CONTACT: Catharine Lamm
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Effective January 2, 2008, the Dartmouth Trustees have approved the appointment of Terry McGuire Th'82 as the new chairman of Thayer School's Board of Overseers for a four year term. McGuire, a graduate of Thayer's M.S. program, is a co-founder and managing general partner of Polaris Venture Partners based in Boston where he focuses on life sciences investments.

Terry McGuire Th'82

Prior to starting Polaris, McGuire spent seven years at Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. investing in early stage medical and information technology companies. He began his career in venture capital at Golder, Thoma and Cressey in Chicago, and has co-founded three companies: Inspire Pharmaceuticals; AIR (Advanced Inhalation Research, Inc., acquired by Alkermes); and MicroCHIPS.

McGuire holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, an M.S. from Thayer School, and a B.S. in physics and economics from Hobart College. He is a recipient of the 2005 Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Life Sciences. At Dartmouth, McGuire also currently serves on the board of The Center for Private Equity and Entrepreneurship at the Tuck School of Business.

McGuire is successor to John W. Ballard II D'55 Th/Tu'56, a member of the board since 1989 and chair since 1998, who is also co-founder and CEO of Radio Propagation Services, Inc. (RPSI) in Los Altos, California.

"This is a continuum," said McGuire, "John has done a fantastic job of helping Thayer move forward. My job is to continue the work John Ballard started."

During Ballard's chairmanship (1998-2007), Thayer School experienced a period of tremendous growth: endowment grew by 107% to $115.3 million; the Annual Fund grew by 32% to over $805,000; and faculty funded research increased by 124% to $16.1 million. During this period, the School built the MacLean Engineering Sciences Center, a project ultimately made possible through board member donations. Ballard also fully supported Thayer School's enthusiasm for nurturing entrepreneurship and started Angeli Parvi ("little angels"), a group of industry leaders who mentor aspiring Dartmouth entrepreneurs by guiding development of business plans and helping to secure funding. Among the first and perhaps most notable startups supported by Angeli Parvi was GlycoFi, the biomedical engineering firm founded by professors Charles Hutchinson and Tillman Gerngross.

Said Ballard, "Thayer is very fortunate to have a person of Terry's breadth, conceptual ability, and knowledge of applied engineering and education. I could not be more confident with this choice. The best is yet to come."