Subscribe

News

ITHF Announces New Directors

September 10, 2010

NEWPORT, R.I. — The International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum has announced the election of eleven new members to the Board of Directors. The new directors were all elected today at the Hall of Fame’s Annual Meeting in New York City. The new directors are John P. Arnhold of New York; Mark D. Ein of Washington, D.C.; Renée A.R. Evangelista of Lincoln, R.I.; James (Jim) L. Farley of Cincinnati, Ohio; Philip H. Geier, Jr. of New York; Madam Sun Jinfang of China; Katherine Burton Jones of Newton, Mass.; Geoff Pollard AM of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Will Prest of Minneapolis, Minn.; Michelle Sicard of New York;and Ken Solomon of New York. Additionally, George Gowen, who served as General Counsel for the Hall of Fame for the past 30 years, has been recognized as a Hall of Fame Life Trustee. Gowen is a partner at the firm of Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller in New York.

“I am pleased and honored to warmly welcome our class of highly experienced, talented and committed new Hall of Fame and Museum Directors,” said Christopher E. Clouser, chairman of the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum. “Each of these individuals brings a variety of talent, resources and expertise to the organization and their active participation will be very helpful in our efforts to preserve the history of tennis and provide a premier landmark for tennis fans, while honoring the game’s greatest legends and contributors. We are also pleased to announce that George Gowen has been awarded the designation of Hall of Fame Life Trustee. George has served the Hall of Fame as General Counsel with distinction for the past 30 years, along with his firm of Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller.”

John P. Arnhold is chairman and chief executive officer of First Eagle Investment Management, LLC (FEIM), as well as co-president and co-chief executive officer of Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder Holdings, Inc. In addition, he serves as the president of and a trustee of the First Eagle Funds. Arnhold joined FEIM in 1983 following positions with Chase and Lehman Brothers. In addition to his directorships at FEIM and its affiliates, he is a director of Arnhold Ceramics and the Quantum Endowment Fund, as well as on the International Advisory Board of Hanseatic Asset Management. Additionally, he is a director of the Arnhold Foundation, which focuses on education, conservation and the arts; and the Mulago Foundation, which advances global health initiatives. Arnhold is a member of the board of trustees and the investment committees of Trinity Episcopal Schools Corporation, where he was a past president, as well as Vassar College. He also serves on the board of directors of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Arnhold is a graduate of University of California, Santa Barbara.

Mark D. Ein is the founder and chief executive officer of Venturehouse Group, LLC, a technology holding company that creates, invests in and builds technology and telecommunications companies. He is also the founder and chief executive officer of Capitol Acquisition Corporation (AMEX: CLA.U), a special purpose acquisition vehicle formed for the purpose of making an acquisition of a growth company. Through Leland Investments Inc, his personal investment holding company, Ein is the co-chairman and principal shareholder of Kastle Systems, LLC, one of the country’s leading providers of building and office security systems. He is also the founder and owner of the Washington Kastles, the first World Team Tennis franchise in Washington D.C. Ein is a native of the Washington area, where he actively supports many community, charitable and cultural organizations. He serves on the Board of Directors of The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), The Economic Club of Washington D.C., The District of Columbia College Access Program (DC-CAP), The Tennis Center at College Park and The Potomac Officers Club. He also serves on the Steering Committee for the Business Executives for National Security (BENS) DC, the Advisory Board of the Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund, the Donor Advisory Group for the FasterCures Philanthropy Advisory Service, and the Selection Committee for the George J. Mitchell Scholarship program. Ein is an executive producer of Kicking It, a documentary film about the Homeless World Cup of Soccer, that was shown at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and has formed distribution deals with both ESPN and Netflix. Ein is a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and he earned his M.B.A. from The Harvard Business School.

Renée A.R. Evangelista is the co-managing partner of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge Rhode Island Offices, where she is focused on sophisticated estate planning for an array of clients including professional athletes, venture capitalists, retirees, family business owners, CEOs, trust companies and banks. Evangelista is an appointed member, by the Rhode Island Supreme Court, to the Rhode Island Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Commission (MCLE), and she has served on the Rhode Island Board of Bar Examiners. Besides Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, Evangelista is an appointed member to the Board of Trustees for The Wheeler School in Providence, R.I., and she serves on the Executive Committee of the Institute for International Sport. She served as chair of the Ethics Subcommittee and as a member of the Financial Subcommittee for the Women’s Sports Foundation in New York, a foundation established by Billie Jean King. Evangelista has served on the Development Committee for the International Tennis Hall of Fame for several years.

James (Jim) L. Farley is the president, managing partner and co-founder of Nursing Care Management, Inc., a privately held long-term care company with ownership and management of nursing facilities, home health care and hospice services and other related companies. Prior to this position, he was a successful hospital administrator/executive for approximately 15 years. Farley served on the Board of the American College of Nursing Home Administrators where he was the national president/chairman in the early 1990’s. Farley is active within his community, having served as a bank board of director, president of the Chamber of Commerce, chairman of the Ohio Health Care Administrators Licensure Board and president of the State Hospital Association. Farley is an avid tennis player and he has served as president of the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Association, founder and chairman of the Cincinnati Tennis Hall of Fame and chairman of USTA/Midwest Committees. Farley and his wife and two daughters have been active and successful in tennis, and were named the National Tennis Family of the Year in 1990 by the United States Tennis Association. The Farley family owns and manages the Western Tennis and Fitness Club in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Philip H. Geier, Jr., served as chairman and chief executive officer of the Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. from 1980 through 2000. In February 2001, Geier formed The Geier Group to provide consulting/advisory services in the marketing, communications, and venture capital areas. Additionally, Geier is a senior advisor for Lazard Frères & Co., LLC and serves on the Board of Directors of AEA Investors Inc., AgKnowlege Holdings Company, Inc., and Cross MediaWorks. He has retired from the Boards of Fiduciary Trust International, Alcon Labs Inc., Mettler-Toledo International Inc., and Foot Locker Inc. Geier’s philanthropic director/trustee relationships include Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Save the Children, Autism Speaks, Columbia Business School, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Mr. Geier holds a B.A. in Economics from Colgate University (1957) and an M.B.A. in Marketing and Finance from Columbia University (1958).

Madam Sun Jinfang is currently the administrative vice president of the Chinese Tennis Association. She has served in this position since 2004. Madam Sun is also an executive board member of the Chinese Olympic Committee, as well as the director of Tennis Administrative Centre of General Administration of Sport of China. From 2001 – 2004, Madam Sun served as the director of the National Sports Lottery. Prior to that she held the position of deputy director of the Sports Administration Department in Jiangsu Province since 1983. Madam Sun was elected as a top 10 sports person in China in both 1981 and 1982. From 1971-1982, she was a renown volleyball competitor, and she was a member of the Chinese championship Volleyball World Cup team in 1981, as well as the winning team at the Women’s Volleyball Championships in 1982.

Katherine Burton Jones is the director of development at the Museum of African American History – Boston and Nantucket. She was the assistant dean for information technology and media services at the Harvard Divinity School from 2000 to 2009. With Paul Marty (FSU faculty), she is an editor of and contributor to the book Museum Informatics (2007). She is the editor of The Wired Museum: Emerging Technology and Changing Paradigms (1997), a book available from the American Association of Museums. Jones has written many articles on the use of emerging technologies for museum. Her current research interests focus on the use of technologies in support of the mission of non-profit organizations and on social marketing. Jones is a former president of the Board of Directors of the Museum Computer Network and a former member of the New England Museum Association Board of Directors. She holds a graduate degree in Anthropology from Florida State University.

Geoff Pollard AM is retiring in October 2010 after serving Tennis Australia with distinction as its president for 21 years from 1989 – 2010. Pollard was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1988. As president and chairman of Tennis Australia, Pollard has led the Association through on and off court achievement and a significant corporate governance change to convert Tennis Australia from an amateur association to a modern and successful professional corporate body. During Pollard’s tenure, Tennis Australia has become profitable and has substantially increased national player development initiatives, among many other successes. As chairman of the Australian Open, Pollard has overseen the development of the tournament from an Australian Championships, whose Grand Slam status was in jeopardy, to one which is now at least equal, and in some cases the leader, with the other Grand Slams. In particular he has taken the Australian Open from being primarily a domestic event to becoming Australia’s largest annual international sporting event worth between $150 and $250 million annually to the Victorian economy. Pollard has been elected by his international peers as vice president of the International Tennis Federation, president of the Oceania Tennis Federation, chairman of the ITF Rules of Tennis Committee and Chairman of the ITF Technical Commission, and member of many other worldwide committees such as WTA Tour Board, Grand Slam Committee and Davis Cup Committee.

Will Prest is chief marketing officer and head of business development for Transamerica Retirement Management, Inc. (TRM), where he has steered the development of branding, marketing, and the online businesses from the ground up since its 2006 launch. Since then, Prest has taken on responsibility for growing outside distribution directly with employers and through various intermediaries such as group benefit brokers, affinity groups, and health care companies. Prior to joining TRM, Prest served as vice president of field development and national sales support for H&R Block Financial Advisors, where he developed the strategic direction for delivering the company’s financial advice through a sales force of 1,000 advisors across a national network of 140 branches. Prest also served as vice president of financial planning for MetLife Financial Services where he built and implemented a fee-based financial planning platform across a field force of 6,200. Prest also spent more than eight years in various regional, sales management and marketing roles for American Express Financial Advisors, including region director for the Eastern U.S. Prest holds an M.B.A. from Boston University, Graduate School of Management, and a B.A. in Psychology from Pitzer College in Claremont, California.

Michele Sicard is a managing director and head of corporate communications for North America for BNP Paribas. In this role Sicard is in charge of devising and implementing BNP Paribas communication strategy in North and South America, including coordination with Bank of the West, BNP Paribas retail banking division in the United States and BNP Paribas’ offices in Latin America, and ensuring both are aligned with the Group’s global strategy. Areas under her leadership include media relations, advertising, sponsorships, charities, internal communications and client events. Sicard has been with the BNP Paribas for more than 10 years and has held this position since 2006. Prior to BNP Paribas, Sicard was head of press and public relations for GAN – CIC Group, an insurance and finance group. She has also worked as an Account Manager for Agence Véronique Foucault Conseil, a public relations firm in Paris.

Ken Solomon is chairman and chief executive officer of Tennis Channel. In this position, he leads the continued growth of cable television’s ultimate destination for everything tennis, utilizing more than 20 years of cable, new media, TV production, distribution and advertising experience. Solomon has held top posts at Universal Television, DreamWorks, News Corp. and Scripps, and prior to Tennis Channel, he founded and led Fine Living Network, where he developed the network from concept to launch in just over a year. Earlier in his career, as president of Universal Studios Television (also Studios USA Television), Solomon oversaw program and asset development and distribution activities on a worldwide basis for primetime network, cable, syndication, and made-for-television movies. During his tenure Universal captured the Emmy award for best drama with “Law & Order” and pioneered the licensing of an original series across multiple network platforms with “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” to NBC and USA Network. Earlier in his career, he served as executive vice president of network distribution at Fox Broadcasting, leading the network through its transitional ascending period where he was responsible for all network affiliate relations, as well as leading the network’s successful transition of dozens of CBS, ABC and NBC affiliates to Fox, and launching the NFL and NHL franchises. Solomon has served on the board and the executive committee of leading trade association NATPE International. Among his numerous accolades, Solomon has been honored as “Humanitarian of the Year” by H.E.L.P. Group, one of the largest and most influential children’s charities in the western United States.

George Gowen has served the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum as General Counsel for 30 years. Gowen is a partner at Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller in New York, where he is a member of DBM’s estate, trust and private clients, corporate, art law and not-for-profit religious and charitable institutions practice groups. Gowen is a member of the New York Bar Association, Sports Lawyers Association and International Court of Arbitration for Sport, Lausanne, Switzerland. Additionally, he served in the U.S. Army and he has served on United Nations Commissions. Gowen is an adjunct professor at New York University Graduate School of Business Administration. He is an alumnus of Princeton University, and he earned his J.D. at the University of Virginia.

Located in Newport, Rhode Island, the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum offers an extensive museum that chronicles the history of the sport and honors the game’s greatest legends, historic grass tennis courts that date back to 1880 and are open to the public, an ATP World Tour tournament and the annual Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in July, and numerous public events year-round. To learn more, visit tennisfame.com.