Woodbury University Appoints Four Local Leaders to Board of Trustees

Oct. 9, 2015 - PRLog -- LOS ANGELES (October 9, 2015) – Woodbury University (http://woodbury.edu/) today announced the appointment of four new members to its Board of Trustees – including a recent Woodbury graduate.

Joining the Board of Trustees as new members are:

o   Adriana M. Boeka, President and CEO of Americas United Bank in Glendale, a Hispanic-owned community bank serving primarily business owners throughout the Los Angeles area.  Since 1995, Boeka has held top leadership roles, including Chairman, CEO and President, in community banks and minority-owned financial institutions, and prior to that, executive management positions with Bank of California, Bank of America, Crocker Bank and Wells Fargo.  Boeka is a graduate of Stonier School of Banking at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, currently serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Twelfth District Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council, and is a principal in Manex Group, a Los Angeles consulting firm that assists commercial banks and other companies with a variety of strategic business services.

o   Recent Graduate Trustee Talin Fakhoorian, a2015Summa Cum Laude graduate of Woodbury University with a bachelor’s of business administration in accounting and a grade point average that put her top of her major and No. 1 at Woodbury.  Fakhoorian grew up in Glendale and Pasadena and graduated from Herbert Hoover High School, where she earned a 4.4 G.P.A. and attended Pasadena City College before transferring to Woodbury.  In addition to earning scholarships and academic honors from Woodbury, she held leadership positions in Business and Professional Women of Woodbury and Phi Sigma Sigma, an international sorority. Following an internship with Ernst & Young, she was hired there this past August as a full-time employee and currently is studying to become a Certified Public Accountant.

o   Afshin Kateb, Woodbury Class of 1993.  Kateb brings more than 25 years of hospitality and real estate industry experience to his role as Chief Financial Officer at Nimes Capital. After receiving a bachelor’s of science degree in accounting from Woodbury, he earned an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University and completed a course of study at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. Prior to joining Nimes Capital, Kateb spent seven years with SBE, where he was CFO, and Lowe Enterprises, where he was Senior Vice President of Lowe Enterprises Investors. He previously held management roles with KOR (Viceroy Hotel Group), Destination Hotel and Resorts, Ernst & Young, Maruko Inc. and ITT Sheraton. He is active in the Los Angeles community with the Farhang Foundation, Cal Poly Pomona’s Collins School of Hospitality, and Pepperdine’s Graziadio Business School.

o   Peter Ma, Partner at Colbeck Capital Management, a strategic investment firm specializing in opportunistic credit-related investments. At Colbeck, Mr. Ma is responsible for sourcing and leading investments and supporting the managing partners in constructing an investment strategy and managing the portfolio. Previously, at MESA Global (now Houlihan Lokey), Mr. Ma advised media and entertainment companies on mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and strategic financings, with a particular focus on structured transactions. Mr. Ma recently was named “30 under 30” in the media category by Forbes. With expertise in Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) investing, Mr. Ma frequently speaks on industry panels regarding strategic lending, particularly in film.  A graduate of Harvard University, Mr. Ma also serves on the Social Investment Council at Echoing Green, a social impact fund that unleashes next-generation talent to solve the world’s biggest problems through seed funding and access to the private sector.

The Woodbury University Board of Trustees serves as the institution’s primary governing body, overseeing policy, academics and appointments.  Trustees serve for a minimum of three years, while the Recent Graduate Trustee serves a single two-year term.  The addition of the four new appointees brings to 28 the number of active members plus seven trustees emeriti.

“Each new member of the Board embraces the four pillars around which Woodbury University is organized -- design thinking, entrepreneurship, civic engagement and transdisciplinarity,” said Lawrence Hurwitz, Board Chair. “Each of these dedicated and talented professionals also brings a unique set of academic, cultural and professional experiences and values to their service as a trustee.  We look forward to the many contributions they will make as they help shape Woodbury’s future.”

“The entire Woodbury community benefits from the individual and collective contributions of our trustees,” said David Dauwalder, PhD., Interim President, Woodbury University.  “We welcome them and are extremely grateful for their service as board member and for their commitment to helping Woodbury serve students, faculty, staff and the greater university community to the greatest extent possible.”

About Woodbury University

Founded in 1884, Woodbury University is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Southern California. With campuses in Burbank/Los Angeles and San Diego, the university offers bachelor's degrees from the School of Architecture, School of Business, School of Media, Culture & Design, and College of Transdisciplinarity, along with a Master of Arts in Media for Social Justice, Master of Architecture (MArch), Master of Interior Architecture (MIA), Master of Science in Architecture (MSArch), and Master of Leadership.  The San Diego campus offers Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture, Master of Interior Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture degrees, as well as an MSArch degree with concentrations in Real Estate Development and Landscape + Urbanism.  DesignIntelligence has ranked the Interior Architecture BFA #2 in the West.  Woodbury ranks 15th among the nation’s “25 Colleges That Add the Most Value,” according to Money Magazine and is a 2014-2015 College of Distinction.  Visit woodbury.edu (http://www.woodbury.edu/) for more information.

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