Seven Elected to Ithaca College Board of Trustees

By Wendy Hankle, May 26, 2017

Seven Elected to Ithaca College Board of Trustees

Congratulations to the seven members elected to the Ithaca College Board of Trustees at the board’s recent meeting, held May 18–20 on campus. Michael Conover ’81, Jack Dembow ’77, David Fleisher II ’91, Gary Gross ’81, William Nelligan III ’83, and Jeff Selingo ’95 were all elected as term trustees, while James Taylor ’00 was elected as alumni trustee.

Michael Conover had served as an alumni trustee since 2014. He holds a B.S. in finance from Ithaca College and for the past three decades has worked in the financial services industry. He is a partner at KPMG LLC and currently serves as the firm’s National Sector Head for Capital Markets. A member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors since 2011, he has participated in the School of Business’s Meet the Firms reception and the IC Mentoring Program, among other alumni activities.

Jack Dembow earned his bachelor’s degree in health services administration from Ithaca College and a master’s in health care administration from George Washington University. Now retired, he spent nearly three decades in the health field, including as vice president and CEO of the Philadelphia Psychiatric Center (now called Belmont Behavioral Health) and as CEO of Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia. In 2003, he established the Jack H. Dembow ’77 Scholarship for health care administration students, and he provides continuing support for LGBTQ programming at the college.

A finance graduate of Ithaca College, Dave Fleisher previously served as a trustee from 2004 to 2014, chairing the Buildings and Grounds Committee during a time when the college was planning and building the Dorothy D. and Roy H. Park Center for Business and Sustainable Enterprise, Peggy Ryan Williams Center, and Athletics and Events Center. He is CEO of the wealth management firm Firstrust Financial Resources and vice chairman of Karr Barth Associates, Inc., a diversified financial services firm. His volunteer service to IC has included leading the Alumni Association Board of Directors and co-chairing the School of Business Campaign Committee.

Gary Gross sat at the helm of Universal Publishing Production Music for more than 20 years, overseeing all aspects of the company’s production music entities and managing more than 32 offices around the world. An accounting graduate of the college, he has also served as president of BMG Production Music Worldwide and in marketing with companies such as Procter & Gamble, Kraft, and the McKesson Corporation. He has been involved with IC as a member of the President’s Roundtable, the Blue & Gold Society, and the Los Angeles-area campaign committee.

William Nelligan is the president and chief executive officer at International SOS, a medical- and travel-security risk services company. He has also served in executive-level roles at Symphony Health Solutions and IMS Health Inc. A finance major at IC, he has returned to the School of Business often as an alumni mentor and speaker.

After graduating with a journalism degree from the college, Jeff Selingo spent 20 years covering higher education, mostly for the “Chronicle of Higher Education.” He is the author of three books and pens a regular column for the “Washington Post.” He also serves as the special advisor to the president at Arizona State University and is a visiting scholar at Georgia Tech. He has maintained his connection with the college by serving on the President’s Roundtable and the Alumni Association Board of Directors; he was also instrumental in creating the college’s summer intern program in Washington, D.C.

James Taylor, who graduated from Ithaca College in 2000 with a degree in applied psychology and a minor in business, has been selected as alumni trustee. He is currently the chief diversity and inclusion officer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where he is responsible for developing and implementing system-wide strategic diversity initiatives that link together health care outcomes, workforce productivity, and community engagement. A national thought leader on diversity and inclusion topics, he had previously held similar positions at Carolinas HealthCare System and Kaiser Permanente. He has lent his time to IC as a member of the alumni association’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee as well as the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance’s board of advocates.