June 11, 2009

Governor Riley Appoints Four New Trustees at Alabama A&M

MONTGOMERY - Governor Bob Riley on Thursday appointed four new members to the Alabama A&M University Board of Trustees.

The four new trustees are:

Odysseus M. Lanier, a founding partner of McConnell Jones Lanier and Murphy accounting and consulting firm based in Houston, Texas and a graduate of Alabama A&M, to serve in an at-large seat;

The Rev. D. Tom Bell, Jr. of Huntsville, the superintendent of the Northeast District of the United Methodist Church, to serve in the fifth district seat;

Norman D. Hill, vice president of Volkert and Associates in Mobile, to serve in the first district seat; and

Lucien B. Blankenship, an attorney from Birmingham and a graduate of Alabama A&M, to serve in an at-large seat.

“All four new trustees are exceptionally well qualified to serve and we are fortunate that they have agreed to serve. Each one of them approaches this responsibility with only one goal in mind: doing what’s best for this great university,” said Governor Riley.

“Now is the time for the board to come together and fix problems. In fact, it is well past time for them to do that. The organized effort by some trustees in recent months to avoid meetings and to hinder progress must absolutely come to an end. For the good of the university, all trustees must coalesce, meet and work without delay so they can solve problems that plague the university, especially SACS probation and numerous financial issues,” Governor Riley said.

New Trustee Profiles

Odysseus M. Lanier

• Founding partner of McConnell Jones Lanier and Murphy (MJLM), one of the five largest African-American owned accounting and consulting firms in the U.S. The company is based in Houston and has a satellite office in Huntsville.

• Has evaluated the governance, management and operations of more than 30 school districts throughout the country.

• Lead partner for ongoing engineering and logistics support contracts for the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, where MJLM’s Engineering and Technical Services Division has 57 employees.

• Served on Texas Southern University Board of Regents and as chair of its finance committee, where he led efforts to correct financial management problems that plagued the university in the late 1980s. The university emerged from its problems within two years and received an unqualified audit report from the Texas State Auditor in 1991. He also served on the board’s presidential search committee.

• 1977 graduate of Alabama A&M, where he was president of the Student Government Association and a non-voting member of the Alabama A&M board of trustees.

• One of his three children is a 2005 graduate of Alabama A&M University.