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Alberto W. Vilar '71 Addresses Undergraduates

New Rochelle, New York, April 25, 2000 - The 56th annual Commencement Exercises for undergraduates at Iona College will take place on Saturday, May 13 at 10 am on the New Rochelle campus, 715 North Avenue. Alumnus Alberto W. Vilar, founder, president and portfolio manager of Amerindo Investment Advisers, Inc. will address the 800 students receiving bachelor's degrees. At 3 pm, President James A. Liguori, CFC, will address the 500 students receiving graduate degrees.

In undergraduate ceremonies, Elizabeth Ann Olivieri will present the student welcome and Natalie Hope Santillana will present the response. Michael P. Lenahan will give the student welcome at the graduate ceremony and Kathleen P. Haas will provide the response.

Alberto W. Vilar will receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree during the morning ceremony. Mr. Vilar earned his MBA from Iona College in 1971 and began working on Wall Street, where he became one of the first financial analysts to recognize the importance of a new device known as the semiconductor. In 1979, Vilar founded Amerindo Investment Advisors, Inc., and invested heavily in companies that were then unknown. Such companies included Microsoft, Yahoo, Compaq and Intel. Through these decisions, he helped to attract the financial support needed for the information technology revolution now exploding across the globe. Mr. Vilar has also become a leading philanthropist, supporting college scholarships, a new center at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, and classical music, including New York's Carnegie Hall and Metropolitan Opera.

Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees will also be conferred at the morning ceremony to Robert V. LaPenta '67 and Jeffrey D. Sachs, PhD. Mr. LaPenta, who earned a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in accounting, recently made a $6 million gift to the College for a new student union that will ultimately strengthen Iona's student body and college community. As president and chief financial officer of L-3 Communications Corporation, he directs one of the world's leading suppliers of secure communications systems, microwave products, avionics and ocean systems, and telemetry, instrumentation, space and wireless products. This sophisticated equipment has helped the space program, beginning with Mercury launches and continuing today with the planned International Space Station.

Jeffrey D. Sachs is a renowned economist who has advised governments on five continents. He received his doctoral degree from Harvard University and over the past two decades he has served as a consultant to several of the world's major economic organizations, and as an academic advisor to more than a dozen governments. Particularly adept as a leading expert on the restructuring of industries and financial institutions, he played a significant role following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the sudden emergence of a free-market economy throughout much of Eastern Europe. As Harvard's Galen F. Stone Professor of International Trade and the Director of its Center for International Development, Dr. Sachs has recommended proposals to assist developing countries that include the need to strengthen university systems, attract investment from high-technology companies, and to shift international aid funds toward research and development of health, agriculture and other priority areas.

During the graduate ceremony at 3 pm, Iona College will award Gerard T. Brooker '58, EdD and Rabbi Amiel Wohl Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees. Spanning four decades, Dr. Brooker's teaching career was recognized in 1998, with his induction into the National Teachers Hall of Fame. Whether teaching students in Westport, CT or in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, Dr. Brooker has served as their advocate and ambassador. He co-founded the Young Playwrights Festival of Connecticut in 1985 which enabled students to write, produce and stage their own plays. It has been called "one of the 100 best curriculum ideas in the United Sates."

Dr. Brooker has also led an ever-changing student group called Youth Ending Hunger whose goal is to alleviate this problem locally, nationally and internationally, and has organized international student conferences in Moscow and Japan that discussed new ways of approaching important issues such as peace, hunger and the environment.

Rabbi Amiel Wohl, Senior Rabbi at Temple Israel in New Rochelle since 1973, has been called "part biblical scholar, part Will Rogers." His life has been dedicated to fighting intolerance and injustice, and to bringing the people of New Rochelle together, over dinner, over common prayer and over the radio waves. In addition to broadcasting a popular and long running weekly radio program that includes the Sabbath service, as well as a sermon, readings, and descriptive narrative, Rabbi Wohl has created an extensive network built on dialogue and interaction. Within this network are the Interreligious Council of New Rochelle; the Westchester Jewish Conference; the Coalition for Mutual Respect for Black-Jewish Dialogue and People for Relief in Lebanon (PERLE). He has developed a close relationship with the Iona community through such events as the Interfaith Seder held on campus and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Dinner held at Temple Israel.

For questions or more information please contact:
Meghan Finn
Public Relations Office
Iona College, 715 North Avenue, New Rochelle, N.Y. 10801
tel: 914 633-2005 fax: 914 637-2711

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