Stern to become Board chairman

Jim Stern (E '72), the vice chairman of the Board of Trustees, will assume the board's leadership when Chairman Nathan Gantcher (LA '62) steps down in November.

To smooth the leadership transition, Stern, an investment banker from New York, has been elected "trustee designate," a position he will hold until Gantcher's term officially ends. Gantcher will step down as chair after seven years in the post.

Originally elected as an alumni trustee in 1982, Stern has been the Board's vice chair for five years. He has chaired several committees, most recently the Tufts Tomorrow campaign with Gantcher. There probably was no other trustee who had served on as many committees as Stern, according to Trustee Secretary Linda Dixon.

As a student, Stern studied engineering and played while setting himself up for a career on Wall St.

"During summer breaks from Tufts as an undergraduate, I worked as a runner on Wall St. at Lehman Brothers, where I ended up spending much of my career," Stern said in an interview for the online bulletin for Harvard School of Business, where he earned his MBA.

Stern is now the chairman of The Cypress Group, a private equity firm in New York which he founded in 1994.

In 1999, Stern donated funds to endow a chair in the history department in honor of his parents. Stern also played a critical role in raising support for the Gantcher Family Sports and Convocation Center.

Earlier this academic year, the committee on trusteeship, which governs the Board's operations, began looking for Gantcher's replacement. Trustees worked with President Larry Bacow to identify the needs of the Tufts community in choosing potential holders of the position.

Gantcher, after 20 years on the board, plans to "keep busy from a philanthropic point of view." He is credited with creating an atmosphere of generosity toward the University, but his most visible gift to the University is the Gantcher Center.

Gantcher had planned to leave the board at the end of the last academic year, but agreed to stay while Bacow adjusted to his new post, which he assumed in 2001.