PASADENA, Calif.--Attorney Brigitte Bren, cofounder of International Strategic Planning, and Louis J. Lavigne Jr., retired executive vice president and chief financial officer of Genentech, have been elected to the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Bren directs start-up operations for U.S. companies expanding to Western Europe through International Strategic Planning, a business consulting firm she cofounded in 1992. She has been Of Counsel to the law firm of Arter and Hadden with areas of emphasis in international affairs and entertainment law. Bren has also served as vice president of international marketing for Mark Goodson Productions.
An advisory board member of the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Bren is also a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and has been a director and member of the Audit Committee of Ambassadors Group since 2001. She has served on the board of trustees of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and on the advisory committee of the Los Angeles Universal Preschool Master Plan.
Bren is a graduate of Loyola Law School and the University of California, Los Angeles. She resides in Los Angeles.
Louis J. Lavigne Jr. retired as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Genentech in March 2005 after 23 years with the biotechnology company. In recognition of the substantial growth in Genentech's revenue during his tenure, Lavigne was named Best CFO in Biotech in 2005 by Institutional Investor magazine and received the Bay Area CFO of the Year Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. Lavigne is now a management consultant specializing in the areas of corporate finance, accounting, and strategy. He is an active board member for public and private companies, including Allergan and BMC Software, where he chairs the audit committee. He is also a trustee of the Seven Hills School in Walnut Creek.
Lavigne holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Babson College and an MBA from Temple University. He lives in Lafayette, California.
The Board of Trustees is the governing body of Caltech. Trustees are elected to five-year terms and may serve consecutive terms. The Board is led by Chairman Kent Kresa and Vice Chairman David Lee, and it is currently composed of 41 trustees, 14 senior trustees, and 22 life trustees.
Written by Deborah Williams-Hedges