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mahatmakanejeeves

(60,915 posts)
Tue Jul 18, 2023, 09:51 AM Jul 2023

Gov. Glenn Youngkin appoints four new members to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors

In brief

New Youngkin appointees, and more

Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s latest round of appointments put big donors into power at UVA, VCU, and Virginia Tech. Image courtesy State of Virginia.

C-VILLE Writers
2:18 p.m. Jul. 6, 2023

Selecting seats

Gov. Glenn Youngkin has appointed four new members to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors. The new BOV appointees—Paul Harris, Paul Manning, John Nau III, and Rachel Sheridan—were announced in the governor’s most recent slate of appointments June 28. ... Three of the four individuals are major contributors to the governor’s political efforts.

The largest of the contributors is Nau, who gave a combined $300,000 to Youngkin’s gubernatorial campaign and his Spirit of Virginia PAC. The UVA alum previously served on the BOV from 2011 to 2015, and is currently the chair and CEO of Texas-based Silver Eagle Beverages. Nau is a major Republican contributor who’s donated more than $900,000 to GOP candidates in Virginia since 1999, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

Both Manning and Sheridan also contributed to Youngkin’s campaign for governor, giving $240,000 and $25,000, respectively. While not a Virginia alum himself, Manning lives in Charlottesville and has frequently worked with the university, most notably on the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology. Sheridan is a double-Hoo, with a bachelor’s and law degree from UVA, and is the vice president of the Virginia Athletics Foundation.

Harris—the lone appointee who has not contributed a substantial amount to Youngkin or his PAC—is the executive vice president and chief sustainability and compliance officer at Huntington Ingalls Industries. Although he now lives in Richmond, Harris was born in Charlottesville and represented Albemarle County in the Virginia House of Delegates as a Republican from 1998 to 2002.

In a statement to VPM News, Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter said, “The governor has appointed experienced and dedicated professionals willing to utilize their professional expertise to deliver on our higher education priorities of affordability, academic excellence, and free speech.”

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