Macalester Board Elects Two New Trustees

St. Paul, Minn. — The Macalester College Board of Trustees has elected two new trustees:

Mark Leonard ’65 is a retired engineer from Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, Calif., where he worked on the line of optical position encoders, like those used in inkjet printers to control the position of the print head as it passes over the paper and deposits ink. This work resulted in four U.S. patents and a profitable product line. He also worked with UNIX computers and was a system administrator. Before Hewlett-Packard, Leonard was employed by Signetics in Sunnyvale, Calif., a manufacturer of electronic integrated circuits. He also worked in electronics and computer programming at Collins Radio Company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the company that made the radios for the Apollo moon project.

At Macalester Leonard majored in physics, and minored in math and Spanish. He worked on the yearbook and the Mac Weekly, but he was most interested in the campus radio station that led to a summer job at KSTP-AM (in St. Paul, Minn.) and a career in electronics. He is also a registered professional engineer.

Leonard is president of his family’s foundation bearing his parents’ names, the George ‘27 & Wilma ‘27 Leonard Charitable Foundation. He and his wife Candy ’67 continue his parents’ legacy as generous Macalester supporters. They are the parents of three sons, including James, Macalester Class of 2010.

Paul L. H. Olson ‘72 is CEO and President of nuBridges, Inc., located in Atlanta, Ga., which offers data security software for businesses. The company serves over 3,000 clients including major corporations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Before joining nuBridges, Olson served as executive vice president for institutional advancement at Bethel University, one of the institution’s four-member executive leadership team. In addition to his role at Bethel, Olson’s diverse employment history includes executive leadership roles in multiple industries from high technology and investment management. He was a founding executive officer of Sterling Commerce, Inc. (IBM), a leader in global e-commerce, and launched a network services company, EDI*Net. He also serves on several corporate and non-profit boards.

A gifted athlete, Olson participated on the varsity football, wrestling, basketball, and track and field teams at Macalester. After graduation, he played professional football from 1972-74 for the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, and Chicago Bears; he also served in the front office of the Minnesota Vikings. Olson was inducted into the Macalester Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005. He is currently a member of M Club and has served on the Athletic Facility Leadership Committee. Olson graduated with a BA in Mathematics from Macalester, earned an MBA from the University of St. Thomas, and a doctorate in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania.

Macalester College, founded in 1874, is a national liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 1,987 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its long-standing commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, multiculturalism and civic engagement. For more information, visit macalester.edu.