News Article

(SPOKANE, Wash.) — Donald P. Nelles, Bellevue, Wash., a 1959 Gonzaga University alumnus, has been elected chair of the GU Board of Trustees. John J. Luger, also of Bellevue, has been elected vice-chair; Harry H. Sladich, a 1959 GU alumnus, Spokane, has been elected secretary; and Michael J. Casey, a 1970 undergraduate GU alumnus and 1978 GU Law School alumnus, was elected assistant secretary.

New members elected to the Board of Trustees include Paul W. Brajcich (’79), Shoreline, Wash.; Kevin D. McQuilkin (’83), New Canaan, Conn.; and Robert H. Tomlinson, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Nelles, a CPA, was first elected a Trustee in 1996, and served the past three years as vice-chair. He is a retired partner of the Seattle firm Ernst and Young and now runs Nelco in Bellevue. Luger, who was first elected to the Board in 2000, is president of JDL Enterprises. Sladich has been employed by Gonzaga since 1962, and serves as GU vice president in addition to his role as secretary, a position he has held for 19 years. Casey, Gonzaga’s corporation counsel, is serving his ninth term as assistant secretary.

Brajcich is a partner at KPMG in Seattle. McQuilkin is managing director of global banking for Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. Tomlinson founded Tomlinson Realty, and runs Tomlinson Consulting.

One major task ahead for the Trustees is to create a transition team and a committee to search for the University’s next president. Gonzaga President Rev. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., announced in March that he will step down in July 2009, allowing 15 months for the University to find his successor.