BU Board of Trustees Welcomes Two New Members - Tony Leatherberry
Boston University’s Board of Trustees elected two new members last week, Antoinette (Tonie) Leatherberry (ENG’85) and Jonathan Priester (COM’10), both of whom serve the University as members of the Black Alumni Leadership Council.
In other changes, Rebecca Norlander (CAS’91) began her position as chair of the University Advisory Board (formerly the Board of Overseers), and in that capacity, is a member of the Board of Trustees. The University Advisory Board, which advises the trustees, also welcomes returning member Gayle Berg (Sargent’74) and new member Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan (ENG’00). Norlander, Berg, and Sivaramakrishnan were elected in April, with terms beginning this September.
“These new members bring a wealth of experience, leadership, and perspective that will greatly enhance the ability of our boards to meet the significant challenges and opportunities facing Boston University,” says Kenneth Feld (Questrom’70), Board of Trustees chair. “We look forward to working with each of them to continue the board’s focused stewardship of the University’s financial and business affairs and to strengthen the University’s global reputation for excellence in scholarship and research.”
New trustees
Antoinette (Tonie) Leatherberry (ENG’85)
Leatherberry recently retired as a principal in the risk and financial advisory practice of Deloitte Consulting LLP, a professional services firm that advises Fortune 500 companies, where her distinguished career spanned nearly 30 years. As the board relations leader for the risk and financial advisory practice, she was responsible for marketplace positioning and opportunities through innovation, thought leadership, and engagement that address the needs of corporate directors and senior executives.
Antoinette (Tonie) Leatherberry (ENG’85). Photo courtesy of Leatherberry
She also served as president of the Deloitte Foundation, Deloitte’s nonprofit arm.
Currently, Leatherberry is the board chair of the Executive Leadership Council, a group working to broaden the pipeline of Black corporate executives. She was named to the National Association of Corporate Directors 2019 and 2020 Directorship 100 lists of corporate movers and shakers. She has also been honored as one of Pennsylvania’s Top 50 Women in Business, the Network Journal’s annual list of 25 Influential Black Women in Business, Savoy magazine’s 2019 and 2020 Most Influential Women in Corporate America and Top 100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America, Black Enterprise’s Most Powerful Women in Corporate America and Most Powerful Women in Corporate Diversity, and one of the Top 100 under 50 Leaders by Diversity MBA Magazine.
Leatherberry is a former member of the University Advisory Board.
Jonathan Priester (COM’10)
Priester is the Global Black Community Inclusion Lead at Google, Inc., and a member of the company’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement team. He is responsible for the global advisory of Google’s Black Googler Network, heading internal Black community affairs and managing key related partnerships externally.
Before joining Google, Priester worked at JCPenney Company, Inc., and advertising agencies BBDO, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, and The Godwin Group in digital marketing, merchandising, and account management.
Jonathan Priester (COM’10). Photo courtesy of Priester
Priester has served as a cochair and member of the advisory board of ADCOLOR, an organization that works on inclusion and diversity in the advertising, technology, and creative industries. He has also been an advisor to the executive board of Operations Crossroads Africa, a US-based nonprofit organization that builds cross-cultural networks through service-based volunteer exchange trips in countries across Africa, as well as in Brazil and the Caribbean. His long-standing advocacy for BU’s diversity and inclusion efforts is reflected by his service on the BU Black Alumni Leadership Council, which supports both Black alumni and current students.
In 2016, Priester was recognized by the American Advertising Federation as the “Alumni Rising Star” of its Most Promising Multicultural Student program.
In addition to a bachelor’s degree in advertising from the College of Communication, Priester holds a master’s degree in emerging media and communications from the University of Texas at Dallas School of Arts and Humanities.
As a student at BU Priester was inducted into the Scarlet Key Honor Society and served as the 2010 Student Commencement speaker.
Read more on bu.edu
