Phillips Academy Names Three New Trustees

July 15, 2008 — Oscar L. Tang ’56, chair of the Phillips Academy Board of Trustees, announced that three alumni have been named to the board that oversees the 230-year-old institution. George R. Ireland ’74 and Ronald W. Takvorian M.D. ’66 were elected alumni trustees to serve a four-year term, during which time they will jointly serve on the Alumni Council Executive Committee. Louis G. Elson ’80 was named a charter trustee, taking on two eight-year terms.

Ireland joins the board with a history of active involvement with Andover that stretches back to his graduation in 1974. He has served on the Alumni Council and the Andover Development Board, been active with regional associations of New York and Denver, recruited locally for the Office of Admission, and supported the Academy as a head class agent. Ireland is also founder and president of the investment firm Geologic Resource partners LLC, which invests in mineral and metal resources development companies, traveling the world to evaluate scientific, economic, environmental and social issues spawned by their investments’ mining projects. He also has a long history with Outward Bound that grew from his leadership of Andover’s Search & Rescue program. He and his wife, Lisa, live in Boston and have sent two of their three children to Andover. Kate graduated in 2005 and Louise will be a senior.

Takvorian came to Andover as a scholarship student from Lawrence in 1962, making his mark as a pianist and choir accompanist. Subsequently, he guest soloed with the Boston Pops under the batons of both Arthur Fiedler and Harry Ellis Dickson. After Harvard and Stanford Medical School, Takvorian went on to a distinguished career in oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital, where he currently serves as clinical director of the Cancer Center’s Lymphoma Program. He also is a member of the Harvard faculty. His devotion to Andover is reflected in years of service to the Parent Fund, admission work, the Gelb Science Center Advisory Committee, the New England Special Gift Committee for Campaign Andover, and recently the focus group process that culminated in Andover’s Strategic Plan. A resident of Concord, Mass., Takvorian and his wife Kathy are the parents of three Andover graduates, Sam ’02, Kate ’03 and Sarah ’06.

Moving from alumni trustee to charter trustee, Louis Elson continues a distinguished record of service to his alma mater where he has served as a member of the Andover Development Board and the Institute for Recruitment of Teachers (IRT) Advisory Board, director of the Andover-Abbot Association of London, and class agent. Elson attended Eton College in Great Britain and graduated from Harvard, and holds an M.B.A from the University of Virginia. Elson is cofounder and managing partner of Palamon Capital Partners, a private-equity firm that invests in service-oriented businesses in Europe. He and his wife, Sarah, live in London with their three children. His daughter Isabel will enroll at Andover this fall.