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John F. Fish, chairman and CEO of Suffolk Construction Inc., began his term as chairman of the Boston College Board of Trustees at the Sept. 26 Board meeting, held in Burns Library.
Fish, the first non-alumnus board chairman, has been active on the board since 2006, having most recently served as vice chairman and as a member of the executive, nominations and governance, and buildings and properties committees. He has also spearheaded the dramatic increase in revenue generated from the annual Pops on the Heights Barbara and Jim Cleary Scholarship Gala, which raises money for financial aid at Boston College.
In addition to his work at Suffolk, Fish serves as the chairman of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and vice chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. A graduate of Bowdoin College, Fish is the father of Christina Fish, who earned her law degree from BC Law in 2013.
The University also announced the appointment of four new trustees at its September meeting:
Paul Coulson is the founding director of Yeoman International, a structured finance provider he established in 1981. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin with a bachelor’s degree in business, he got his start in business at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London and Dublin where he worked for five years before founding his own accounting firm. In 1998, Coulson became chairman of Ardagh Group, transforming it from a small, single-plant operation into a leading global packaging company. Over the past 30 years he has been involved in the creation and development of other businesses, including Fanad Fisheries and Sterile Technologies.
David Griffith ’68 is president and CEO of M. Griffith Investment Services Inc., an investment firm founded by his family in 1947 that today manages assets in excess of $1.7 billion. Following graduation from BC with a bachelor’s degree in finance, he enlisted in the US Army Reserves. He has been active in many community organizations in the Greater Utica/Rome, NY, area as well as with Boston College. Griffith was the co-chair of the Reunion Gift Committee for the Class of 1968 for each of the last four reunions, and in 2011 received the John J. Griffin Alumni Association Award in recognition of his volunteer service to the University.
Kathleen Flatley Ix ’88, a managing member of her family’s commercial real estate development company, also is a founding board member of the Irish Famine Memorial Fund, which provides financial or material support to alumni and other individuals associated with BC who are committed to alleviating poverty, disease, famine and illiteracy around the world. A teacher for several years at public and private elementary schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut, Ix holds a bachelor of arts degree in communications and a master’s degree in education from BC. She is a founding member of the Auxiliary group of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a lay religious order of the Catholic Church whose mission is to care for the sick and poor and to defend the Catholic faith.
Robert Keane, SJ, ’71 is rector of the Jesuit Community at Boston College, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy and French literature. A Boston native, Fr. Keane most recently served as the director of special projects in mission at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. From 1989-2012, he was a commissioned officer and chaplain in the United States Navy, ministering to sailors and marines worldwide, including in the Persian Gulf, South America, Iceland, Japan, and West Africa. He also served on the faculty of University of Dallas and Holy Trinity Seminary as well as Holy Cross. Fr. Keane holds a master of arts degree in French language and literature from Middlebury College and the University of Paris (the Sorbonne); a master of divinity degree from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, now part of the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry; and a doctor of ministry degree with a specialization in pastoral care and counseling from Southern Methodist University.