Malloy names first 6 members of new Conn. college board of regents

July 22, 2011|Associated Press

HARTFORD - A former university president, a corporate attorney, a hospital vice president, and the leader of a health care management company were among the first members named to Connecticut’s new higher education oversight board.

Governor Dannel P. Malloy announced the six appointments yesterday to the new Board of Regents for Higher Education, which will oversee the state’s 12 community colleges and four regional state universities.

The Board of Regents will eventually replace the trustee boards that oversee the community colleges, the online Charter Oak State College, and Eastern, Western, Central, and Southern Connecticut state universities.

Those boards continue to meet, but will be dissolved once the new Board of Regents is running. Almost 95,000 students attend the schools.

Malloy still has to appoint three more regents. The General Assembly will appoint four more, and the board will also include two students and four nonvoting state agency commissioners.

The board appointments announced yesterday were:

■ Lewis J. Robinson Jr. of Hartford as the chairman. He is the retired general counsel for Travelers Property Casualty and has been on the boards of The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and the Capital Community College Foundation.

■ Merle Harris of West Hartford, a former president of Charter Oak State College and former interim president of Central Connecticut State University. She has also taught at the University of Hartford and has 45 years of experience in secondary and higher education, including as Connecticut’s assistant state education commissioner.

■ Gary Holloway of New Canaan, a founder of Five Mile Capital Partners LLC, an alternative investment and asset management company. He retired in 2001 as chairman of Greenwich Capital Markets.

■ Rene Lerer of Avon, chairman and chief executive of Magellan Health Services. He is also a former chief operating officer of Prudential Healthcare and former president of the Travelers Health Network.

■ Yvette Melendez of South Glastonbury, vice president of government and community alliances for Hartford Healthcare and Hartford Hospital. She was previously chief of staff and chief administrative officer of the Connecticut State University System and has held high-ranking administrative posts in the state departments of education and public health, as well as the agency that preceded the social services department.

■ Zac Zeitlin of Westport, a former partner of Silver Point Capital who also worked at Goldman Sachs & Co. and TPG Capital. He has advised, invested in, or served on the boards of several educational organizations, including Domus, a Stamford-based charter school and community outreach organization; and QuestBridge, a college recruitment initiative for high-achieving, low-income students.