VCU news

By Pamela DiSalvo Lepley

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RICHMOND, Va. – Dr. Edward H. Bersoff, a Northern Virginia entrepreneur and business consultant, today was elected rector of the Virginia Commonwealth University Board of Visitors by his fellow trustees, succeeding Dr. W. Baxter Perkinson, Jr.

"It is exciting to take this leadership position at a time when a lot of things are getting started, most notably the development of the Monroe Campus and a new university strategic plan," Bersoff said. "I'm looking forward to supporting the initiatives of this great and growing national doctoral university."

Bersoff was appointed to the board in 2002 by Gov. Mark Warner.  He also serves as chair of the Finance, Investment and Property Committee of the Board of Visitors.

Bersoff, 61, is the founder and chairman of Greenwich Associates, a business advisory firm in McLean.  He also was the founding CEO of a public technology company that he sold in 2001.  He serves as a corporate director of three publicly traded companies, and has served on the boards of several other corporations, associations and non-profit organizations such as the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, and the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce.  He currently is chairman of the Inova Health Care Services Board.

Education is one of Bersoff's primary interests.  In addition to the VCU Board of Visitors, he serves on the board of trustees for New York University and the George Mason University Foundation.  He is past president of the Northern Virginia Community College Educational Foundation; co-chaired the Superintendent's Business-Industry Advisory Council for Fairfax County Public Schools and served on the Accountability Advisory Committee of the Virginia Board of Education.

Bersoff holds A.B., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from New York University and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School's Owner-President Management Program.  He was selected Virginia's Outstanding Industrialist for 1999 by the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Science Museum of Virginia. 

Perkinson ends two one-year terms as rector and eight years on the VCU Board of Visitors.  Perkinson is the founder of Virginia's largest dental practice, a clinical professor of dentistry at VCU and a noted philanthropist and landscape artist. 

"The leadership that Dr. Perkinson has brought to this board over eight years, two as rector, is truly special," said VCU President Dr. Eugene P. Trani.  "His enthusiastic and hard work here always has been in the spirit of moving this great institution forward."