Northwestern announced the naming of three new members to its Board of Trustees on Wednesday.
They include David A. Helfand (Weinberg ’86), Jack Kang (McCormick ’90) and Rodney D. Priestley (McCormick M.S. ‘05, Doctorate ‘08), who are set to join a more than 60-member board.
Helfand is the CEO and president of Equity Commonwealth, a real estate investment trust with commercial office properties across the U.S. He also has served a number of leadership roles in investment companies overseeing real estate operations, such as Equity Group Investments, Helix Funds LLC and Equity Office Properties Trust.
Helfand is on the board of directors for Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and serves on the executive committee of the Kellogg Real Estate Center at NU and on the Board of Visitors of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.
Kang is a senior manager at Wabtec Corporation, a railroad technology company that helps determine global prices for locomotive parts.
He spent about 20 years at the General Electric Company leading marketing analytics, after several years in banking.
Kang is the past president of the NU Asian and Asian American Alumni Association and served on the steering committee of One Book One Northwestern. Today, he remains a mentor in NU’s Affinity Leaders and Learners Mentorship Program.
Priestley is the dean of Princeton University’s Graduate School and employed as the Pomeroy and Betty Perry Smith Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, studying the intersection of polymeric materials.
His research has earned him the 2023 Carl S. Marvel Award for Creative Polymer Chemistry. In 2014, he was named to the Root 100 list of most influential African Americans.
Since 2019, Priestley has served on the NU Alumni Association’s Board of Directors. He was also a member of the Black Graduate Student Association during his time at NU.
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