Additions to the Board of Trustees

In recent months, five new members have been added to Berklee’s Board of Trustees. While their professional endeavors range from serving as a college president to overseeing a huge auto retail operation and more, each has a deep love of music and a desire to give his or her time and expertise to the Berklee board.

Ronald Crutcher has a long and distinguished career in higher education. He became the president of Wheaton College in March 2004 after serving as provost, executive vice president for academic affairs, and professor of music at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Prior to his work at Miami, he was director of the School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin, vice president of academic affairs at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. An active cellist himself, President Crutcher performs throughout the country and Europe, has released several recordings, and has penned many journal articles on music.

Ernie Boch, Jr., heads the multifaceted, billion-dollar Boch family enterprise that was founded as an automobile dealership in Norwood, Massachusetts, by his grandfather Andrew Boch in 1946. After earning his Berklee degree in 1982, Boch began working in the family business, progressing up the ladder from used car salesman to general manager. In 1996 he was promoted to vice president, handling all Boch retail operations. In July 2003, Boch took charge of the entire Boch organization, managing the company’s real estate as well as automotive interests. Boch is a fan of bebop and modern rock, and he lists Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John McLaughlin, and Mike Stern among his favorites.

Nora Huvelle earned her undergraduate degree from Lesley College in research and child development and later her master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She serves as a board member and vice president at the Farm School in Athol, Massachusetts, and as a board member and committee chair for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Huvelle’s musical interests include mostly jazz but also rock and blues. Of her appointment to Berklee’s board, Huvelle says, “I’m awfully excited about becoming involved with Berklee and look forward to the opportunity to learn more and become deeply involved in the institution.”

John Connaughton is a managing director of Bain Capital, LLC, and has worked for the firm since 1989. Connaughton serves on several of the firm’s leadership committees and has played a leading role in transactions in the technology, media/consumer, and medical industries. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Connaughton was a strategy consultant at Bain & Company working with the consumer and technology industries.

Connaughton plays guitar and piano and his musical tastes range from Coldplay and Dave Matthews to Thelonious Monk and Robert Johnson.

Elliott D. Hillback, Jr., comes from the biotechnology industry and is the senior vice president for corporate affairs at Genzyme Corporation, where he has worked for 14 years. As a member of Genzyme’s senior management team, Hillback’s primary responsibilities include oversight of investor, public, and employee communications groups and functions, the Genzyme Charitable Foundation, and the European government/corporate affairs office. Hillback holds degrees from Cornell University and Harvard Business School and is a Vietnam veteran. A lifelong music fan, he has an extensive jazz library on vinyl and CD and a significant Grateful Dead collection.