Washington College has announced the appointment of two new members of its Board of Governors and Visitors and the re-election of five members to new terms.
The newest members are international public-relations executive Michael Holtzman, appointed to a six-year term, and retired surgeon Henry F. Sears, who fills a vacant position with five years remaining. Returning members are alumni representatives Norris W. Commodore, Jr., and Daryl L. Swanstrom, board appointment Richard Creighton, and Maryland Governor appointees Thomas Gale and Deborah Moxley Turner.
Mike Holtzman is one of the most honored and sought-after communications strategists in the world, and his clients include high-level international political and business figures and many prominent non-governmental organizations. Named “PR Person of the Year” by PR Week Magazine, he managed the successful global campaign on behalf of China’s bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games.
Now President and Partner of Brown Lloyd James, a boutique international firm specializing in public diplomacy, he led the firm’s work on behalf of Qatar’s winning bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, as well as a campaign on behalf of Iraqi Governing Council member Ayad Allawi, who went on to become Iraq’s first post-Saddam Prime Minister. He also headed the BLJ team that supported the United Nations Independent Inquiry into the Oil-for-Food Programme, chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
Holtzman was seconded to the Federal Emergency Management Agency following the September 11th terrorist attacks. Reprising a role he held with FEMA during the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, he served as a media liaison from Ground Zero. He later served as a Consultant at the U.S. State Department, serving as an advisor to the Director of Policy Planning Staff. During the Clinton Administration, he worked in the Executive Office of the President as Special Advisor for Public Affairs to United States Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky. He was Director of Public Affairs to the Council on Foreign Relations from 1996-1998.
Holtzman is a 1992 graduate of the College of William & Mary, where he majored in Government.
Retired surgical oncologist Henry F. Sears practiced and taught medicine for nearly three decades. Now he practices land conservation and sustainable agriculture through stewardship of his family’s 5,000-acre property at Grasslands Plantation and Chino Farms in Queen Anne’s County, Md. In May, Sears and Chino Venture Partners turned the operations of two research facilities at Chino Farms—the Chester River Field Research Center and Foreman’s Branch Bird Observatory—over to Washington College and its Center for Environment & Society, dramatically broadening the College’s ability to provide students with field experience in the environmental sciences.
A graduate of St. Mark’s School in Southboro, Mass., and the University of Pennsylvania, Sears earned his medical degree from the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his residency and fellowship in surgery at the University of Virginia. His career carried him to the National Naval Medical Center and the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, then to Philadelphia, where he practiced and taught at the Fox Chase Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania from 1977 to 1985 and served as an associate scientist at the Wistar Institute. He joined Harvard University Medical School and New England Deaconess Hospital (now Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) as an associate professor of surgery in 1985.
Since his retirement from medicine, “Harry” Sears has spent much of his time and energy working to conserve land, restore native grasses and bird populations, and develop more sustainable agricultural practices at Chino Farms and Grasslands Plantation. He and his wife, Sharon Bushnell Sears, divide their time between the Maryland farm and their home in Cambridge, Mass. He is a trustee emeritus of the Jackson Laboratory for Genetic Research in Bar Harbor, Me., and a Life Trustee of the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences near Plymouth, Mass.
The board re-elected Richard Creighton ’73 for a new six-year term. Creighton is Principal of TMG Custom Media, an award-winning multi-media marketing company that he and his wife, Jane (Ottenberg) Creighton, founded nearly three decades ago. Employing some 100 media professionals in offices in Washington, D.C. and New York City, TMG creates digital and print media for 70 corporations, associations, and institutions, including many clients in education.
The Alumni Council re-elected as two of its representatives to the board Norris Commodore ’73 and Daryl L. Swanstrom ’69. Commodore is an executive at IBM Credit LLC, where he is responsible for establishing business practices and developing customer financing contracts. Swanstrom is President, CEO, and owner of Atlanta-based Spyraflo, Inc., a manufacturer of specialty miniature bearings for major national and international clients.
Through his office, Maryland’s Governor Martin O’Malley recently named members Thomas H. Gale and Deborah Moxley Turner ’77 to continue service as his representatives. Gale, who has served on the College Board since 1998, was appointed to a new five-year term. He is President of Eversley Enterprises and owner/proprietor of several Maryland farms. Turner is president and owner of DMT Investments, LLC, in Bel Air, Md., concentrating in Commercial/Residential Development and Property Management. She is reappointed for a term ending in 2014.
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