The George Mason University Board of Visitors (BOV) capped its annual planning conference Friday by re-electing Thomas M. Davis as rector and voting in four members of its Executive Committee.
Davis, a former seven-term U.S. House of Representatives member from Northern Virginia, has led the university’s 16-member governing body since 2014.
Over the past four years, Mason has emerged as one of the nation’s top 115 research universities and has seen its student enrollment grow to over 37,000. Mason is now the largest public university in Virginia.
“Rector Davis’s leadership on the board and steady guiding hand have been integral to Mason’s growth in both size and stature,” Mason President Ángel Cabrera said. “I am delighted that he will continue to lead the Board of Visitors as we carry out our mission of access to excellence and continue building the largest and most diverse research university in Virginia.”
Davis, a director for Deloitte, was first named to the BOV by former Gov. Robert F. McDonnell in 2013.
On Friday, the BOV also elected James W. Hazel as vice rector and re-elected Shawn Purvis as secretary. Like Davis, Hazel and Purvis will each serve two-year terms.
Hazel, JD ‘84, a Northern Virginia businessman, has served Mason in a variety of capacities for 30 years, most recently as the BOV’s development committee chair. He previously served on the BOV from 1994 to 2002 and on the George Mason Foundation Board of Trustees for 12 years, including as chair. Hazel also serves as chair for the university’s $500 million Faster Farther comprehensive campaign.
Purvis (MS Information Systems ‘99) is corporate vice president and president of Enterprise Services at Northrop Grumman. She has served on the BOV since 2015 and is also an active member of the George Mason Executive Leadership Council.
In addition to the elections of Davis, Hazel and Purvis, the BOV elected Horace Blackman (BA American Studies and English ’93) and David Petersen to serve one-year terms as at-large members of the Executive Committee.
Blackman is Vice President of Healthcare at Cognizant. Petersen retired as a senior executive in Accenture’s Washington, D.C., office, one of many leadership positions he held at the company.