UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., Dec. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Penn State's Board of Trustees Chairman, Karen B. Peetz, will not seek re-election as chairman due to her appointment as president of BNY Mellon, James S. Broadhurst, chairman of the Board's Committee on Governance and Long-Range Planning, today announced.

Broadhurst's statement follows a Dec. 15 announcement by BNY Mellon that Peetz will become president of the 228-year-old historic institution effective Jan. 1, 2013.  She is currently vice chairman and CEO of Financial Markets and Treasury Services.

BNY Mellon is a global financial services company with $27.9 trillion in assets under custody and administration, and $1.4 trillion in assets under management. It services $11.6 trillion in outstanding debt and processes global payments averaging $1.4 trillion per day. 

"While on the Board, and especially during her tenure as chairman, Karen faced the toughest of challenges and led the board to make the right choices for the future of Penn State," Broadhurst said. "Karen's leadership as chairman will be missed, but we are all pleased she will continue to serve on the Board and has offered to remain chair of both the Trustee Presidential Search Council and the Blue & White Vision Council."

"At all times, and particularly now, our University needs a chairman with the ability to commit virtually unlimited time and energy to guiding this great institution to its promising future. The new, significantly broader responsibilities I am assuming at BNY Mellon preclude me from dedicating myself fully to Penn State right now," Peetz explained. 

"The Penn State Board possesses many very capable leaders, and I am gratified our Vice Chairman Keith Masser has indicated his interest and willingness to stand for election as chairman," she said.

Board of Trustee bylaws specify officers are to be chosen each year, in January, by ballot of the members of the Board present at the meeting. Officers serve for a period of one year, with a maximum of three years. Historically, the vice chairman is elected chairman of the Board upon completion of the term of the sitting chairman.  The election of a new chairman and other officers will occur at the next Board of Trustees meeting on Jan. 17-18, 2013.

Karen Peetz Tenure (Jan. 20, 2012 – Jan. 18, 2013)

As chairman, Peetz focused on changes and enhancements to the University's governance and strengthening the institution for the future.  

During her tenure the Board made changes to broaden representation and improve transparency, including expansion of Board committees and the addition of faculty, staff, students and alumni as non-voting members.  

All Trustee meetings for all topics, except legal issues or sensitive human resources subjects, became public; and recent meetings featured specific time for a public question-and-comment period.

Peetz also successfully guided the University's implementation of the interim recommendations of the Freeh Report; and established integrated working groups of Board members, faculty, staff and students to evaluate for implementation the report's 119 final recommendations for implementation.

Under her guidance and direction, the University began to dramatically enhance its management infrastructure with the appointments of new chief financial and legal officers, and for the first time, a chief compliance officer. 

In November she announced the commencement of the search for a new University president.  Current University President Rodney Erickson announced he would retire on June 30, 2014, or before, if the search is successfully concluded before that date.

With the counsel and assistance of Stanley Ikenberry, former president of the American Council on Education and past president of the University of Illinois and current senior fellow at Penn State, Peetz established the Penn State Blue & White Vision Council. 

The council, comprised of student, faculty, staff, academic and campus leaders, as well as representatives from Penn State Hershey Medical Center and the Board of Trustees, will identify key strategic challenges and opportunities facing the University over the next several years. This work is expected to continue to inform the skills and attributes required for the new president.

Background Information: Karen Peetz

Karen Peetz is a 1977 graduate of Penn State, where she was a student-athlete, competing in lacrosse and field hockey.  She is the president of BNY Mellon, having joined the company in 1998.  

She is chair of BNY Mellon's Women's Initiatives Network and in 2011 was named the most powerful woman in banking by American Banker.  She is on the board of directors for SIFMA, the Private Export Funding Corporation (PEFCO), and SunCoke Energy.  Before joining BNY Mellon, Peetz spent 16 years with JPMorgan Chase in a variety of sales and business management positions. 

Other Background Information

James S. Broadhurst, is chairman, Eat'n Park Hospitality Group Inc.  The company started as a single car-hop style restaurant in Pittsburgh in 1949 and has grown into a portfolio of regional foodservice concepts focused on personalized dining. It now serves more than 50 million guests every year.

Keith E. Masser, chairman and chief executive officer, Sterman Masser Inc.  Sterman Masser Inc. is a family-owned potato farming company in the Pennsylvania Dutch region of the Hegins and Lykens valleys.  It combines eight generations of potato farming experience with today's newest potato farming technology to meet the demands of modern business.  The potato packaging and warehouse operations pack and distribute more than 250 million pounds of potatoes each year.

The Pennsylvania State University is a state-related, land-grant university located in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as an agricultural college, Penn State received university status in 1953. Penn State has 24 campuses throughout Pennsylvania, including undergraduate locations as well as special-mission campuses such as the College of Medicine in Hershey and the Penn State Law School. The Penn State World Campus is the University's online distance education component.

In total, Penn State serves more than 95,000 students. The University awards more associate, bachelor's and graduate degrees than any other institution in the Commonwealth, and has a research enterprise in excess of $805 million. Its mission is to improve the lives of the people of Pennsylvania, the nation and the world through integrated, high-quality programs in teaching, research and service.

SOURCE Pennsylvania State University