NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Sandy Stewart, a biotech entrepreneur and scientist, has been tapped to lead the Rutgers University Board of Governors come July 1.

The board voted to appoint Stewart, who currently serves as vice chair, as chairman today, June 15, at its meeting in Winants Hall in New Brunswick. He’ll take the reins from Greg Brown, who chaired the board since July 2014.

Mark Angelson, a gubernatorial appointee to the board, was voted vice chair, effective in July, during the meeting. His background spans law, business, government and international education, according to the university.

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Rutgers touted both Stewart and Angelson as “business leaders” with strong connections to the state’s flagship university.

“Sandy and Mark both have extraordinary records of accomplishment in the public and private sectors. I am pleased that their longtime relationship with Rutgers will continue with the university’s highest governing body,” the university’s president, Robert Barchi, said in a statement. “The Board of Governors and the entire university greatly benefit from their intellect, wealth of professional experience and business acumen.”

Stewart is a retired founder of “several biotechnology companies,” including Paradigm Genetics—which is now Cogenics Icoria—and Immunovation, according to the university.

The incoming chair earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers Camden in 1981 and his master’s degree from the same school in 1987. He was elected in 2006 to Rutgers’ board of trustees, a body he headed in 2014-15, according to the university.

Stewart also sits on the Camden campus’s board of directors. He was elected a trustee emeritus and last year became a member of Rutgers-Camden’s Finest, earning recognition as a 250th anniversary fellow, according to the university.





He began his career at Ciba-Geigy/Novartis, a pharmaceutical company that once manufactured dyes in New Jersey, and worked for Metabolon. He has also worked with the American Red Cross and the United Nations, according to the university.

Angelson, meanwhile, graduated from Rutgers College in 1972 as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, according to the university. He earned his law degree from Rutgers three years later, eventually becoming a member of the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni and the first winner of the law school’s Alumni Service Award.

Angelson serves as vice chair of the Joseph Biden Foundation and the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit that specializes in international education and training, according to Rutgers. He chairs the latter group’s Scholar Rescue Fund and its 2019 Centennial Committee.

The nonprofit has partnered with Rutgers to rescue “persecuted scholars from harm’s way the world over for nearly a century,” according to the school.

For 20 years, Angelson worked as a lawyer across the world. Since then, he was the chair and CEO of five public companies. He also served as the deputy mayor of Chicago.