The Occidental Weekly

The Occidental College Board of Trustees recently inducted two new board members, Carl A. Ballton '69 and Don Conlan who, along with the rest of the board, will direct and oversee the school's endowment. Occidental announced the addition of the two new trustees on Feb. 17.

Ballton and Conlan will join the board and assist in overseeing the college's long-term vitality. Collectively, board members raise funds for the institution and related programs, monitor and handle the administration's performance, oversee the college grounds and residents, endorse the academic program and donate annually.

Ballton, voted Alumnus of the Year 2009, has a long history of civic engagement. Presently he serves as president and COO of the charitable community organization the Union Bank Foundation and senior vice president and deputy group head of the Corporate Social Responsibility Group of Union Bank. He also works on the board of directors of the Los Angeles Urban League and Goodwill Industries of Southern California, and has advised the boards of the United Negro College Fund in Los Angeles, the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce and others.

Conlan is entering the Oxy community with an extensive career and has filled many leadership roles in financial organizations. Conlan counts among his credentials a position as former president of the L.A.-based global investment management organization The Capital Group Companies Inc., and as the chief economist at Chemical Bank and Dean Witter. He has also served or currently serves on the boards of the Yosemite Fund, the Joslin Diabetes Center, Value Schools Charter schools and others.

Conlan has found himself drawn to Oxy since relocating to Los Angeles from New York in 1974.

"The combination of its physical location in a very real part of Los Angeles, its unswerving commitment to the traditional concept of a broad-based liberal arts education, its sincere attempt to calmly and rationally engage itself and its students in the toughest socio-cultural and human issues of recent decades - these are some of the elements that caught my attention," he said.

Ballton was unavailable for comment.

Article Tools