priest in 1993; he now belongs to the USA Northeast Province of the Jesuits. Father Chisholm received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and taught mechanical engineering at the University of Detroit Mercy.  Since 1998 he has been in full-time parish ministry in Los Angeles and New York City, serving largely African-American and Latino communities. He has served on the governing boards of several universities as well as Cristo Rey New York High School. He currently is on the board of Xavier High School. Father Chisholm grew up in Harlem, where his family attended St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church. He attended Catholic schools in Harlem and the Bronx.

Michael Dowling, GSS ’74
Dowling is president and CEO of Northwell Health, the largest system of hospitals and long-term care providers in New York and the largest private employer in New York state. Dowling was instrumental in the merger of North Shore and Long Island Jewish hospitals. Before joining Northwell Health in 1995, he was a senior vice president at Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Dowling also served in New York State government for 12 years, seven of which were spent as state director of Health, Education and Human Services and deputy secretary to the governor. He was also commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services. Before his work in public service, Dowling was a professor of social policy and assistant dean at the Fordham Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) and director of the Fordham campus in Westchester County. In May of 2017, he received a doctor of humane letters and spoke at the GSS diploma ceremony. Dowling is the oldest of five children; he grew up in a home in Limerick, Ireland, without electricity, running water, bathrooms, or heat—but, he says, his family always had plenty of books. He and his wife, Kathy, have two children, Brian and Elizabeth.

Andrew J. Hinton, LAW ’89
Hinton currently serves as vice president of global ethics and compliance at Google, where he spearheads efforts to identify and mitigate compliance risk and expand upon the company’s core values. He joined Google in 2006. After receiving his J.D. in 1989 from Fordham Law, where he was a member of Fordham Law Review, Hinton worked as a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York, with concentration on commercial litigation and white collar criminal defense. He went on to work at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York as a federal prosecutor, focusing on white-collar crime. He serves on the Ethics Research Center Board of Directors and has lectured at the Compliance & Ethics Institute. Hinton has remained connected to Fordham Law, serving on the Class of 1989’s 25th Reunion committee in 2014. He lives in Palo Alto, California, with his wife, Joy, and their two children, Sarah and Eric.

Maryanne Lavan
Lavan is senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary at Lockheed Martin Corporation. She joined Lockheed Martin in 1990 as an attorney and served in increasingly senior positions within the legal department. The company’s first female general counsel, she is responsible for managing the corporation’s legal affairs and law department. Lavan became involved with Fordham University after her youngest brother, Matthew Lavan, FCRH ’98, passed away in 2003. She supports the Matthew J. Lavan Endowed Scholarship at Fordham, established by Matthew’s classmate, and has given generously to the Global Outreach Program at Rose Hill, which Matthew participated in as a student. In September 2014, Lavan joined the President’s Council Executive Committee. Several members of her family are Fordham graduates, including her father, Thomas Lavan, UGE ’57, and late mother, Ann Lavan, UGE ’54, who met at Fordham. She and her husband, Larry Harris, have two children, Mikayla and Zachary.

John Lumelleau, FCRH ’74
In 2017, Lumelleau retired as the president and CEO of Lockton, the world’s largest privately held independent insurance broker. Under his leadership, the Lockton team grew to become a global organization with more than with 85 offices worldwide and more than $1.4 billion in fiscal revenue in 2017. He now serves as an adviser to the board. Lumelleau has been a supporter of Fordham Athletics programs for many years. In recognition of his consistent support of the Fordham Football program, Lumelleau, a former player at Fordham, was honored with the Walsh Award in September 2015. Lumelleau joined the Executive Committee of the Fordham President’s Council in August 2015. Outside of Fordham he has long been involved in civic issues, serving previously on the Board of Directors of the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers; the Board of Overseers of the St. John’s University School of Risk Management & Actuarial Sciences; and as an ambassador for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City, an organization he supports together with his wife, Loretta. The Lumelleaus have three children, Ryan, Matthew, and Anne.

James S. Rowen, FCRH ’86, GABELLI ’98
Rowen is the chief operating officer at Renaissance Technologies, LLC, a New York-based registered investment adviser. His career spans 25 years in the financial services, including the equity derivatives, prime brokerage, and structured finance businesses. Rowen holds positions on the Founders Council at the Managed Funds Association, where he previously served as vice chairman. Before Renaissance, he was the chief financial officer of hedge fund firm SAC Capital Advisors LLC. Prior to that he was responsible for Deutsche Bank’s Global Equity Finance and Prime Brokerage business. In addition to his two degrees from Fordham University, Rowen is a 1982 graduate of Fordham Preparatory School and has served as chairman of that school’s board. He has also served as a member of the Fordham College at Rose Hill Alumni Board. He and his wife, Diane, have two children, James and Kaitlin.

Jorge B. San Miguel, GABELLI ’82
San Miguel is the president of the San Miguel Foundation, where he is responsible for fundraising, investment, and portfolio management at the family foundation. During his thirty-year career, San Miguel served as executive vice president and chief information officer of Florida East Coast Industries and as chief financial officer of Codina Group, Inc., a South Florida based real estate development company. Prior to that, San Miguel worked at Ernst & Young, where he developed a Latin America mergers and acquisitions group. San Miguel resides in Key Biscayne, Florida. He currently serves as treasurer of Miramar United Elite FC youth soccer academy and coaches both soccer and football at his high school alma mater, Immaculata-La Salle High School in Miami.

On March 30, Fordham University launched the public phase of a far-reaching fundraising campaign in support of new levels of academic excellence at Fordham and greater stature for the University as a nationally prominent center of learning.

Excelsior | Ever Upward | The Campaign for Fordham seeks $500 million to support new facilities, more student scholarships, more endowed faculty chairs and more funding for academic endeavors throughout Fordham’s colleges and schools.

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, announced the campaign before an audience of more than 900 supporters gathered at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan.

“For 168 years, Fordham has always told its sons and daughters to move beyond the limitations or constraints that they feel hold them back,” Father McShane said. “This night, we return the favor. This night, we pay back this institution that embraced us with faith, nurtured us with love and sent us out into the world with hope. This night, we announce the public kickoff of the most ambitious capital campaign in Fordham’s long and storied history.”

Watch the campaign video here.

Excelsior | Ever Upward | The Campaign for Fordham seeks new stature for the University by 2016, the 175th anniversary of Fordham’s founding. It comes at a time when the University is climbing sharply in college rankings, gaining more recognition for its academic programs and attracting more of the nation’s top students.

“The campaign for Fordham University will be a transforming experience for this University,” said John Tognino (FCLS ’75), chairman of the Fordham Board of Trustees. “It will be the catalyst to propel us to 2016, when we will be the premier Catholic institution of higher learning in the United States, and it will afford us the opportunity to continue to fulfill our mission, and that is educating men and women of distinction.”

The campaign is more than halfway complete, with $266 million raised. It has been leaving its mark on the University since 2004—during the campaign’s “quiet” phase—in the form of endowed faculty chairs, endowed scholarships and new residence halls being built on the Rose Hill campus.

The campaign has already drawn three gifts of $5 million, four gifts of $7 million and three gifts of $10 million.

The campaign kickoff took place immediately following the Fordham Founder’s Award Dinner, which honored two Fordham benefactors and members of the Board of Trustees—James Buckman (FCRH ’66) and John Kehoe (FCRH ’60, FCLC ’85)—who are also co-chairs of the campaign.

At the event, Father McShane described campaign goals that will bring improvements throughout the University.

Academic support
Half of the money raised by the campaign will fund academic improvements. That includes $150 million for endowed scholarships and endowed professorships and $100 million in support for various academic endeavors: faculty recruitment and retention; research endowments for faculty; funding for Fordham centers and institutes; and support for academic programs such as on-campus living and learning communities and honors programs.

The University seeks more scholarship funding so it can continue to open its doors to the most academically promising students—now, and in future generations, Buckman said.

“I was very fortunate to be able to attend Fordham via scholarships provided to me by the University as well as by other sources. Had I not received that scholarship help, it would have been very difficult for my parents to send me to Fordham,” he said. “We still have a number of students who are in similar situations.”

Another campaign goal is to add 40 endowed chairs, thereby attracting more of the nation’s top scholars while improving the student-to-faculty ratio and allowing faculty more time for research and mentoring students. The increase is also expected to diversify the fields of academic expertise at Fordham and pave the way for innovative, interdisciplinary programs on topics of current interest, Buckman said.

Fordham wants endowed chairs in science education, immigration and refugee studies, interfaith dialogues and environmental science, among other topics with deep resonance in today’s world.

Annual Giving
The University has set a goal of $80 million in annual support that helps meet emergent needs throughout the University. These gifts, frequently matched by corporations and foundations, help keep tuition down and give the University financial flexibility for meeting new funding challenges.

Some annual gifts are unrestricted, allowing them to be used University-wide, while others may be directed to particular colleges and schools to support research, travel to academic conferences, or other academic needs.

Facilities
The University has outgrown its facilities since the last campaign, which was pegged to the 150th anniversary of the University in 1991, Kehoe said.

“In the interim, we have not had a campaign to go and fuel the resources of the University and to continue to build it,” he said.

One major project is a new building for Fordham Law School, widely acknowledged as one of the best law schools in the country. It has 1,500 students in a building designed for 650, and its space per student is less than half the amount offered by the nation’s top 20 law schools.

Other improvements sought for the Lincoln Center campus are a 400-bed residence hall, along with classroom renovations. One campaign goal for the Lincoln Center campus has already been realized—the Veronica Lally Kehoe Studio Theatre, a state-of-the-art facility, dedicated in February, which was made possible by a $2 million gift from Kehoe.

On the Rose Hill campus, the campaign is raising funds for the construction of Campbell, Salice and Conley residence halls, to be built on the southwestern part of campus by 2010. Groundbreaking for Campbell Hall was held last year. The projects are supported by benefactors including Thomas P. Salice (CBA ’82); his wife, Susan Conley Salice (FCRH ’82); Robert E. Campbell (CBA ’55); and his wife, Joan M. Campbell.

A new campus center and a recreation and intercollegiate athletics center will also come to the Rose Hill campus as part of the campaign. The 140,000-square-foot campus center will house campus ministry, student services, a ballroom, a food court and a career planning and placement center, among other features.

The recreation and athletics center—measuring 150,000 square feet—will reconfigure the outmoded Lombardi Memorial Athletic Center and the Rose Hill Gymnasium into a state-of-the-art center for sports and physical fitness.

The facilities projects will cost $170 million.

Kehoe noted that the University already has in place the essential infrastructure of learning—dedicated students and a Jesuit tradition of educational achievement.

“We don’t have the facilities other universities have. But we turn out excellence,” he said.

Apart from the specific improvements being sought, a central part of the campaign is Fordham’s Jesuit identity, with its attention to the full development of each student—intellectual, spiritual and moral—and its emphasis on being men and women for others.

“It’s not just about bricks and mortar, although that’s very important. It’s not just about meeting campaign goals, although that’s very important,” Father McShane said. “It’s really about investing in an institution that has, from its very founding, been all about the work of transforming people, transforming the city, transforming the world and serving God.”

Said Kehoe: “In Fordham, you find not just education, you find a way of being, a way of thinking. There’s love at Fordham. There’s redemption at Fordham. Fordham is a continuing way of life.”

The new chair within the Department of Theology was established through a gift from James Buckman (FCRH ’66), vice chairman of York Capital Management, and his wife, Nancy M. Buckman. The couple joined Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, in welcoming Andolsen before a gathering of friends, family and faculty who filled Tognino Hall on the Rose Hill campus.

“We present you with this medal to acknowledge your position as a most accomplished researcher, educator and mentor, and to signify your special place within the Fordham family of scholars,” Father McShane said. “We are also honored that Jim and Nancy have endowed this chair. They are extraordinary benefactors, great lovers of our University, great friends of our students and believers in what we do here.”

Following the installation, the new chair delivered an inaugural lecture, “Unyielding Hope: Racism and Catholic Social Thought in a New American Moment,” in which she called on American Catholics to enlist the virtue of hope in fighting against racism.

Andolsen called the election of Barack Obama as the nation’s first African American president a “new moment” in race relations, but cautioned that racism still represents a “major moral issue” in the nation.

She cited instances of Catholic moral thought addressing racism, such as the pronouncement by United States bishops that it is an “evil which endures in our society and in our church.” Recently, she said, John Paul II and Benedict XVI have acknowledged the institutional nature of racism.

However, she said that church documents addressing racism were “too few and far between.”

“The record of Catholic moral theology in the post-Vatican II period on racism is abysmal.” said Andolsen, borrowing a quotation from theologian Charles Curran.

A cause for concern, Andolsen said, is that even in 2009, shifting patterns of racial inequality still exist. For example, while black women and white women had achieved virtual wage parity by 1980, in the last 25 years white women have pulled ahead in professional positions. Today, Andolsen said, black women working full-time earn 15 percent less than their white counterparts.

It is through the virtue of hope, rooted in a God of infinite love, Andolsen said, that a society will advance racial justice.

“Hope enables action,” Andolsen said. “In turn, courageous moral action inspires further hope.

“We must . . . say plainly and persistently—especially persistently—that racism must be fought because it assaults the fundamental dignity of persons made in the image of God, and because it constitutes a turning away from the God whose love and reconciliation is held out to each person.”

Andolsen acknowledged that for whites, it is “uncomfortable” to look at institutional structures that have made life easier for them. “My theological point tonight is that in the present U.S. context, the journey toward full community with God must be an arduous journey toward restoring unity with all our brothers and sisters,” she said.

The Buckmans were honored at a dinner following the inaugural lecture. James Buckman, a Bronx native, spent his formative years on the Fordham campus—first at Fordham Prep and then at the University. It instilled in him the value of a classical education.

“My years at Fordham absolutely distinguished my experience,” said Buckman, a member of Fordham’s Board of Trustees. “It became part of my DNA—how I see things; how I view right and wrong; the moral dimension of everything I encounter.”

In creating the chair, he and his wife sought to help ensure an excellent liberal arts education at Fordham will be available for generations to come.

“I’ve always felt that Fordham University in particular, and Jesuit universities in general, can make their greatest contributions in the areas of theology and philosophy—those two areas where they historically have a great deal of strength, and where they act as the lights of the world,” he said.

“Hopefully, this chair will give Fordham a competitive advantage in staking out this particular academic and intellectual area of expertise.”