Board of Visitors members James Hazel (l-r), Wendy Marquez and Robert Witeck were reappointed to four-year terms on Friday, June 5 by Gov. Ralph Northam. Jon Peterson, who previously served from 2014-2018, was also appointed to the BOV.
Gov. Ralph Northam on Friday reappointed three George Mason University Board of Visitors members and named another board member who is returning to the BOV.
Northam reappointed James W. Hazel, Wendy Marquez and Bob Witeck to four-year terms on the university’s 16-member governing body. The new member is a previous member – Jon M. Peterson, vice rector on the Board of Visitors from 2014 to 2018.
“These four appointees have been pivotal to the university’s upward trajectory, in some cases for decades,” George Mason University Interim President Anne Holton said. “The university community deeply appreciates their service and stewardship as we face the challenges and opportunities ahead in building on our mission of access to excellence.”
Peterson is CEO of Peterson Companies, one of the largest privately held real estate companies in the Washington, D.C., area. His family name graces the Peterson Family Health Sciences Hall on the Fairfax Campus.
Peterson replaces Lisa Zuccari, who did not seek reappointment to the board. Board of Visitors members are appointed by the governor on a rotating basis to serve four-year terms.
“As much as this university has accomplished in a short time, our best days are ahead of us,” Peterson said. “I look forward to returning to the Board of Visitors and working with all university stakeholders to make the best decisions for Mason’s future.”
Next month there will be a change in BOV leadership. At the body’s May meeting, Tom Davis announced his intention to step down as rector with one year remaining in his term. The BOV will vote on a new rector, vice rector and secretary at their Annual Meeting on July 31.
Davis, who will continue to serve on the board, became rector in 2014, one year into his first BOV term, and was re-elected for a second term. Hazel, Marquez and Witeck were appointed to the BOV in 2016 by Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
Hazel, a businessman who like Peterson grew up a short walk from the university’s Fairfax Campus, is currently vice rector. He has a law degree from Mason and before his latest BOV stint served on the board from 1994 to 2002. He also was a member of the George Mason Foundation Board of Trustees for 12 years and is past president of the Mason Alumni Association.
Hazel co-chaired the presidential search committee that led to the hiring of new Mason president Gregory Washington, engineering dean at the University of California, Irvine. Washington begins his Mason tenure July 1. Witeck and Peterson also served on the presidential search committee.
“I am tremendously honored to help lead George Mason University into its next exciting chapter,” Hazel said. “Mason is the educational, economic and cultural hub that drives our region.”
Witeck is president of the Washington, D.C.-based Witeck Communications, Inc., which designs communications strategies for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities around the world.
Marquez is CEO of IT company Wize Solutions, past president and co-founder of the Onyx Media Group, and president emeritus of EVS Communications, a social marketing company focused primarily on the Latino community.