by Haley Seymour, Vermont Business Magazine After holding several positions on Champlain College’s Board of Trustees, Judy O’Connell became chair in October 2021. She held a leadership role on the finance committee, a member of the executive committee, and was vice chair.
O’Connell is also a founding partner of Champlain Investment Partners and is currently its chief executive officer, overseeing strategic development and overall management of the firm.
Haley Seymour, a rising senior at Champlain College, sat down with O’Connell to learn more about her role on the board as the college prepares to welcome its new president, Alejandro “Alex” Hernandez.
Haley Seymour (HS): What goes into leading the college as a board member?
Judy O’Connell (JO): Our role is strategic, rather than day-to-day management of the college. One of the most important duties that we have is to hire a president and make sure that president has the resources needed to be successful. There is also a lot of interaction with the Champlain cabinet – namely the leadership team that is critical in terms of day-to-day operations.
In addition to hiring the right leadership, approving the Re-Evolutionary Champlain 2030 strategic plan has been a major initiative for the board. We have a bold vision for Champlain’s future to build innovative, career-focused programs that give students what they need to succeed. We are dedicated to a thriving Vermont and the strategic plan is our roadmap to monitoring our success.
HS: What did the board take into account when bringing on Alex Hernandez as the college’s next president? What are your hopes for Hernandez in upcoming years?
JO: We really wanted someone who had a track record of innovation and financial acumen and experience leading through change. A career focus and ability to reach a diverse student population were also very important to us, as well as an ability to partner with businesses. Alex has deep experience in a number of these areas, and he also has a strong development and fundraising background. We thought that his strengths aligned very well with our 2030 strategic plan.
HS: Could you talk a little bit about how the presidential transition works?
JO: We have a very structured plan for Alex's integration into the community that will give him ample opportunities to engage with our students, faculty, alumni, and business partners. He is going to spend quite a bit of time with faculty and staff to understand the needs of our educators and administrators, and with current and former students to understand how best to serve them while they are enrolled but also after graduation. He will also meet with community and business partners in Vermont and throughout the country. We have provided this roadmap and strategic plan to Alex and he has hit the ground running — he’s already had a number of meetings with board members and participated in a few fundraising events and I'm extremely optimistic that it is the start of a long and successful career for him as our president.
HS: What is the board's approach to diversity, equity and inclusion and belonging, and how does it impact the representation on the board?
JO: I can tell you it is a big focus. I think we, as a board, have continued to evolve in this area, and appreciate that diversity incorporates not only gender, race, and ethnicity, but also backgrounds. As a member of the committee of trusteeship, we are constantly looking for as diverse of a board as possible and, during my tenure, we've definitely made progress. I will say, we are really blessed by the strength of the current board. When we recently had a number of openings, we hoped to attract a mix of new and experienced members and have been fortunate to have a number of former chairs come back onto the board as well as brand new board members join us. We don't have a certain goal, but we do want to be as diverse as we can be, and our board is currently about 40 percent diverse in terms of gender and has about 16 percent diversity of race/ethnicity.
We're also in the process of recruiting a vice president for equity and belonging at the college. That individual, when they join, will drive the strategic thinking for Champlain, including the board, and in turn the board will look to support this VP to ensure the success of diversity-related initiatives at Champlain.
Answers have been edited for clarity.