Campus News
Board of Trustees Update Matthew Fine ’95 Joins Suffield’s Board of Trustees “My time at Suffield was an incredible experience, but it was only in more recent years that I came to fully appreciate its significance to me,” said Matt Fine ’95 as he joined the Suffield board in May 2014. Matt is portfolio manager of the Third Avenue International Value Fund and a principal of Third Avenue Management. He joined Third Avenue in 2000 and began working with the firm’s international team in an effort to identify investment opportunities in the wake of the Argentine crisis of 2001. He has since been responsible for myriad investments in developed and emerging markets across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. After graduating from Suffield in 1995, Matt earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Hamilton College. He is a CFA charterholder and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts. Matt was born in Hartford and lives in Manhattan with his wife Laurel and their two children, Eleanor and John. He commented, “Prep school years are highly formative, and at Suffield I was fortunate to be surrounded by a group of faculty who expected more of me than I had expected of myself. It was genuinely a life-changing experience at a critical time. As I have grown more involved with Suffield of late, I have come to better understand the level of ambition and achievement that has grown within the school. I am thrilled to become part of that effort by joining Suffield’s Board of Trustees.”
Peter Van Ingen P’06 and Robin Graham P’11 Complete Board Service Peter Van Ingen and Robin Graham concluded their service as Suffield trustees at the May 2014 board meeting. Peter is senior executive vice president at Aon Group in New York. One of his daughters, Kelly, is a 2006 Suffield graduate. He remarked, “My years as a trustee at Suffield have been some of the most rewarding times of my life. The ‘feel-good’ experience that I’ve gotten dealing with the teachers and students puts everything else in my life in perspective. I will miss seeing all of the great people at Suffield.” Robin is chairman of James Graham & Sons, a gallery specializing in important paintings and sculpture, European 19th Century sculpture, contemporary art, and contemporary British pottery. Robin’s son, James, was in Suffield Class of 2011. Robin commented, “Serving on Suffield Academy’s Board of Trustees was particularly Robin Graham with Charlie and Hillary interesting to me because I joined in 2008 with a background of over 15 years as a trustee at my alma mater, Middlebury College. I was very curious to understand the differences and similarities between the operation of a moderate size New England liberal arts college and a prep school of similar description. Suffield had struck me almost immediately as a preparatory school version of the Middlebury I knew in the late 1980s and early 90s: a beautiful New England campus nestled against a charming old town; moderate size; dynamic, intelligent, risk-taking leadership; and impressively on the rise amongst its peers. But not yet as broadly known, or as well endowed as much of that peer group.”
Peter Van Ingen
He continued by noting, “My experience on the Suffield Board and my son’s excellent three years as a student (now a junior at Middlebury), confirmed my initial impression. Suffield Academy is a school dramatically on the move, with inspiring leadership, an outstanding Board of Trustees, administration, and faculty. There is a clear sense as to what the school is now, and what it aspires to be in the future. I am grateful to Dan Tisch, Charlie Cahn, and the trustees for inviting me to join them in their ambitious and impressive mission to move the school forward. I have been privileged to be along for the ride.”
Spring / Summer 2014
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