Pitt Board Elects George L. Miles Jr. and Thomas H. O’Brien as Emeritus Trustees

The University of Pittsburgh's Board of Trustees elected George L. Miles Jr., chair emeritus of Chester Engineers and retired president and chief executive officer of WQED Multimedia, and Thomas H. O’Brien, retired chair of PNC Financial Services Group, as emeritus trustees of the board. 

Background information on the nominees, who were elected during the board's Oct. 26 public meeting, follows.

George L. Miles Jr. was elected to the University’s Board of Trustees in 2000 and served on the Pitt Board until June 2012. He was an active and supportive trustee who chaired the Audit Committee for seven years. He also served on four other committees: Executive, Athletics, Budget, and Conflict of Interest. He is a member of the School of Social Work Board of Visitors and previously served on the visiting boards of the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and the University of Pittsburgh Press. 

Under Miles’ leadership, the Audit Committee regularly reviewed research compliance, legal, and regulatory matters; risk assessment; and other relevant business and auditing topics. In 2002, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to address faulty financial reporting and auditing by publicly traded companies. Certain requirements of the act were considered “best practices” for any organization, and the University, through the Audit Committee, implemented those best practices. 
Miles has been a generous University donor and volunteer. For his long and distinguished service on the Pitt Board, he was awarded the Board of Trustees Medallion. Miles’ leadership in the community is also reflected in his service to the Association for America’s Public Television Stations, which he chaired; the Mentoring Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania, which he cochaired; and the Urban League of Pittsburgh, which he also cochaired. 

Miles, who is a Certified Public Accountant, earned his Bachelor of Science degree in accounting at Seton Hall University and the Master of Business Administration degree at Fairleigh-Dickinson University.

Thomas H. O’Brien was elected to the University’s Board of Trustees in 1985 and served until June 2012. An active and supportive member of the Pitt Board for 27 consecutive years, O’Brien provided advice and counsel to seven Board chairs and three Pitt chancellors. He served on five standing Board committees—Executive, Property and Facilities, Institutional Advancement, Nominating, and Investment. He served on the latter committee for nearly two decades and was its chair for 11 years. He also chaired the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business (KGSB) Board of Visitors for seven years and continues to serve on that committee.  

Additionally, O’Brien chaired the KGSB Associates Program for two years.

During O’Brien’s leadership of the Investment Committee, the University posted the largest fiscal year annual investment return in its history:  22.4 percent for
the year ended June 30, 2011. During periods of market volatility, O’Brien provided counsel and professional support on evaluating and upgrading due diligence procedures and benchmarking against best practices. Also during his years as chair of the Investment Committee, the University’s overall endowment-size ranking by the National Association of College and Business Officers increased from 37th in 2001 to 26th in 2012; among public institutions, that ranking increased from 9th in 2001 to 6th in 2012.

O’Brien has been a generous University donor and volunteer. For his long and distinguished service on the Pitt Board, he was awarded the Board of Trustees Medallion. His service and commitment to the community is also well known: He is a director and former chair of the Extra Mile Education Foundation, the former chair and an emeritus member of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, and the former chair of the communitywide Strategic Investment Fund.  
O’Brien earned the Bachelor of Science degree in commerce at the University of Notre Dame and the Master of Business Administration degree at Harvard University.