Seven New Members, New Chairman Elected to Pitt's Board of Trustees

PITTSBURGH—The University of Pittsburgh Board of Trustees today elected six candidates to membership on the Board. A seventh new Board member was appointed by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge. In addition, chair-designate William S. Dietrich II assumed the leadership of the Board, succeeding J. W. Connolly, who had chaired the Board since June 1995.

The elected Board members are: G. Nicholas Beckwith III, president and CEO, Beckwith Machinery Company; John M. Cleland, president judge, McKean County Court of Common Pleas; Richard L. Fischer, chair, UPMC Health System Board of Directors; G. Watts Humphrey, Jr., president, GWH Holdings, Inc.; Howard M. Picking III, president, The Picking Company; and Edgar M. Roach, Jr., CEO, Dominion Delivery. The appointed member is Sy M. Holzer, president, Pittsburgh region, PNC Bank, N.A.

A graduate of Brown University, G. Nicholas Beckwith III is actively involved in civic and community affairs. He serves as second vice chair of the UPMC Health System board and first vice chair of the joint board of the UPMC Presbyterian and UPMC Shadyside hospitals. He also serves as a trustee of Chatham College and a member of the boards of both the Beckwith Family Foundation and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.

Installed in 1984 following a merit selection nomination by then-Governor Richard Thornburgh, Judge John M. Cleland was elected to a full ten-year term in 1985, and reelected to a second term in 1995. An active member of the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford Advisory Board, he has served as its chair since 1995, and he serves on the Bradford Educational Foundation. A graduate of Denison University, he received the J.D. degree with honors from the National Law Center at George Washington University.

Richard L. Fischer is the executive vice president and chairman's counsel, retired, of Alcoa, Inc. He served as a trustee of the University of Pittsburgh from 1995 to 2000, and he continues to serve on the boards of visitors for Pitt's Katz Graduate School of Business and Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He earned both the undergraduate and J.D. degrees at Pitt, and he holds the Master of Law degree in International Business from Georgetown University.

In addition to heading GWH Holdings, Inc., G. Watts Humphrey, Jr., serves as chairman and CEO of Metaltech, NexTech, GalvTech, the Conair Group, and Centria. He previously served in senior administrative positions at National Steel Corporation. He is a trustee of Centre College, vice chair of Sewickley Academy, a member of the Development Board of Yale University, and a director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Society. He earned the B.A. degree from Yale University, and holds the M.B.A. degree from Harvard University.

Actively involved in business and community affairs in the Johnstown area, Howard M. Picking III has been a member of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Advisory Board since 1974, and he currently chairs both the Advisory Board's Finance Committee and the UPJ Capital Campaign. He also serves as chair of Conemaugh Valley Memorial Hospital. He earned both the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering and the M.B.A. degree from Cornell University.

Prior to assuming his present position, Edgar M. Roach, Jr., served as CEO of Virginia Power. Before joining Virginia Power, he was the managing partner of the Raleigh office of Hunton & Williams, a law firm focusing on the electric utility industry. A member of the Virginia and North Carolina state bars, he has presented several papers to the Edison Electric Institute's legal committee. He received the B.A. degree in history from Wake Forest University and the J.D. degree from the University of North Carolina.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Trustee Sy M. Holzer's career at PNC Bank-Pittsburgh dates back to 1971. He progressed through many corporate banking and retail banking management positions to become president in 1997. Holzer earned the B.S. degree in economics from Duquesne University and the master's degree from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking, Rutgers University, and is a graduate of the Management Program for Executives in the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business. He is chairman of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute Council, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Economy League, Western Division, and sits on a number of boards, including the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, and the Roberto Clemente Foundation. Holzer was named Vectors/Pittsburgh Man of the Year in Finance in 1997.

New Board Chair William S. Dietrich II had been elected chair-designate in June 2000. He is chairman of Dietrich Industries, Inc., a subsidiary of Worthington Industries, Inc. and president of Mallard Fund, a registered investment company. A former U. S. Marine, Dietrich holds the A.B. degree from Princeton University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. He serves on a number of civic and business boards, including J & L Specialty Steel, Inc., and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Growth Alliance.

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