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Juniata College

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Juniata College

(Posted September 15, 2008)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- The Juniata College board of trustees has added six new members to begin the 2008-2009 academic year. The new trustees appointed to begin service Sept. 1, 2008 through August 2011 are: Eugene Baten, of Simsbury, Conn.; David Beachley, of Hagerstown, Md.; Fred Mason, of Luxembourg, Luxembourg; James Pirrello, of Fort Myers, Fla.; Frank L. Pote III (alumni trustee) of Stafford, Va.; and (church trustee) Christy Dowdy, of Huntingdon, Pa.

Eugene Baten, associate professor in the Department of Management and Organizations at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn., graduated from Juniata in 1963, earning a degree in history.

He went on to earn a master's degree in education in 1966 from Temple University and a master's degree in business administration in 1974 from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. Baten returned to higher education in the late 1980s, earning a master's degree in education in 1988 and a doctoral degree in education in 1991 from Harvard University.

Baten has been on the Central Connecticut faculty since 1988. In addition to his faculty responsibilities, he served as director of the university's Entrepreneurial Support Center from 1993 to 1995, and took a yearlong educational leave to direct a $230 million educational program for Hartford, Conn. called Education Alternatives Inc. He also served as a senior fellow for Tufts University's Lincoln Filene Center from 1998 to 2000, and currently works as an adjunct professor for online courses at Quinnipiac University in addition to his regular duties.

Baten started his career as a junior high school teacher in Philadelphia from 1963 to 1969. He moved into the non-profit world in 1969 as director of Opportunities Industrialization Centers, a community-based adult training center in Philadelphia. He became a senior consultant for the Philadelphia office of the accounting firm Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. from 1974 to 1979.

In 1979, he joined Aetna Life & Casualty in Hartford, Conn. as director of education and training. He held several directorial positions at the insurance company and left the company in 1987 as director of management and planning.

He is a member of several professional organizations, including the Eastern and National Academy of Management, the African-American Scholars for Citizenship and Community, and the Society for Human Resource Management. He recently served on the board of directors of Community Solutions Inc. and on the advisory committee for The Center for First Amendment Rights. He also has served on the board of the Hartford Black History Project.

David Beachley, a 1977 Juniata graduate and native of Hagerstown, is president of Beachley Furniture Company Inc. Beachley returns to the board after completing a two-year term as a replacement church trustee.

Beachley started his business career in 1970, working summers at the family furniture business. After graduation from Juniata, he joined the company full-time in the accounting/purchasing department. In 1981 he was promoted to sales manager. He became president and chief executive officer in 1985.

He maintains a high profile in his local business community, serving as a member and officer in the Hagerstown Jaycees from 1977 to 1987. He has been a member of the Hagerstown Rotary since 1979, and has served on the group's board of directors. He is a member of the Hagerstown YMCA and serves as chairman of its board of trustees. He serves as a member of the boards of directors for Brethren Mutual Insurance Co., and is chairman of the board of trustees of the Community Foundation of Washington County and the Washington County (Md.) Hospital Endowment Fund.

He is an active member of the Hagerstown Church of the Brethren. He has volunteered extensively for Juniata College by serving as chair of the alumni fund-raising campaign and as a class fund agent.

Fred Mason, director of product source planning for Caterpillar Inc. and managing director for Caterpillar Luxembourg S.a.r.l., has worked since 1973 for Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines.

The Product Source Planning organization works with Caterpillar's product and operations managers to plan the corporation's global production network, improve returns on production assets and develop new production sources. Caterpillar Luxembourg holds, funds and plans for the company's international assets.

Mason earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Juniata in 1973. He went on to earn a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He started his career as a business manager in the company's headquarters in Peoria, Ill. and moved to Europe in 1977, working for Caterpillar Overseas S.A., located in Geneva, Switzerland.

He returned to the United States in 1985, managing various functions at Caterpillar's corporate headquarters in Peoria. In 1994, he returned to Geneva as director of strategy and planning and later as finance director.

In 2002 Mason again returned to Peoria, where he worked in product source planning at corporate headquarters, relocating to Europe in 2005 to form Caterpillar Luxembourg S.a.r.l.

Apart from his day-to-day accountabilities, Mason has worked to build recognition, support and structure for sustainable development as a strategic issue for Caterpillar. He is Caterpillar's Liaison Delegate to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

He also serves on the board of trustees for the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment in Washington, D.C.

James Pirrello is a 1981 graduate of Juniata and is CEO and president of Vision Homes USA, a Fort Myers, Fla. homebuilding company. He also is chief financial officer of Michael Sivage Homes and Communities, with operations in San Antonio, Texas, Albuquerque, N.M. and Santa Fe, N.M. As an experienced corporate finance officer, he has significant experience in public and private capital markets, having raised more than $1.5 billion in mergers and acquisitions and has been involved in the sale or purchase of more than 20 companies.

He pursued graduate courses in accounting at The Catholic University of America and in business administration at Pepperdine University. He earned a master's degree in business administration in 2004 from the University of California, Berkeley, and went on to earn another M.B.A. in 2005 from Columbia University in New York City.

He has worked in the homebuilding industry as an executive for most of his career, starting as controller with Pulte Homes after graduating from Juniata. He served as controller at NVR L.P. in McLean, Va. from 1985 to 1988. Upon the acquisition of H.R. Remington Properties, in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., he served as vice president of finance at the combined company from 1988 to 1991. From 1992 to 1993, he served chief executive officer of H.R. Remington Properties Inc. in Laguna Niguel, Calif.

He served as executive vice president of Miles Homes Inc. in Minneapolis, Minn. from 1993 to 1995. He became chief financial officer of The Fortress Group in McLean, Va. in 1995, where he oversaw the simultaneous merger of four privately held homebuilding companies and its initial public offering. In 1998 he became chief financial officer of Global Learning Systems Inc., a Web-based firm in McLean specializing in IT and professional development training and education.

He moved back into real-estate development in 2001 as chief financial officer of Longford Group, a Las Vegas, Nev.-based development company. He then moved to Florida in 2004 to become chief financial officer for First Home Builders of Florida, based in Cape Coral.

He remains very active in the homebuilding industry and is a sought-after speaker for such conferences as the Pacific Coast Builders Conference, Builder 100 and Big Builder. Pirrello also writes a monthly column on financial topics for Big Builder magazine.

He is president of The Pirrello Foundation in Fort Myers, Fla. and is active in the American Cancer Society of Lee County and the American Heart Association. He was a coach for Reston Youth Baseball from 1995 to 2001 and Chantilly Youth Football from 1998 to 2000.

Frank Pote, a 1973 Juniata graduate and foreign language program manager for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, started his career in education, working as a teacher in the Pennsylvania state correctional system. At the same time, he earned a master's degree in education in 1980 from Lehigh University. He continued his graduate studies while in the Marines, earning a master's degree in business administration in 1980 from National University, based in San Diego, Calif., and a master's degree in human resource management in 2000 from the University of Oklahoma.

After completing his graduate studies, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1976, where he served in a variety of postings until his retirement as a lieutenant colonel in 2000.

He transitioned out of the military by working as a human resources officer for two northern Virginia police departments from 2000 to 2004. He worked as a project manager for Jacobs-Sverdrup, a Tullahoma, Tenn. company specializing in testing and evaluation technology for the aerospace, space and automotive industries, from 2004 to 2006.

In 2006, he joined the FBI as a foreign language program manager, where he oversees programs in southern Asia (Pakistan, India and nearby countries).

He has been an active volunteer for Juniata, serving as a member and president of the college's alumni association. He also has volunteered as a Juniata Alumni Ambassador, the Juniata Career Team and as class representative for the college's annual fund. He also served on his class reunion committee.
Pote also is the vice chair of the Spina Bifida Association of America and is a member of the Marine Executive Association. He serves as treasurer of Summit Presbyterian Church in Stafford, Va.

Christy Dowdy, one of three church trustees on the board, is co-pastor of the Stone Church of the Brethren in Huntingdon, where she has overseen church activities and programs with her husband and co-pastor, Dale, since 1999.

Dowdy earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education in 1976 from McPherson College in McPherson, Kan. She went on to earn a master's degree in elementary education in 1984 from Emporia State University in Emporia, Kan. In 1989, Dowdy decided to enter the seminary to earn a master's of divinity degree at Bethany Theological Seminary in Oak Brook, Ill.

She began her career as a teacher in 1976, working as a second-grade teacher for seven years in Quinter, Kan. She also taught at other Kansas elementary schools in Emporia and Hesston. In 1985, she was hired to teach first grade, as well as education majors, at the University of Northern Colorado's laboratory school in Greeley, Colo. She left teaching in 1986 to enter Bethany Theological Seminary and work in the admissions office at the seminary.

Dowdy and her husband were co-pastors of the Antelope Park Church of the Brethren in Lincoln, Neb. from 1990 to 1999.

In addition to her duties at the church, Dowdy remains active in the community, volunteering with the Huntingdon chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.

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