 | Will Miller |
Will Miller '78 B.A., head of a financial institution that serves consumers and small businesses and a national civic leader, has been elected as the Yale Corporation's newest alumni fellow in a worldwide ballot of University graduates.
Miller is chair and chief executive officer of Irwin Financial Corporation, a Columbus, Indiana-based company that offers consumers banking, mortgages and home-equity loans and provides loans and leasing services to small businesses in the United States and Canada.
He joined Irwin Financial in 1990, when he purchased his family's stake in the parent company of a bank his great-great-grandfather founded. In the past 15 years, the company's revenues grew 12-times larger, earnings rose by a factor of 14 and the number of employees increased from 700 to 3,200.
After earning his B.A. with a major in English and a strong interest in theater, Miller worked as an assembly line foreman in a diesel engine plant in Charleston, South Carolina. He earned an M.B.A. from Stanford University in 1981 and worked as an associate at the venture capital firm E.M. Warburg Pincus & Co. in New York City.
He returned to Columbus and became president of Irwin Management Company, a separate investment company, before buying into Irwin Financial. He serves on the boards of two other public companies: Cummins Inc. and The Tennant Company; and three mutual funds: the New Perspective Fund, EuroPacific Growth Fund and New World Fund.
Miller's service to education and non-profit organizations has spanned more than two decades. He has been on the board and committees of the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, since 1979 and has been the board's chair for the past three years. He recently joined the board of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, among the nation's largest and most diverse philanthropies. He has been active in the Columbus Education Coalition, a public-private partnership formed to improve the region's public learning system, and was a trustee of the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. Miller was a director of Public Radio International for 12 years, serving five years as its chair.
Miller has become nationally known for helping to continue a legacy of world-renowned architecture in his hometown through his service as a trustee of the Cummins Foundation in Columbus. His architectural interest and experience also inform his role as vice chair of the board of the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.
Yale has benefited from Miller's service in a variety of ways. He was a member of the Urban Advisory Committee on New Haven that led to the formation of the Office of New Haven and State Affairs, and he chaired the University Council Committee on the School of Architecture and now serves the council as an at-large member. He is a member of the Dean's Council of the School of Architecture and was on the Class of 1978's 20th Reunion Gift Committee. He is in his second term as a member of the Yale Investments Committee.
Miller lives in Columbus with his wife Lynne Maguire. The oldest of their three daughters is a member of the Yale College Class of 2008.
The Yale Corporation is the University's chief governing body. It is made up of the president of the University, 10 successor fellows, and six alumni fellows who are elected by Yale alumni. The governor and lieutenant governor of Connecticut are ex-officio members.
T H I S
New alumni fellow elected
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Yale launches program to train urban teachers
New alumni fellow elected
Sensors won't save lives from suicide bombers, warns Yale expert
Study: Monkeys ape humans' economic traits
Richard Shaw departs for Stanford post
Tennis goes co-ed at this year's Pilot Pen
Yale co-sponsors 'City of Summer' concerts and films
Exhibit features post-Civil War works by 'artful storyteller'
Yale alumni, teachers win Tony Awards
ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
Philosopher Keith DeRose: Allison Foundation Chair
Phyllis Granoff: Hixon Chair in World Religions
Thomas Kavanagh: Street Professor of French
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld: Crown Chair in ManagementLaw School project exploring the information society . . .
Poll shows public's distaste with foreign oil dependence
Scientists discover how plants protect themselves from infection
Team seeking 'perfume' to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes
Geologists use ancient sea algae to trace CO2 levels of long ago
Study shows how sex discrimination in job hiring is able to endure
YSN study shows effectiveness of preschool health screenings
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE NEWSTeam to develop new system for testing potential vaccines
Senior citizens' television-watching habits affect their views . . .
Grant funds study of intestinal condition common in tiny babies
Yale center joins with Bike Across America to raise funds . . .
Alzheimer's disease patients sought for testing . . .
Scientists' discovery of protein amplification in melanoma . . .
Discovery of breast cancer growth regulator may help . . .
Patients disfigured by facial trauma suffer host of problems
Study shows how sex discrimination in job hiring is able to endure
New studies aim to benefit women's health
Study links an inherited pain disorder to specific gene mutation
Spotlight on Sports
Athletics archive now in library's collection
Three promoted to post of associate provost
Event to explore role of faith in the corporate world
In Memoriam: Dick Wittink, marketing expert and SOM teacher
Five faculty members awarded Guggenheim Fellowships for research
Event explored how libraries can benefit city schools
New alumni lauded for efforts to improve public schools
Yale Books in Brief
Campus Notes
Bulletin Home|Visiting on Campus|Calendar of Events|In the News
Bulletin Board|Classified Ads|Search Archives|Deadlines
Bulletin Staff|Public Affairs|News Releases|
E-Mail Us|Yale Home