Board of Trustees names new leader, trustees

Patricia Jipp Finkelman ’80 has been elected chair of the Grinnell College Board of Trustees, which also has named several new trustees.

Finkelman has been a member of the board since 1998 and a life trustee since 2014. She earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Grinnell and an M.B.A. from Yale School of Management. A former health care policy and reimbursement consultant, she serves as an active community volunteer in central Ohio.

Two new trustees and an ex-officio trustee have been named to the College's governing board, which meets formally three times during the academic year. The new trustees are:

Michael Kahn ’74 is senior managing director at TIAA-CREF, a national financial services organization and the leading provider of retirement services in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields. He plays a principal role in the company’s mergers and acquisition activities and has also served in other major roles with the company, including president and chief executive of TIAA subsidiary Kaspick & Co. and chief operating officer in launching TIAA’s third-party asset management business, TCAM. Kahn, who received his bachelor's in music, has worked on community outreach efforts for several nonprofit groups and sponsored more than 40 summer internships for Grinnell College students while mentoring countless other Grinnell students and young alumni.

David Maxwell ’66 retires June 30 after 16 years as president of Drake University, where he also held the title of professor of literature. After his retirement, Maxwell will be an Association of Governing Boards senior fellow, serving as a thought leader and adviser to AGB and its member institutions. Maxwell also has been president of Whitman College, as well as a faculty member and dean of undergraduate studies at Tufts University for 18 years. Before joining Drake University in 1999, he was director of the National Foreign Language Center in Washington, D.C. In addition to his bachelor's in Russian area studies, Maxwell holds a master’s degree and doctorate in Slavic languages and literatures from Brown University. He will begin his service on the Grinnell board in the fall of 2016.

Ed Senn ’79 serves as an ex-officio trustee in his role as president of the Alumni Council for 2015-16. Senn, who earned his bachelor's in biology from Grinnell, has been a member of the council since 2010, and has volunteered for the College in many ways, including hosting interns and recruiting prospective students. He established the Katie Brown Anderson '49 and Mary Lou Brown '56 Experiential Learning Endowed Fund, which helps recruit top students and support them as they prepare to graduate. Senn began his career as legislative director for U.S. Rep. Tom Tauke (R-Iowa). He later served as federal lobbyist for NYNEX, Bell Atlantic and Verizon Communications, where he is now vice president of state government relations.