board of trustees

A graduate of Notre Dame and Harvard Law , David practiced law for two years in New York city before joining the Johnson & Johnson law department. There he stayed for 16 years, the last 3 as general Counsel and member of the Board of Directors. In 1978, he moved to the management side, serving in turn as President of McNeil Pharmaceutical, Group Chairman of several Latin American subsidiaries, member of the Executive Committee, Chairman of the world-wide Consumer Sector, and Vice Chairman of the Board. While at J&J, he was a member of the small senior team of executives handling the 1982 and 1986 TYLENOL poisoning episodes, serving as the face of the company in several early TV interviews. Leaving in 1986, he spent 2 years in venture capital, and 5 years as president of the Health Care Products division of Schering Plough Corporation and member of their Operations Committee. Since retiring, he has done consulting and served on the Boards of several public and private companies.

in his private life, he has been active in the aspen institute seminar programs, has taught his own course on corporate social responsibility at several colleges and universities, served on the boards of several non-profits including fairleigh dickenson university (chairman), the calvin coolidge memorial foundation, and the incline village community hospital . he and his wife judy have been residents of incline village for 16 years.

Patricia engels has spent over thirty years in senior leadership positions, mostly in Fortune 500 companies. Her positions include Executive Vice President of Product and marketing for Qwest; President of business Process Management, a $4 billion dollar business unit of EDS; and President and CEO, directory Operations, a $4 billion dollar subsidiary of SBC (now AT&T). She also held similar positions with Ameritech and United Airlines.

ms. engels served on the board of directors of frontier airlines, where she chaired the compensation committee and was a member of the audit committee. she is currently vice chair of the board of trustees at the banner alzheimer’s institute; chair of the board for lake tahoe shakespeare festival, and chair-emeritus of the board of trustees for the arizona sonora desert muse.

she also serves as trustee for the university of arizona foundation, serving on the finance and audit and governance committees, and is a member of the national board for the university of arizona eller school of business.

her previous not for profit experience includes board positions at the art institute of chicago (including the executive committee); steppenwolf theatre; university of illinois business advisory council; united airlines credit union; and denver chamber of commerce.

ms. engels, who is married and lives in tucson and lake tahoe, is a graduate of the university of minnesota. she enjoys hiking and skiing, and is an avid supporter of the performing arts.

as vice president for research and innovation and professor of mechanical engineering at the university of nevada, reno, dr. mridul gautam leads the articulation and implementation of a shared vision for research and guides the administrative division focused on developing world-class research and discovery, the careers and competitiveness of faculty, and the institution’s capacity as a high-impact research university and economic cornerstone of nevada. dr. gautam also serves as president of the nevada research and innovation corporation. prior to joining the university in 2013, he served as associate vice president for research at west virginia university (wvu) as well as the vice president for the wvu research corporation.

Under his leadership, Research & Innovation provides the highest quality of services and infrastructure to enable faculty, students and staff to excel in their research, scholarly and creative endeavors and to advance innovation and commercialization. The division helps build interdisciplinary collaborations, assist researchers in obtaining and managing extramural funding, and maintain a safe, healthy and ethical environment in which to conduct research. The division is committed to facilitating connections with industry and fostering regional entrepreneurship and collaboration through an innovative ecosystem, anchored by the Nevada Center for Applied Research and the University of Nevada, Reno Innovation Center—Powered By Switch.

博士高塔姆（Gautam）是美国国家公共行政管理学院院士。他曾在多个国家委员会任职，包括公立和赠地大学协会研究执行委员会理事会及其实验室安全研究工作组，大学经济发展协会理事会，epscor /想法国家，以及沙漠研究所研究所的董事会成员，他是美国国家科学院的政府，大学，行业研究圆桌会议的成员。作为总统理事会成员，高塔姆（gautam）就重大政策问题提供建议，并处理引起大学研究界极大兴趣的州和国家问题。

dr. gautam is an internationally recognized researcher and expert in the area of heavy-duty mobile source exhaust emissions, aerosol sampling, and particulate matter measurement, characterization, and control. he has over 27 years of experience in initiating and managing large interdisciplinary and multi-institutional programs and has served as a principal investigator and/or co-principal investigator on over $80 million in funded research. dr. gautam has published more than 400 technical articles including refereed journal articles, symposia/published proceedings and published abstracts of papers presented at professional meetings. in addition to having a licensing agreement to his credit, he is a recipient of the outstanding aerosol paper award through the american industrial hygiene association and the american conference of governmental industrial hygienists, the ralph r. teetor educational award through the society of automotive engineers, and several outstanding researcher of the year awards at wvu.

dr. gautam received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from west virginia university in 1989 and his master’s in mechanical engineering from the indian institute of technology, delhi in 1984.

emmett hall jr. is a financial advisor with wells fargo advisors. since 1987, emmett has held numerous positions in the financial services industry, including branch manager, director of broker training, and currently vice president-investments.

emmett is an alumnus of sierra nevada college, where he majored in liberal arts. he is a former member of the u.s. ski team and world cup competitor. his wife and their youngest daughter, madeleine, are also alumni of snc and share a family bond with the college.

emmett was born and raised in redding, california. he moved to lake tahoe to attend college and pursue his dream of being nominated to the u.s. ski team. after marrying his wife, heather, they moved to san francisco to pursue their careers and raise their daughters.

emmett raised his daughters, gabrielle and madeleine, with his love of skiing, instilling in them a passion for the sport. ski racing brought the family full circle back to incline village in 2010. today he still understands the importance of discipline and perseverance, and applies the same processes and principles in his daily life.

when not at work, emmett likes to keep active. he is an avid cyclist and serves on the board of the procrastinating pedalers of reno-tahoe, whose mission is to promote safe, non-competitive, recreational bicycle riding and healthy lifestyles in a fun, social atmosphere. he also helps support the efforts of his wife, who serves on the board of the north lake tahoe demonstration garden at sierra nevada college.

jen is a co-founder and managing principal of the kap group (kap), which provides investor relations and fundraising services to private equity managers at all stages of the firm’s lifecycle. prior to founding kap in 2009, jen was a vice president in the real estate private fund group at credit suisse, responsible for raising capital from institutional investors for private real estate managers globally. before her distribution role, jen advised and prepared real estate managers through each stage of the capital raising process, including real estate private fund and joint venture opportunities in the u.s., europe, latin america and asia representing over $5 billion in equity raised. prior to that, jen was a founding member of dlj strategic partners, a private equity fund focused on secondary limited partnership opportunities in private funds globally. jen started her career in the real estate finance and securitization group at donaldson, lufkin, and jenrette.

jen earned a masters of business administration from the harvard business school, where she continues to be involved in alumni fundraising initiatives. she graduated magna cum laude from southern methodist university with a bachelor of business administration.

jen serves as a board member for civic builders, a non-profit real estate firm that builds charter schools in underserved areas in and around new york city; she is also a board member of the harvard club of northern nevada.

jen lives in reno, nevada, with her husband, karl, and their two daughters, hannah and marley.

representing senate district 16

first elected to the nevada state senate in 2010, ben kieckhefer was re‐elected in 2014 to represent a district that covers southern washoe county and the entirety of carson city. ben was elected into senate republican caucus leadership following the 2012 elections, and in 2015 was chosen as the senate’s assistant majority leader and chairman of the senate finance committee.

prior to his election, ben served the state of nevada as communications director for governor jim gibbons and public information officer for the department of health and human services. he is also a former journalist, having worked for the reno gazette‐journal and the associated press covering government and politics.

the majority of ben’s work in the nevada legislature focuses on budget and tax policy, healthcare, and education. his accomplishments include the creation of nevada’s first need‐ based scholarship program for community college students, the development of alternate routes to licensure for nevada teachers, the creation of a statutory sunset committee to review state government operations, and legislation cracking down on child sex offenders.

outside of the legislature, ben works full‐time as the director of client relations for the statewide nevada law firm mcdonald carano wilson llp, and also serves on numerous charitable boards in northern nevada.

among ben’s numerous honors, he was recognized as a 2011 winner of reno‐tahoe young professionals network’s twenty under 40 awards, he was selected as a fellow in the 2013 class of the aspen institute’s rodel fellowship in public leadership, and he was recognized by the builders association of northern nevada as the 2015 outstanding public official.

ben completed his undergraduate studies at depaul university in chicago, where he graduated with a bachelor of arts in english. he also received a master of arts in public affairs reporting from the university of illinois – springfield.

despite ben’s enthusiasm for public policy, his family remains his first priority. ben and his wife april have two sets of boy‐girl twins: aspen, austin, lucy, and lincoln. in what little free time he can find, ben likes to fish, ski, hunt, and cheer tirelessly for the chicago cubs.

warren c. kocmond, chairman and ceo of bg radia corporation, research professor of atmospheric physics. prof kocmond brings extensive senior-level management experience to the snc board and has directed operations of companies ranging from a few scientists and engineers to several hundred professionals. with a mathematics degree from the univ of arizona and a masters in meteorology from penn state university, kocmond went on to become head of atmospheric physics at cornell aeronautical laboratory when he was 29.

in 1978 kocmond was named executive director of atmospheric sciences at the desert research institute and later acting president of the institute in 1983. while at dri he was honored as one of a handful of scientists to have his experiments chosen for flight on board space shuttle’s atmospheric cloud physics laboratory (acpl). in 1984 prof kocmond became president of sierra nevada corp, a navigation and avionics firm specializing in proprietary product development. snc is now the largest defense contractor in the state of nevada. currently he is chairman and ceo of bg-radia corp, an award winning designer and manufacturer of high performance loudspeakers that qualify as some of the finest audio products in the world.

he is a 36 year resident of incline village and is married to janet pahl, recognized as a long time friend of sierra nevada college.

mr. minick is venture partner at the venture capital firm arch venture partners, and was instrumental in the startup, development and financing of numerous arch portfolio companies, including bind therapeutics.

mr. minick served as the president and ceo of bind therapeutics, inc. from 2009 to 2014, where he built a broad cancer clinical pipeline and completed a successful ipo in 2013.

from 1995 to 1998, mr. minick was director, president and chief operating officer of sequus pharmaceuticals, inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing cancer therapeutics doxil® and amphotec® it was acquired by alza corporation in 1999 for $580 million.

mr. minick received his postgraduate training in neurobiology at the salk institute, an mba from northwestern university and a ba from the university of california at san diego.

currently, mr. minick serves on the for-profit boards of alzheon, chiasma and aira and the non-profit boards of northwestern university invo board, beth israel deaconess and classical tahoe.

robert preger’s career spans over 25 years in the software industry. after graduating with a bsee from carnegie tech in 1962, bob held a number of positions in the formative years of the software industry and eventually became part of the original management team at oracle in 1980. bob retired from a sales and marketing position shortly after oracle’s successful ipo in 1986. as an independent investor, he has been instrumental in the development of several small companies in northern california. bob has supported a number of initiatives at carnegie mellon university, including an architectural cad lab, the intelligent workplace facility, and most recently, the entertainment technology center. bob’s support of the intelligent workplace facility resulted in the facility being named for him.

bob and his wife eleanor have resided in incline village since 1987 and have served on the board of snc for over 10 years. in 2000, bob and his wife provided the lead funding for establishing a computer science major at sierra nevada college, and chaired the computer science advisory board at the college.

ben solomon earned a ba in mathematics at uc berkeley where he lettered in gymnastics, and an ma in mathematics from uc davis. he received an honorary doctorate in education from sierra nevada college (snc). his teaching career included positions at uc davis, the university of victoria, la state university, and snc. ben’s primary subject was mathematics, but he also taught literature and alternative energy and coached gymnastics.

he was the ceo of snc for 25 years, holding the titles of administrative director (1970 – 1980), president (1980 – 1993 and 2003 -2005), and chancellor (1993 -1994). during his tenure the college grew from 23 full time students and three converted buildings to several hundred students and an energy efficient campus with five buildings, two utilizing passive solar heating and one which received an leed “platinum” rating.

ben also owned and managed transierra capital which was the highest ranked “fixed income” investment firm in the us from 1995 to 2003. he lives in incline village with his wife margaret in a “net zero” house which incorporates devices patented by ben. the 1,500 watt pv system produces enough surplus electricity to power their converted plug-in prius.

roger wittenberg’s background as a scientist, entrepreneur, and inventor has led him to found several companies that focus on recycling materials into reusable products. his most successful venture, the trex company, has turned billions of pounds of recycled and reclaimed plastic, including 1.3 billion grocery retail bags and waste wood each year, into alternative wood products. after retiring from trex, wittenberg founded international supply consortium llc, which takes on projects that use innovative building technologies and real estate projects that utilize these same sustainable materials.

维滕贝格对回收利用，绿色技术和创新的热情现在正应用于他自己的后院北太浩湖的项目中。作为内华达山脉学院的基金会董事会成员，维滕伯格通过使用trex产品和其他创新的绿色策略，帮助将校园的太浩湖环境科学中心提升到了白金级的地位。并且，他对可持续发展的热情现在推动了当地水晶湾项目的使命：巨石湾度假村，他旨在通过该项目为度假村/社区体验创建一种新模式，其中包含创新的绿色技术，并为游客和当地人。罗杰（roger）与妻子比阿特丽斯（Beatrice）住在一个倾斜的村庄，他的大家庭就在附近。