Board of Advisors Members

Board Member, Elected 2020

AB, Dartmouth
MBA, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Senior Advisor, Blackstone Group

Mike retired after 25 years at Bechtel Group, a global engineering, construction, and project management company, where he held various leadership positions, including serving on the Board of Directors, chief financial officer and as president of the global civil engineering and construction business overseeing rail, roads, bridges, tunnels, aviation and hydroelectric projects.

Some of the notable projects for which he was responsible include airports in Muscat in Oman, Doha in Qatar, Las Vegas, Lima in Peru, motorways in Albania, Croatia, Romania and Kosovo, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and rail projects in the UK, including Crossrail, High Speed 1 and West Coast Route Modernisation. Mike began his career as a field engineer at a nuclear power plant construction site, before earning an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mike currently serves as a senior advisor with the Blackstone Group, a private equity, alternative asset management, and financial services firm. His Dartmouth service includes Alumni Fund leadership agent (2012–present) and Admissions alumni interviewer (2016–2019, 2009–2012, 1985–1988).

Board Member, Elected 2013

AB, Dartmouth
MBA, Stanford University

Managing Director (Retired), Gryphon Investors

Christine Bucklin retired after a career in private equity, technology and management consulting.

Most recently Christine was a managing director at Gryphon Investors, where she sat on the investment committee and worked closely with senior management teams of portfolio companies to drive performance. Prior to Gryphon, she served as senior vice president of corporate strategic planning for Sun Microsystems, aligning business units with overall strategy and setting priorities during a turnaround. As COO at Internet Brands, she helped scale and diversify what was originally CarsDirect.com into a highly profitable digital media company. In her ten-plus years at McKinsey & Company, Christine served clients in many industries (health care, retail, energy, and financial services, among others) and became a partner and leader of the firm's Sales Force and Channel Management practice.

Christine was a Dartmouth Trustee from 2001–2010. She earned an AB in mathematics summa cum laude from Dartmouth, and an MBA from Stanford. She lives in Manhattan Beach, California with her husband Randy Bucklin, a professor emeritus at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, and together they have three children.

Board Member, Elected 2024

AB, Dartmouth
BE, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth

Associate Vice President for US Connected Insulins and Once-Weekly Insulin, Eli Lilly & Co.

Amber currently serves as the US commercial leader for Lilly's most innovative insulin products and is part of the leadership team for the Cardiometabolic Health business unit. The Cardiometabolic Health unit is the fastest growing business within Eli Lilly, leading the industry in transforming care and delivering breakthrough outcomes for people with diabetes and obesity.

Amber entered the pharma industry via a commercial strategy role with Sanofi, where she played a key part in a diabetes technology joint venture with Verily. She began her career in biotech consulting at Health Advances.

Amber received her MBA from Yale and her AB/BE from Dartmouth where she was captain of the varsity volleyball team, and she currently serves on the Volleyball Alumni Advisory Board. She has also represented Thayer on the Alumni Council and served as a member of the Thayer Dean's Council.

Amber resides in Boston, Massachusetts with her husband and their two children.

Board Member, Elected 2019
Board Chair, July 2024–present

AB, Dartmouth
BE, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
MBA, Stanford University

Managing Partner, Bain Capital Double Impact

Todd Cook serves as managing partner of Bain Capital Double Impact, a fund that invests in companies providing financial returns alongside social and environmental impacts. Prior to taking on this role, Todd spent 20 years as a member of Bain Capital's North American private equity team, where he was most recently a Managing Director focused on investments in industrial and energy companies. He started his career as a consultant at Bain & Company.

Todd has served on numerous corporate boards. In addition, Todd currently serves on the National Board of Directors for Cradles to Crayons.

In 1993, he graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth with an AB in engineering sciences and economics, he earned a BE from Thayer in 1994, and received an MBA in 2000 from Stanford where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Todd resides in Wellesley, Massachusetts with his wife Beth (D'94) and their two children.

Board Member, Elected 1992

AB, Dartmouth
BE, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth

Co-Founder & Chairman Emeritus, Hypertherm Inc.

Richard Couch received an AB and BE from Dartmouth before founding Hypertherm, Inc. where today he serves as chairman emeritus following 51 years as CEO and chairman of the Board.

Hypertherm specializes in metal cutting equipment with numerous patents in plasma cutting and pollution control. Richard was the inventor on 42 of these patents. Under his leadership, Hypertherm received state and national recognition as a top employer, known for progressive benefits for associate wellbeing, shared ownership through an ESOP, and excellence in products and service.

Beyond Hypertherm, Richard served on the National Electrical Manufacturers Association Board of Governors, Ledyard National Bank Board of Directors, NH Business and Industry Association Board of Directors, and the NH Charitable Foundation Board of Directors. In 2001, Richard was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering and served as chair of the Academy's Mechanical Engineering Peer Committee.

He and his wife, Barbara founded the Hypertherm HOPE Foundation and the Couch Family Foundation and are recognized as philanthropic leaders in their communities. In 2018, Richard and his wife, Barbara, jointly received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the NH Business Industry Association.

Board Member, Elected 2024

BA, Colby College
BE, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth

Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Allegro Microsystems

Michael Doogue is senior vice president and chief technology officer at Allegro Microsystems, a global leader in magnetic sensor and power integrated circuits. Michael joined Allegro in 1998 as a design engineer, immediately after graduating from Thayer. Over the next 20+ years, Michael helped enable Allegro's disruptive technologies through his leadership roles as a design manager, business unit director, and senior vice president of technology and products. Not long after Allegro's initial public offering in 2020, he became its first ever chief technology officer.

Michael earned his BA in physics from Colby College and his BE in electrical engineering from Dartmouth. He also completed the Executive Program at Stanford Business School, and holds over 75 US patents.

He lives in New Hampshire with his wife Kirsten Th'99 Th'00 and children. See alumni profile

Board Member, Elected 2020

BA, Whitman College
MS, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
PhD, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth

Founder & CEO, Sproxil®

Ashifi founded Sproxil® in 2009 and currently serves as the company's CEO. Under his leadership, Sproxil® developed its award-winning counterfeit protection and brand loyalty solutions that have been used on over 4.5 billion product units available to consumers in six countries.

In 2015, Ashifi was named to Fortune's 40 under 40 list. He was awarded the Social Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2014 by the Schwab Foundation and joined the Fast Company Most Creative People in Business 1000 community. In 2013, Sproxil was named the world's most innovative company in health care by Fast Company, and #7 most innovative worldwide, beating 99 of the Fortune 100 companies. In 2020, he was a Global Business Hall of Fame finalist, presented by JA Worldwide.

Ashifi served on the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Social Innovation and on the Meta-Council on the Illicit Economy, and holds a US patent. He earned a PhD in engineering sciences from Dartmouth where he was Thayer's first-ever PhD Innovation Program Fellow, and where he delivered the 2020 alumni remarks at Investiture. Ashifi also holds a BA in mathematics and physics from Whitman College. He was Whitman's 2018 commencement speaker, received an honorary doctorate and served on the President's Advisory Board.

After an eight-year faculty role at Columbia University's School of Professional Studies, Ashifi transitioned to Northeastern University where he teaches a course on raising investment capital.

Board Member, Elected 2021

Bachelor of Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
PhD, Ohio State University

Nemirovsky Family Dean, University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering & Applied Science

Vijay Kumar is the Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering with appointments in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Computer and Information Science, and Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his bachelor of technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and his PhD from Ohio State University in 1987. He has been on the faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania since 1987.

In addition to holding many administrative positions at Penn, Kumar has served as the assistant director of robotics and cyber physical systems at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (2012–2013). His lab has founded many startups in robotics, and he is a co-founder of Exyn Technologies. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2013, the American Philosophical Society in 2018, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors in 2022.

Board Member, Elected 2021

BE, Zhejiang University
ME, China Academy of Railway Sciences
PhD, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth

President (Retired), LinkedIn China

Jian Lu is a former corporate vice president of LinkedIn and president of LinkedIn China. With over 25 years of experience in leading product and technology development and business operations in both Silicon Valley and China, he is not only an inspirational leader but also a renowned technical expert and an experienced entrepreneur.

From 2018 to 2023, Lu led LinkedIn's R&D for the China markets while also overseeing the entire business operations of LinkedIn in China. Beyond driving growth in China members and business, he was passionate about creating social impact with the LinkedIn platform, leading and promoting the "Donate Your Time" initiative, a volunteering program for professionals to help college students in their career development.

Prior to LinkedIn, Lu was a partner at Hujiang EdTech and CEO of CCtalk, spearheading CCtalk's transformation from an online teaching tool to an educational platform, and accelerating the growth of independent online instructors and CCtalk's platform business. Previously, he was CTO of 360 Video and general manager of 360 Live Video Cloud at Qihoo 360. He also served as VP of multimedia technologies and managing director at Shanda Innovations, Beijing, and CTO at Ku6 Media, an independent Shanda subsidiary. Earlier in his career, he worked at Apple in Silicon Valley as a senior scientist with the company's Interactive Media Group and later as a lead principal engineer in Apple's ProVideo Engineering. He was also co-founder and CTO at Vobile, now a publicly-listed company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Since 2024, Lu has transitioned from his role as a full-time executive to focus on empowering the next generation of innovators and professionals as an advisor and mentor. Currently, he is an investor and advisor at several start-up companies and mentors multiple founders and executives. He has also been an industry mentor for Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University, China.

He holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Zhejiang University, China, an MS in electrical engineering from China Academy of Railway Sciences, and a PhD in engineering sciences from Dartmouth. He has also done post-doc research work in the Computer Science Department at Dartmouth and at the Center for Image Processing and Integrated Computing at University of California, Davis.

Board Member, Elected 1974
Chair of the Board, 1982–1984

AB, Dartmouth
MS, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth

Chairman, MacLean-Fogg Co.

Barry MacLean joined MacLean-Fogg Company in Mundelein, Illinois, in 1961, became chairman in 1972, and served as CEO from 1972–2017. MacLean-Fogg is a leading manufacturer of products for the automotive fasteners, commercial truck and trailer, and wheel and axle mounting industries and of products for electric utility, telecommunications and civil markets, with 30 North American manufacturing facilities, 10 international facilities, annual sales of nearly $800 million and a worldwide workforce of 4,500 people.

MacLean is a member, director, and former chairman of numerous businesses and professional organizations. Civic interests include Trusteeships at Newberry Library, Museum of Science and Industry, University of Chicago Hospitals, and US Ski and Snowboard Association. He is former chairman of the Board of The School of The Art Institute and Vice Chairman of the Art Institute. He served for 35 years as elected trustee of the Village of Mettawa and 14 years as mayor.

MacLean graduated from Dartmouth in 1960, and earned a master's degree from Thayer in 1961. He was a Trustee of Dartmouth College from 1991 to 2001, and was chairman of the Thayer portion of Dartmouth's Will to Excel Campaign in the 1990s and co-chair of Thayer's Partners in Innovation Campaign, which was part of the more recent Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience. MacLean was named a Sylvanus Thayer Fellow in 1979, received the Robert Fletcher Award in 1989, the Dartmouth College Alumni Award in 2007, and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Dartmouth in 2010.

Board Member, Elected 2022

AB, Dartmouth
BE, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth

Senior Partner, Head of Advisory Services and Evidence, Value, Access & Pricing (EVAP), Trinity Life Sciences 

Monica A. Martin de Bustamante's career has focused on global pricing and market access issues for biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical products and has extensive experience working across major therapeutic areas (oncology, cardiovascular, neurology, metabolic, autoimmune, gastrointestinal, respiratory, etc.) to collaborate on products from early development, to launch, and through their lifecycle. She has extensive global experience in early and late-stage pricing, market access strategies, value proposition development, lifecycle management, generic or biosimilar erosion counterstrategies, and patient support programs. Much of her work to date has centered around understanding the barriers to access and reimbursement challenges posed by evolving healthcare systems and evidence requirements.

Prior to Trinity Life Sciences, she was the CEO & managing director of CBPartners, a boutique consulting company she co-founded in 2012 and sold to Trinity Life Sciences in October of 2021.

Monica also serves on the Board of Angeli Parvi, a non-profit focused on providing early-stage seed investments and mentorship to Dartmouth entrepreneurs with the goal of giving back to the Dartmouth community and growing our entrepreneurial footprint.

Board Member, Elected 2000
Chair of the Board, 2008–2020

BS, Hobart College
MS, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
MBA, Harvard Business School

Founding Partner, Polaris Partners

As a founding partner of Polaris Partners, Terry McGuire brings more than 35 years of successful early stage investing experience in medical and information technology companies.

Terry has invested in more than 50 companies. He co-founded Inspire Pharmaceuticals, AIR, and MicroCHIPS. Companies Terry has supported have touched more than 60 million patients and saved over 400,000 lives.

In 2015, Terry was listed as one of Scientific American's Worldview 100, visionaries who continue to reshape biotechnology and the world. Terry was listed in Forbes' Midas 100 List of Top Tech Investors multiple times, and was chosen to receive the Irish America Healthcare & Life Sciences 50 Award. He is a recipient of the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research Award, and the Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Life Sciences, awarded by Harvard and the City of Jerusalem. In 2017, Terry was recognized by Women in the Enterprise of Science and Technology (WEST) for his contributions to promoting gender parity. He was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University and Canisius College for his work in translational science.

Terry was former chairman of the National Venture Capital Association. During his tenure, he testified before the US Congress on issues related to financial regulation. Recently, Terry was awarded the NVCA's Outstanding Service Award in recognition of the extraordinary amount of time, resources and dedication to association efforts he has spent that in turn benefits the entire venture industry.

In addition to Thayer, Terry sits on the Boards of MIT's The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, and The Healthcare Initiative Advisory Board (HBS). He serves on the Strategic Advisory Board of the Brigham & Women's Hospital.

In 2009, Terry helped create the Global Venture Capital Congress (GVCC), a gathering of venture capital leadership from around the world. For the past ten years Terry has chaired the congress. The GVCC has worked to create cooperation among venture capital associations in areas as diverse as public policy, research and strategic topics including diversity and inclusion, taxation, and the global image of venture capital and private equity.

Board Member, Elected 2021

AB, Dartmouth
MBA, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan

Co-founder & Managing Partner, Carleton McKenna & Co.

Christopher McKenna is co-founder and managing partner at Carleton McKenna & Co, a boutique investment bank serving middle market, specialty manufacturing, service and technology companies. Chris previously acquired a Cleveland manufacturing business where he was president and CEO, and, prior to that, was director of financial analysis with MacLean-Fogg Company in Chicago helping execute financial transactions and acquisitions, and managing a business unit.

Chris received his BA in Economics from Dartmouth and his MBA with High Distinction from the Ross School of Business at University of Michigan (including Tauber Institute for Global Operations, a joint venture with the College of Engineering). Chris currently serves on the Executive Committee for The Center for Health Affairs and as Board Chair for their for-profit subsidiary CHAMPS, as well as being treasurer for the Holimont Ski Resort.

Chris and his wife Laura are avid skiers and have passed that love on to their four children.

Board Member, Elected 1990

AB, Dartmouth
BE, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
ME, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth

President & Owner, Nearburg Producing Co.

Founding Nearburg Producing Company in 1979, Charles grew it into one of the Top 100 Independent Producers in the US, and always operating in an environmentally conscious way, received two Environmental Awards from the Bureau of Land Management. In 2016–2017 Nearburg sold its oil and gas operations to two firms backed by private equity.

Nearburg has also restored significant trout habitat in New Mexico, and at Broadacres Ranch in Creede, Colorado, where he employs numerous Dartmouth students as guides and ranch hands each year. Nearburg also owns STOL Aviation, which is developing the Arctic Tern, a world-class "backcountry" short take-off and landing airplane, and Nearburg Racing which prepares vintage Formula 1 cars and land speed vehicles for competition. These activities have generated numerous engineering projects for Thayer students. He is also a minority owner and advisory board member of McLaren Racing LTD, a top UK-based Formula 1 and Indy Car Team.

In honor of his son, Rett, who lost an 11-year battle with Ewing's Sarcoma at age 21, Charles devotes substantial time and resources in support of Ewing's cancer research and was instrumental in founding the Rett Nearburg International Ewing's Sarcoma Research Symposia.

A lifelong racecar driver, his career took him to the highest professional level in the US when he drove the late Walter Payton's Indy Car in the 1997 CART/FedEx Championship. His career also includes driving a 333SP Ferrari at Le Mans and finishing 4th and 10th overall at the Sebring 12-Hours.

Charles is one of only six people in history to have set a piston engine land speed record at over 400 MPH. In September 2010 at the Bonneville Salt Flats driving the "Spirit of Rett" streamliner, Charles set a 414 MPH FIA record with a top speed of 422 MPH. This made the "Spirit of Rett" the fastest single-engine normally aspirated car in history, as well as the 3rd fastest internal combustion engine car in history. The "Spirit of Rett" was designed and built at Nearburg Racing in Dallas.

An engineering/studio art major at Dartmouth, Nearburg was also a three-year varsity letterman as a member of the Lightweight Crew and won the Marshall Robinson Award. Among many alumni activities Nearburg has served as Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee of the Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience from 2003-2009; is a Steward of the Friends of Dartmouth Rowing; served on the Board of Overseers at the Hood Museum of Art, and is a current member of the President's Leadership Council. Nearburg has mentored the student-run Dartmouth Formula Racing team since its inception in 1995. In 2007 his service to Dartmouth was recognized when he received the Dartmouth Alumni Award.

Charles is also a Trustee of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Foundation, the Petersen Automotive Museum—Los Angeles, the Art Center College of Design—Pasadena, and a Life Trustee of the St. Mark's School of Texas—Dallas. He is a past Trustee of the Maryland Institute College of Art–Baltimore, The Hockaday School–Dallas, and the Hood Museum of Art—Dartmouth.

Nearburg has a daughter, Anna '10, and stepsons Forrest and Graham Miller. He is married to Karen Spencer Miller, who is on the Board of Advisors at the Hood Museum of Art and is the daughter of retired Dartmouth Professor of Chemistry, Thomas Spencer.

Board Member, Elected 2018

AB, Dartmouth
BE, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
MBA, Harvard Business School

Managing Director, Cape Group

Christy Nicholas has been an active volunteer for Dartmouth, serving on the Thayer School Annual Fund Executive Committee, Dartmouth Centennial Circle, and the Alumni Fund Committee. While at Dartmouth, Nicholas was awarded a Luce Special Graduate Fellowship, an award aimed at encouraging promising women to pursue engineering careers as well as a Rockefeller Fellowship for social entrepreneurship. She earned her AB from Dartmouth, her BE from Thayer, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Board Member, Elected 2021

AB, Dartmouth
BE, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
MSE, University of Texas at Austin
MPAff, LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin

Board President, Powell Foundation, Houston, TX

Katherine Osborne Valdez is board president of the Powell Foundation in Houston, TX which focuses on K-12 public education grantmaking in three counties in Texas. She previously served as a Foreign Service Officer with the US Agency for International Development, a water resources engineer, and a Peace Corps Volunteer. She continues to consult in these spaces.

Wherever 'round the girdled Earth she roams, Katherine has been an admissions ambassador, including serving as the admissions district enrollment director in several of her posts abroad. Katherine received her AB and BE degrees from Dartmouth and Thayer School of Engineering. She earned masters degrees in both public policy (MPAff) and environmental and water resources engineering (MSE) from the University of Texas at Austin.

After residing in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Peru, Indonesia, Chile, Mexico and finally Brazil, in 2022 she moved to her hometown of Houston, Texas where she lives with her husband and two children. 

Board Member, Elected 2024

AB, Dartmouth

Founding Partner, Nantam Capital

Sujan Patel is a real estate investment professional with experience investing in over $40 billion of opportunistic equity and credit transactions across all real estate asset classes in the US and Europe. He enjoys building businesses and leading teams, having successfully established from the ground-up multiple real estate businesses and teams for institutional investment managers.

Sujan is the founding partner of Nantam Capital, a private real estate investment and advisory firm. His prior industry roles include serving as the global head of real estate for Strategic Value Partners, the managing director and co-head of US investment management at Colony Capital and NorthStar Realty Finance, and a vice president with Thayer Lodging Group (now part of Brookfield Asset Management). He started his career at Morgan Stanley in the Investment Banking division.

Sujan also currently serves on the Advisory Board for the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate and his other previous board roles include Washington Prime Group, Island Hospitality Management, SteelWave, and the Board of Advisors of the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the Wisconsin School of Business.

Sujan received an AB in engineering sciences modified with economics from Dartmouth in 2001. He is committed to the Dartmouth community, including serving as an admissions alumni interviewer and a member of the Dartmouth Founders Circle establishing the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship.

Sujan resides in Greenwich, Conn. with his family.

Board Member, Elected 2019

AB, Dartmouth
BE, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
MS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Founding Partner, Blue Road Capital

Luis Paz-Galindo is a founding partner of Blue Road Capital, a private equity firm focusing on investments in the agricultural sector. Prior to founding Blue Road in 2014, he was a member of the investment team of Ospraie Advisors, LP, the investment manager of the Ospraie Special Opportunities Fund, from 2006 to 2013 focusing on private equity investments in the agricultural and energy sectors. He began his career at JP Morgan in 1999 where he was an associate in the Mergers & Acquisition group from 1999 to 2000 and a principal with JP Morgan Partners, the private equity division of JP Morgan, from 2000 to 2006 in the São Paulo, Brazil, and New York City offices.

Luis received an AB in philosophy and engineering sciences (summa cum laude) from Dartmouth in 1993, a BE from Thayer in 1994, an MS in technology and policy in 1996 and a PhD in technology, management and policy with an emphasis in energy economics in 1999 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Board Member, Elected 2023

BA, Colby College
BE, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
MEM, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth

General Partner, ICONIQ Growth

Seth Pierrepont is a general partner at ICONIQ Growth where he joined in 2022 to launch the office in London. ICONIQ Growth is a global growth equity platform focused on partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs and leaders who drive global impact and change from early growth stage to IPO and beyond. Representative investments from its portfolio include Adyen, AirBnB, Alibaba, Alteryx, BambooHR, Braze, Coupa, Datadog, Docusign, Gitlab, Marqeta, Miro, Procore, ServiceTitan, Snowflake, Uber, Wolt, and Zoom, among others. Seth joined ICONIQ Growth after spending close to a decade as a partner at Accel investing in early and growth stage technology companies across Europe and Israel. He started his career in San Francisco as a consultant at Oliver Wyman.

Seth graduated from Thayer in 2007 with his Bachelor of Engineering (BE) and Master of Engineering Management (MEM) degrees. He completed the Partner School Dual-Degree program between Dartmouth and Colby College, majoring in mechanical engineering and mathematical sciences. He was also on the Dartmouth Formula Racing team as co-captain. Seth has previously served a term as a member of Thayer's Dean's Council. Seth lives in London with his wife, Camilla, and their three children.

Board Member, Elected 2016

AB, Dartmouth
MBA, Anderson School of Business, University of California, Los Angeles

Founder & Portfolio Manager, Aperimus Capital, LLC

Located in Marina Del Rey, California, Aperimus focuses its research efforts on companies in financial distress. Aperimus manages portfolios of investments based on this research, primarily in the US equity markets, on behalf of a group of institutions and family offices. Following a career in environmental engineering in Washington, DC and Telluride, Colorado, Catherine began her investment career in 2000 at Barrington Partners, an investment fund in Santa Monica, California. As a managing director, she focused on analyzing companies in financial distress.

In 2005, Catherine joined Atlas Capital, an investment fund based in Dallas, Texas. As a principal, she was responsible for idea generation, research, and trading for a segment of the fund's equity portfolio. She left Atlas to found Aperimus in December 2008. Catherine earned an AB in engineering sciences from Dartmouth in 1993 and an MBA focused on finance and accounting from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA in 2000. She guest lectures at the Anderson School on finance and accounting.

Board Member, Elected 2024

BA, Amherst College
ME, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
MBA, Harvard Business School

President & CEO, Swift Consulting Services, LLC

David Swift rejoined the Board having served previously from 2014 to 2019.

Swift currently manages a leadership consulting company that provides executive coaching. Additionally, Swift serves as chair of OmniMax (based in Atlanta and owned by SVP Global). He is also chair of P1 Service Group, based in Chicago and owned by Edgewater Funds.

Swift retired from full-time work in November 2021. Previously, Swift served as chief executive officer at Serta Simmons Bedding and executive business partner at Advent. During his time with Advent, Swift served as chair of Serta Simmons Bedding, Cotiviti, and ATI Physical Therapy. Previously, he served as president, chief executive officer, and member of Goodman Manufacturing's board from 2008 to 2014. Following Daikin's acquisition of Goodman, Swift served on Daikin's board of directors.

Before joining Goodman, Swift served in a variety of senior leadership roles at Whirlpool, including as president and a member of its board. Prior to Whirlpool, Swift was president of Eastman Kodak Company's Professional Group. He previously served as chair and president of Kodak's Greater Asian Region based in Shanghai.

Swift earned an AB with honors in physics and mathematics from Amherst College, his master's degree in engineering sciences from Thayer, and an MBA with honors from Harvard Business School.

Swift lives in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass. with his wife Martha '80, and their two yellow labs.

Board Member, Elected 2022

AB, Dartmouth
MEng, Cornell University
MBA, Harvard Business School

Co-founder & Managing Partner, Growth Catalyst Partners, LLC

Jim TenBroek is a managing partner at Growth Catalyst Partners, the private equity investment firm that he co-founded in 2016, building businesses in the data, information and marketing services sectors. Jim has been a private equity investor for over 25 years and has led the investment of over $1B of equity capital in over 30 companies.

Prior to his investing career Jim was an electrical engineer at Hewlett Packard's Medical Products group developing cardiac ultrasound systems, before moving into management. He is the former chairman and current executive committee member of the Illinois Venture Capital Association (IVCA), which includes as members over 80 of Illinois' largest private equity and venture capital investment firms.

Jim received an AB in engineering sciences (magna cum laude) and received the Colligan Prize for materials science from Dartmouth in 1983.

Jim lives in Illinois with his wife Sara (whom he met at Dartmouth) and their two children.

Board Member, Elected 2021

AB, Dartmouth
MBA, Stanford University

Founder & Executive Chair, Copia Global

Tracey is a successful serial entrepreneur and seasoned business executive who has held leadership roles in social businesses and emerging markets for more than 25 years. She is particularly passionate about using the best of capitalism, the sharpest tool in the shed, to end global poverty.

Currently Tracey serves as founder and executive chairman of Copia Global, which is bringing mobile commerce to the Base of the Pyramid starting in East Africa. In 2005 she founded and served as CEO of MicroPlace, a web-based brokerage service for everyday people to make social investments around the world. MicroPlace was acquired by eBay. Prior, Tracey was part of the founding team and served as CFO of KickStart International, an organization that designs and sells products to low income people in Africa. And in 1998, she started her first company, 4charity, a for-profit technology company serving NGOs, where she served as Founder and CEO.

Tracey is a regular speaker at conferences and in the media. Her numerous leadership awards include Top 25 Women of the Web Award, San Francisco Business Times Leadership Award and a Working Woman Magazine Entrepreneurship Award. She holds a degree in engineering sciences and economics from Dartmouth, and an MBA from Stanford.

In her free time, Tracey is the personal taxi driver for her three children, worships at the altar of Steinbeck, serves as personal chew toy for Lily the Pupinator, cheers for Tottenham, and squeezes in an Ironman or marathon whenever she can.