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At its spring meeting the Thomas Aquinas College Board of Governors elected a new chairman, R. Scott Turicchi, president of j2 Global, Inc. in Hollywood, California. A member of the Board since 2007 and its vice chairman since 2011, Mr. Turicchi succeeds R. James Wensley, who served as chairman from 2009 until 2014, and who remains an active member of the Board. Dieter Huckestein, chairman and CEO of Hotel and Procurement Services, LLC, and a Board member since 2007, succeeds Mr. Turicchi as vice chairman.

“It is a great honor and privilege to serve on a board that unites so many of my interests, including love of Church, knowledge, and beauty,” says Mr. Turicchi. “I am deeply proud of the administration, faculty, students, and alumni for providing an example of how Catholic higher education should contribute to the overall formation of the person.”

In addition to his admiration for the College’s mission, it was Mr. Turicchi’s respect for the College’s business practices that initially led him to become a benefactor and a Board member. The College, he explains in the video above, has “strong governance principles that are equal in stature and standing with the philosophical principles upon which it was founded.” When contributing to the College, he and his fellow benefactors know that “their money is being used not only to achieve the purpose that it’s intended for, but in the most efficient possible way.” As a result, “If you’re giving money for a building, or you’re giving money for a scholarship … that’s where your money is ending up.”

Mr. Turicchi and his wife, Lannette, have supported the College financially for nearly two decades as members of the President’s Council. In 2008 the College inducted the couple into the Order of St. Albert in recognition of their tremendous generosity. Mrs. Turicchi is the president of Falling Upwards Productions and the creator of a recently released film, The Prophet of Our Time, about Pope St. John Paul II. The Turicchis are the proud parents of three young daughters.

“We are honored and delighted that Scott has agreed to serve as our new chairman,” says Thomas Aquinas College President Michael F. McLean. “We have every confidence that the College will continue to flourish under his guidance, as it did during Jim Wensley’s five years of devoted leadership. We are profoundly grateful to both men, as well as to our new vice chairman, Dieter Huckestein, for their faithful and generous service.”