Boston College has added three new members to its Board of Trustees: Guido Barilla; Marc P. Seidner, BC ’88; and Elizabeth Eder Zobel, BC ’87. Two more members, Beth Vanderslice, BC ’86, and Robert J. Cooney, BC ’74, are returning after having previously served on the Board from 2010 through the 2017-18 academic year.
Barilla has served since 2003 as the chairman of Barilla Group, an Italian multinational food company and the world’s largest global pasta producer. He chairs the advisory board of the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition, a food- and agriculture-focused think tank.
He attended BC for his freshman year before returning to Italy to study at the Università Statale di Milano, according to the release. Barilla worked for several companies in the United States before becoming a Barilla executive in 1986.
Outside the scope of his family’s company, Barilla is also currently a board member of Danone S.A., an international food and beverage company, and is a member of the European Round Table of Industrialists. Two of his five children currently attend BC, according to the release.
Seidner is the chief investment officer for Non-Traditional Strategies, a managing director, and head of portfolio management at the New York office of the global investment firm PIMCO. He also works as a generalist portfolio manager and member of the Investment Committee.
Seidner graduated with an undergraduate degree in economics from BC and has since had 32 years of investment experience, including working at Fidelity Management and Research as a senior portfolio manager, and spending time at both Standish Mellon Asset Management and Harvard Management Company.
Zobel works as co-founder and chairman of Teach for the Philippines, a country partner of Teach for America, which enlists talented Filipino leaders to teach in the public school system. Zobel is a founding board member of the Friendly Care Foundation and the Forum for Family Planning and Development.
Zobel, originally from Colombia, received a degree in philosophy and economics from BC in 1987 and has lived in the Philippines since. She is also currently involved with the Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society in Hong Kong, a research and advisory organization that aims to maximize private resources for the promotion of social good in Asia.
Vanderslice is a partner at Trewstar Corporate Board Services, a search firm that focuses on placing women on corporate boards. She was previously the president and CEO of Wired Digital, Inc. and served as a member of the boards of both Wired Digital, Inc. and Wired Ventures, Inc.
Vanderslice graduated summa cum laude from BC and serves on the Executive Committee of the Council for Women of Boston College. After BC, she worked for the IBM Corporation before earning her MBA from Harvard Business School. Vanderslice was also a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization from 1997-2004, and was recognized for her achievements when she was awarded a Henry Crown Fellowship by the Aspen Institute in 2000.
Cooney is a partner at Chicago law firm Cooney & Conway, and he has previously worked as a city public defender, according to the release.
Cooney is also a life trustee—and former chairman—of the Fenwick High School Board of Trustees, and he has served as president of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, which assists with tuition expenses and promotes education enhancement programs for 440 economically disadvantaged high school students in Chicago, according to the release.
Featured Image by Sam Zhai / Heights Staff
