A new leadership team is set to lead the University of Houston System (UHS) Board of Regents during
the upcoming fiscal year. During its recent quarterly meeting, the board
elected new officers. FY2014 UHS Board of Regents officers are as follows:
- Chair - Jarvis V. Hollingsworth
- Vice Chair - Nandita Venkateswaran Berry
- Secretary - Welcome W. Wilson Jr.
The board is the
governing body of the UH System, which includes the University of
Houston, the University of Houston-Downtown, the University of Houston-Victoria,
and the University of Houston-Clear Lake. The system also includes three branch
campuses, UH-Clear Lake Pearland, UH System - Northwest and UH Sugar Land, as
well as a multi-institution teaching center, UH System Cinco Ranch.
Hollingsworth succeeds
Nelda Blair, an alumna of the UH Law Center, as the board’s chair. Blair was
appointed to the board in 2008, and her term expired this year. She served two
terms as the board’s chair. Mica Mosbacher and Jacob Monty also completed their
terms as regents. Blair, Mosbacher and Monty will continue to serve on the
board until Texas Gov. Rick Perry appoints new regents to replace them.
“I am honored that
the Board of Regents showed confidence in my leadership abilities by electing
me to serve as chair of the board of this great university system,”
Hollingsworth said. “This is an exciting opportunity, and I am looking forward
to working with my fellow Regents and the incredible leadership team led by UHS
Chancellor Renu Khator.”
An alumnus of the
UH Law Center, Hollingsworth was appointed to the board in 2009. Hollingsworth
is a partner in the Houston office of the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani,
LLP, and has been repeatedly named a “Texas Super Lawyer” by Texas Monthly magazine.
He
previously served as the board’s vice chair and secretary. He held the position
of chair of the Finance and Administration Committee for the past two years,
and also served as a member of the Executive and Compensation Committees. During
his first two years on the board, he served as chair of the Endowment
Management Committee. Hollingsworth previously was a board
member for the State Bar of Texas and also served as chairman of the board of trustees
of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, which among other things manages a
$100 billion pension retirement fund for public school teachers and employees.
He also served on the board of directors of the Texas Growth Fund and is a
former director of the Lehman Brothers Private Equity Advisory Board. He
is a member of the National Association of Securities Professionals New York’s
Wall Street Hall of Fame, and in 2006, Black Enterprise magazine named Hollingsworth
one of the “75 Most Powerful Blacks on Wall Street.” He has received honors
from the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Lawyer magazine, the Houston Bar
Association, the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, and the NAACP. He was a
2007 recipient of the UH Black Alumni Association’s Outstanding Achievement Award
and the 2006 recipient of the UH Law Alumni Association's Private Sector
Achievement Award. Hollingsworth previously served as a director of the UH
System Alumni Organization. A former captain in the U.S. Army, Hollingsworth
received a Meritorious Service Medal for his service. He received his
bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Hollingsworth,
a native of Fayette, Ala., and his wife Andrea have three children.
In
2009, UH alumna Berry was appointed to the UHS Board of Regents. Berry is
Senior Counsel with Locke Lord, LLP. She is the first Indian
American to be elected as vice chair of the board, and the first Indian
American appointed to the board of a public university in Texas. During the
past two fiscal years, she chaired the board’s Audit and Compliance
Committee. She has been a member of the Finance and Administration
Committee and the Academic and Student Success Committee. Born in Hyderabad,
India, Berry earned her bachelor’s degree from Mount Carmel College, Bangalore.
In 1991, she earned a bachelor’s degree from UH, and in 1995, she received her
juris doctorate from the UH Law Center. She is married to talk show host
Michael Berry, an alumnus of the UH Honors College, and they have two sons. She
has been on the boards of the Houston Zoo, the Houston Area Women’s Center, the
South Asian Chamber of Commerce, and The Community Family Center.
Wilson was
appointed to the UHS Board of Regents in 2011. He is president and CEO of real
estate development firm GSL Welcome Group, which owns over four million square
feet of industrial buildings in over 70 locations. During the past year, he
served as vice chair for the Facilities, Construction and Master Planning
Committee and the Finance and Administration Committee. Wilson chairs the board
of the Southwest Houston Redevelopment Authority, and Tax Increment
Reinvestment Zone Number 20 and the Houston Business Realty Coalition. He also
is a member of the boards for the Texas Business Hall of Fame, Houston Food
Bank, and the Regional Advisory Board of the American Lung Association. Wilson
also serves on the Greater Houston Partnership’s Common Grounds Initiative
Committee and Energy Collaborative Cluster Council Leadership Committee. He is
a former member of the Board of the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation.
Wilson’s father, Welcome Wilson Sr., is a former chair for the UHS Board of
Regents.
For more details on
the UH System and the UH System Board of Regents, visit http://www.uhsa.uh.edu/.