Cal State Northridge officials have announced the election of three new members to the universitys Foundation Board of Directors.
The boards newest members are Wayne R. Bailey, a retired banking executive and community leader; Robert Derek Taylor, a founding partner of Centinela Capital Partners, LLC, an independent alternative investment management firm; and Varaz Shahmirian, president and principal of Laursar Technologies, which provides consulting services to the medical device industry.
The addition of these outstanding business and community leaders will enable the Foundation to further its mission of providing visibility within the broader community and increased financial support to the university, and especially our students, at a time of significant economic duress, said Vance T. Peterson, CSUNs vice president for University Advancement and president of the Foundation.
As a non-profit auxiliary of California State University, Northridge, the Foundation receives and oversees the management of private donations to the university. Among its roles is to raise money for the enhancement and support of programs that would not normally be funded by the state.
The newest members of the Foundation Board include:
Wayne R. Bailey
Wayne R. Bailey 77 (Economics), started his 30-year banking career at Bank of America as a teller and ended it as a vice president. In 1986, Bailey left Bank of America to become vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer of Fremont General Corporation, a Santa Monica-based financial services holding company. Over the next two decades, Bailey rose to become Fremonts executive vice president and chief operating officer of its retail branch deposit network and residential real estate mortgage servicing business.
Bailey is currently a trustee of Westmark School in Encino, a school that serves students with learning differences. Westmark has strong ties with CSUNs Michael D. Eisner College of Education. Bailey also is on the board of Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino.
Before forming Lausar Technologies, Varaz Shahmirian worked as an engineering director at Medtronic from 1996 to August 2009. Prior to that, he was senior scientist at Siemens Medical Systems and senior applications engineer at Signal Technology. He also was an assistant professor at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1989.
Shahmirian is a board member and past president of the Armenian Engineers and Scientists of America, which focuses on the professional, technical and scientific needs of people of Armenian descent throughout the world, and of the ARPA Institute, which promotes consulting, analysis, research and planning services in education, economics, policy, health and technology between the Republic of Armenia and the United States.
Robert Taylor
Prior to founding Centinela Capital Partners, Robert Derek Taylor 82 (Engineering), was managing director and co-founder of Blue Capital Management, a middle market private equity firm. He started his career with McKinsey & Company in 1986. During his 11-year tenure with the firm, Taylor helped chief executives address strategic, operational and organizational issues in a variety of industries including health care, insurance, entertainment and hospitality.
Taylor currently serves on the board of directors of Frontier Airlines, Inc. He is senior vice chairman and is a board member of the National Urban League and the Los Angeles Urban League. He has previously served on the board of the California Science Center as well as the Boards of Visitors of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School.
California State University, Northridge has more than 33,000 full- and part-time students and offers 66 bachelors and 53 masters degrees as well as 28 teaching credential programs. Founded in 1958, CSUN is among the largest single-campus universities in the nation and is the only four-year public university in the San Fernando Valley. The university serves as the intellectual, economic and cultural heart of the Valley and beyond.