Meet UMS’s New Board Leadership

By UMS

UMS Board Co-Chairs Brian Willen and Christina Kim, with UMS president Matthew VanBesien

UMS is pleased to welcome new Board members and officers, all of whom were elected at the annual meeting of the Board of Directors on June 13. New officers for the 2023/24 season include co-chairs Christina Kim and Brian Willen, vice chair Rob VanRenterghem, treasurer Timothy G. Marshall, and secretary Karen Chapell.

Clockwise from upper left: Brian Willen, Rob VanRenterghem, Matthew VanBesien, Timothy G. Marshall, Christina Kim, and Karen Chapell.

Kim, who was first elected to the Board in 2016, is a financial advisor with Edward Jones Investments and has a long history with UMS and organizations that provide support and enrichment for youth. Willen, a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati who is now based in New York, joined the Board in 2018, along with Marshall, who has served as president and CEO of Bank of Ann Arbor since 2004 and was recently named Banker of the Year by the Michigan Bankers Association.

VanRenterghem, a business strategist and co-founder of Signal 7 Wines, has been involved with UMS since 2017, and Chapell, a managing partner at Retirement Income Solutions, was first elected to the Board in 2021.

Rachel Bendit gives pre-performance remarks before Trevor Noah’s debut in Hill Auditorium.

At the Annual Meeting, UMS also recognized departing chair Rachel Bendit, an attorney, and mediator who served on the Board from 2012-20 and has been co-chair of UMS’s National Council. She has served as UMS Board Chair this previous year, and was elected as co-chair with Dr. Lisa Cook in 2020. Bendit first attended a UMS performance in the 1990s while an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan and has devoted herself and her energies to UMS with passion, care, and deep conviction. Her near-perfect attendance at UMS performances alone demonstrated her commitment, but more importantly, her presence and attention were always paired with energy, ideas, her incredible network, and boundless aspirations for what UMS can do and can be.

Bendit will join Tim Petersen as a co-chair of UMS’s forthcoming Campaign Council, and will continue as a Board member until her term expires in 2029.

Five new Board members were elected to four-year terms: Keith Dickey, Chief Strategy Officer for Michigan Medicine; David Leichtman, Managing Partner of Leichtman Law PLLC; Elizabeth Birr Moje, Dean, George Herbert Mead Collegiate Professor of Education, and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture in the University of Michigan Marsal Family School of Education; Rishi Narayan, an entrepreneur and founder of Underground Printing; and Eli Saulson, a real estate investor who also serves as a director of the William Davidson Foundation. In addition, Michael Martin was elected to a second four-year term.