The Scripps College Board of Trustees voted unanimously on May 18, 2013, to elect Mark R. Herron its next chair, effective July 1, 2014.
In making the announcement to the Scripps community, Linda Davis Taylor, current board chair, said: “Mark is exceptionally well qualified to lead Scripps College’s Board of Trustees. We take pride in welcoming Mark as our board chair-elect for the coming academic year.”
“My special thanks go to the Ad Hoc Committee for Selection of Board Chair – Fran Scoble (Chair), Betsy Smith ’74, Jean Bixby Smith ’59, and Bob Breech – for their diligence and foresight in identifying the next leader of our board.”
Herron joined the Scripps College Board of Trustees in 1997, and has throughout his tenure assumed various leadership roles, including serving since 2004 as vice chair of the board. He has also been a member of the Executive Committee since 1999 and the Compensation Committee since 2008, currently serving as vice chair of both.
With an MBA from UCLA and a BSE in Civil Engineering from Princeton University, Herron has played a critical role in the financial management of the College through his service on the Investment, Finance, and Audit Committees. He is currently chair of the Finance Committee and vice chair of the Investment Committee. He has also served on the Nominations and Governance Committee since 2009.
Herron is the President and CEO of the Davidson Group, an investment management company based in Incline Village, Nevada, and has served in a number of leadership positions with previous companies. He is also a licensed engineer whose civic duties have included service on several governing boards. He is currently active on the boards of KNPB television, the PBS station in Reno, and the Davidson Academy of Nevada, a tuition-free public school for gifted students on the campus of the University of Nevada Reno.
Herron’s mother, Jeannette Pierson Herron ’45, majored in mathematics at Scripps and became one of the College’s early proponents of mathematics as essential to a liberal arts education. She served as an alumna trustee from 1968 to 1973. By establishing through a gift in 2004 the Joseph and Jeannette Herron endowed Chair in Mathematics, she and her husband Joseph enabled future generations of Scripps students to pursue their interests in mathematics at Scripps.
“This is tremendous news for Scripps and for our board,” said Lori Bettison-Varga, president of Scripps College. “Mark will do an outstanding job, and I look forward to continuing our work together as he assumes his new role.”
With his wife Susan, Herron resides in Incline Village, Nevada.