Leadership: About the Co-Chairs

Stephen B. Ashley '62, MBA '64

Mr. Ashley is chairman and chief executive officer of The Ashley Group, a family of related companies focused on management, brokerage, financing, and investment in commercial and multifamily real estate. He also serves as Fannie Mae's chairman of the board.

Mr. Ashley has more than 40 years experience in the real estate and mortgage banking industries. He served in 1994 as president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBAA), a national real estate finance trade association representing 2,300 members.

Mr. Ashley was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1998. He currently is a co-chair of the Cornell Campaign and acts as co-chair of the Alumni Affairs and Development Committee and the Development Steering Committee. He also sits on the Buildings and Properties (vice chair 1999-00; chair 2000-02), Executive, Finance, and Governmental Relations Committees. He has been a member of the Cornell University Council since 1971 and serves on its Administrative Board. He served on the Annual Meeting Planning Committee, serving as chair of that committee in 1997 and 1998. He is a member of the Mann Library Development Committee (chair since 1996) and was a member of the Master of Professional Studies in Real Estate Advisory Council. He was also co-chair of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Campaign Special Gifts Committee and a member of the Rochester Campaign Committee. He is a member of his class's 35th Reunion Major Gifts Committee (1996-97), co-chaired his class's 30th Reunion Tower Club Committee, chaired the 25th Reunion Major Gifts Committee, and is chair of the Major Gifts 40th Reunion. He was a member of the Real Estate Council and has served as chair of the Development Committee of the Alumni Association.

Mr. Ashley's involvement with the Johnson Graduate School of Management includes the Annual Fund Tower Club (chair 1991-95); chair for the 25th Reunion Major Gifts Committee; JGSM Alumni Club of Rochester(former president); and Alumni Association Development Subcommittee (chair 1988 to date). He is also a former member of the New York City Task Force and amember of the Regional Tower Club Committee.

Mr. and Mrs. Ashley have been named among Cornell's Foremost Benefactors. In 1991, they established the Stephen B. and Janice Ashley Graduate Fellowship in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. In recognition of the importance of undergraduate advising, Mr. Ashley established the Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Award to honor his own advisor. Mr. Ashley is establishing a professorship in international business in the Undergraduate Business Program at Cornell. Mr. Ashley is a member of the Cayuga Society. Mrs. Ashley is the former Janice Gilbert Ashley BS '62 SUNY, Oneonta.

Mr. Ashley is a director of Fannie Mae as well as Genesee Corporation, both publicly traded companies. He is also a director of The Exeter Fund, a group of mutual funds. He serves as a trustee of the International Museum of Photography (The George Eastman House).

The Ashley family has three children, including Jillian BS ALS '96 and son-in-law, Randall Martin, BS Eng. '96.

Jan Rock Zubrow AB '77, MBA '81 Harvard

Ms. Zubrow is founder and president of MedCapital, LLC, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage health and life sciences companies. MedCapital's portfolio consists of companies that manufacture medical devices, produce diagnostic and therapeutic products, and deliver health information services. Ms. Zubrow serves as a director or advisor to these early-stage companies, including BEI Medical Inc., Immunicon Inc., and U-Systems Inc. Prior to starting MedCapital, Ms. Zubrow was a vice president at Johnson & Johnson and was responsible for growing J&J's $2 billion Women's Health franchise. Under her leadership, J&J acquired Biopsys Medical and Gynecare, Inc. Prior to that, Ms. Zubrow was responsible for revitalizing J&J's $500 million consumer health care franchise.

Ms. Zubrow became an alumni-elected trustee in 1998 and was re-elected by the Board for a second term beginning 2002. She serves as vice chairman of the Board of Trustees, co-chair of Cornell's Capital Campaign, and co-chair of the Committee on Alumni Affairs and Development. She is also a member of the Academic Affairs, Board Membership, and Executive Committees.

Ms. Zubrow is a founding member of the President's Council of Cornell Women (PCCW) and served as Chair of PCCW from 1997 to 1999. She recently served on the Presidential Search Committee that selected Cornell's twelfth president.

 

Robert J. Appel '53

Robert J. Appel has been a member of Weill Cornell Medical College's Board of Overseers since 2004. This year, he was named chairman of the Discoveries that Make a Difference Capital Campaign. The Appels have endowed the Robert J. Appel Professorship in Molecular and Cell Biology as well as the Helen and Robert Appel Clinical Scholar (Lipids) at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Mr. Appel graduated from Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences in 1953 and received his MBA from Wharton School of Business in 1955. After three years with Arthur Anderson & Co. as a CPA, he joined Wertheim & Company as a Research Analyst. In 1970, he moved to Neuberger Berman, a New York investment and securities brokerage firm, as Investment Manager, then Executive Partner. He was Managing Director of the firm when it was acquired by Lehman Brothers in 2003. He then founded Appel Associates, a family investment firm, and serves as its President.

He serves as a trustee and treasurer of the Levitt Foundation, a trustee of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and a director of the 92nd Street YMHA in New York City. In addition, he serves on the board of directors of Ampco-Pittsburgh Corporation.
Mr. Appel is married to the former Helen L. Harrison, who graduated from Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences in 1955 and received her M.A. in History from Long Island University/Brooklyn in 1978. She is a former high school teacher and is an avid historian. For more than 20 years, she has taught world and American history in an adult-education program at Cumberland School in the Great Neck, N.Y. school system. Mrs. Appel is a member of the Cornell University Council and the Arts and Sciences Advisory Council. She serves on the board of the Parker Geriatric Institute on Long Island.

 

Robert Appel is a University trustee emeritus since 2004.Long active in Cornell University matters, both Robert and Helen Appel were named foremost benefactors by the University's Board of Trustees in 1991.

The Appels have two daughters and four grandchildren

 

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