4 elected, 1 reelected to Cornell’s Board of Trustees

The Cornell College Board of Trustees has elected four new members—Stuart Gunn, Jessica Meis ’19, Scott Ririe ’79, and Kevin Weiss ’76—and reelected Thomas Durham ’77.

Thomas Durham ’77
Durham majored in philosophy and history at Cornell and then attended New York University Law School, where he served as an editor on the Review of Law and Social Change. He joined Mayer, Brown and Platt (now Mayer Brown), a global law firm based in Chicago, where he specialized in the litigation of federal tax cases. He retired in 2015. Durham served several three-year terms on the Cornell Board of Trustees from 2009 to 2018. He and his wife, Martha Hemenway Durham ’78, reside in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Stuart Gunn
Gunn is the father of a Cornell student in the class of 2020. He earned his AB in economics from Princeton University in 1985 and an M.B.A. in finance and strategy from the University of Chicago in 1987. His career focused primarily on consulting in the healthcare and financial services sectors. He was a vice president at A.T. Kearney, headed strategy and acquisitions for Dutch bank ABN AMRO, and finished his career as a managing director for Bridge Strategy Group and its successor Houlihan Lokey, retiring in 2018. He and his wife, Lynne Gunn, live in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and have three children. He has served on the boards of the Chicago Children’s Museum, the Princeton Club of Chicago, and Glen Oak Country Club.

Jessica Meis ’19
Meis, of Marion, Iowa, was chosen as Cornell’s 2019 Young Trustee. She was a first-generation college student at Cornell, majoring in art history and Latin American studies and elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Meis was a three-time Peer Advocate for New Student Orientation, chair of PAAC (Performing Arts & Activities Council), an Alternative Break co-leader, peer consultant for the Academic Technology Studio, research and gallery assistant for the Department of Art and Art History, and social media team leader for the Office of Marketing and Communications. She also interned at the African American Museum of Iowa in Cedar Rapids and was a fellow at Rutgers University, where she researched art by Latinx women. For this project, she created a website to teach others about these artists and share critiques of contemporary Latinx art exhibitions.

Scott Ririe ’79
Ririe majored in biology and played football at Cornell. He began his career working in sales for Honeywell International in Des Moines and St. Louis. In 2000, he and a partner founded the CTS Group (Control Technology and Solutions), an energy services company that develops and implements turn-key, comprehensive projects. They provide new and updated facility solutions that improve building environments, reduce energy consumption, and enhance space utilization, particularly within public buildings and school facilities. He and his wife, Shelley Ririe, live in Town and Country, Missouri, and have four adult children.

Kevin L. Weiss ’76
Weiss served in Student Senate and majored in sociology and political science at Cornell College. He earned an executive M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University in 1990. He began his human resources career with Rockwell International as an affirmative action/EEO manager and held progressive talent management roles leading to positions such as senior director of human resources and senior director of corporate benefits at Rockwell Collins (now Collins Aerospace). After early retirement, he joined a defense segment of L3 Communications (now L3 Technologies) as senior vice president of human resources. Eventually, he became corporate vice president & chief human resources officer for L3 Technologies leading their talent management strategy and responsible for 31,000 employees in over 300 world-wide locations. Recently retired, he splits his time between Fort Worth, Texas and Edwards, Colorado. Kevin is married to Elizabeth Weiss.