News Release

Local angles: Atlanta, Boston, Chapel Hill, Spring Lake and Wilmington, N.C.

Perry elected to chair UNC Board of Trustees

CHAPEL HILL – Roger L. Perry Sr., of Chapel Hill, president of East West Partners, has been elected chairman of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees.

Trustees today (July 26) elected new officers to one-year terms on the 13-member board responsible for governing the university. 

Karol V. Mason of Atlanta, partner at the law firm Alston and Bird LLP, was elected vice chair and Russell “Rusty” M. Carter of Wilmington, president of the Atlantic Corp. of Wilmington, was re-elected secretary.

Three new trustees appointed earlier this year by the UNC Board of Governors also participated in their first meetings this week. They are Dr. Phillip L. Clay of Boston and chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Alston Gardner of Atlanta and Chapel Hill and a partner in Fulcrum Ventures, an Atlanta-based private equity firm focused on information technology, biotechnology and health-care services companies; and Sallie Shuping Russell of Chapel Hill, managing director of Quellos Private Capital Markets LLC.

Perry was also reappointed to a new four-year term as a trustee by the Board of Governors last spring. He became a trustee in 2003 and has chaired the Buildings and Grounds Committee and served on the Compensation Committee.

“Serving as chair of the trustees is an honor and a humbling responsibility,” Perry said. “Helping the university maintain and enhance its contribution to the health, economy and social well being of the people of North Carolina is an obligation everyone at Carolina has. Having the chance to be a part of that mission is a rare opportunity for anyone who loves Carolina and the people of the state of North Carolina as I do.”

A native of Spring Lake, N.C., near Fayetteville, Perry received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Carolina in 1971. He has served the university as a member of the Carolina First Campaign’s Steering Committee, co-chair of the Raleigh Carolina First Campaign and a guest lecturer at the Kenan-Flagler Business School. He previously was a member of the University’s Board of Visitors and helped lead fund-raising efforts for the Finley Golf Course renovation. Perry has played a key role in town-gown issues as a trustee and volunteer, most recently as part of the Chancellor’s Leadership Advisory Committee for Carolina North.

Mason received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Carolina in 1979 and earned a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1982. Mason is has chaired the UNC board’s audit and finance and conflicts of interest committees. She was a member of the university’s Board of Visitors, the Arts and Sciences Foundation Board of Directors and the National Development Council. She received the General Alumni Association’s Distinguished Young Alumna Award in 1991. 

Carter graduated from Carolina with a bachelor of arts in journalism in 1971. He has chaired the board’s university affairs committee since 2002. Carter has served on the university’s Board of Visitors, Morehead Scholarship Selection Committee, the steering committee for the Carolina First Campaign, School of Journalism and Mass Communication Board of Visitors and the Educational Foundation Inc. He also served in the university’s National Development Council and the journalism scholarship selection committee.

Clay is also a professor of city planning at MIT. He graduated from UNC with a bachelor’s degree with honors in 1968 and earned his Ph.D. in 1975 from MIT. He received UNC’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2002. Widely known for his work in U.S. housing policy, Clay is president of the Board of Directors of the Community Builders, the largest nonprofit developer of affordable housing.

Gardner graduated from the university with a bachelor’s degree in 1977. He is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Kenan-Flagler Business School, where he teaches and serves on the Board of Visitors. He is a member of the steering committee for the Carolina First Campaign, chaired the International Studies Advisory Board and helped lead efforts to build the FedEx Global Education Center.

Russell graduated from the university with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1977 and earned a master’s of business administration degree from Columbia University in 1983. Her service on Carolina  boards has included the Board of Visitors and the Board of Directors of the Foundation Investment Fund Inc. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the UNC Health Care System.

News Services contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093, lisa_katz@unc.edu