Rutgers Board of Trustees Elects 2020-2021 Officers
Jose A. Piazza named chair, Ronald J. Garutti and Tilak Lal co-vice chairs. James Dougherty to serve on Board of Governors.
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Jose A. Piazza has been elected to a one-year term as chair of the Rutgers University Board of Trustees. Piazza, vice president of business excellence finance at Verizon Communications, Inc., has served as co-vice chair of the Board of Trustees.
A graduate of Washington University and the University of Rochester, Piazza has also served as a charter trustee, as a member of the board’s nominating committee, and as chair of the task force on student aid, the committee on diversity and inclusion, and the task force on philanthropy.
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Ronald J. Garutti, a medical doctor and retired group vice president of global regulatory affairs at Schering-Plough Corp., will serve as co-vice chair for a third term. A Pottersville, N.J., resident and Rutgers College alumnus, his second term as a charter trustee runs through 2024. Garutti is a member of the Rutgers University Foundation Board of Overseers and has served on the Board of Trustees’ executive committee and nominating committee, as well as the Board of Governors’ committee on intercollegiate athletics.
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Tilak Lal, senior vice president and co-head of investment risk management for Franklin Templeton Investments, will serve as co-vice chair. A San Francisco, Calif., resident and Rutgers School of Engineering alumnus, his second term as an alumnus trustee runs through 2023. Lal has served on the board’s joint committee on investments for nine terms, and as chair for the last six.
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James F. Dougherty will join the Board of Governors as a trustee governor for the term running from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2026. A veterinary internist from Collegeville, Pa., and co-owner of Metropolitan Veterinary Associates, he is currently chair of the Board of Trustees and chair of the Camden Board of Directors of Rutgers, which he has served on since 2017. He also served as the Board of Trustees’ co-vice chair for two terms, as well as chair of the board’s nominating committee and ad hoc committee on diversity.
A graduate of Rutgers College, the Rutgers Graduate School-New Brunswick and the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Dougherty is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Animal Hospital Association and the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association. He is on the Rutgers University Foundation Board of Overseers, the School of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council, the School of Public Health Dean’s Advisory Committee and the Tyler Clementi Center Advisory Board. Dougherty is the recipient of the 2016 Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
The appointments take effect July 1, 2020, and run through June 30, 2021.
Historically, the Board of Trustees was the governing body of the university from the time of its founding as Queen’s College in 1766 until the university was reorganized under state law in 1956. The board acts in an advisory capacity to the Board of Governors and comprises 41 voting members: 20 charter members, 16 alumni members and five public members appointed by the governor of the state with confirmation by the New Jersey State Senate. Of the 20 charter seats, three are reserved for students with full voting rights.
