Penny Pennington, managing partner of Edward Jones, a St. Louis-based financial services company, has been elected to serve as chair of the Washington University in St. Louis Board of Trustees, effective July 1. Pennington will be the first woman to hold the position. She succeeds Andy Bursky, managing partner of Atlas Holdings.
The board elected Pennington as well as other new members at its May 1 board meeting.
Pennington began her career at Edward Jones in 2000 as a financial adviser. Today, she leads Edward Jones’ approximately 55,000 associates across North America to serve, advise and support more than 9 million clients in achieving what matters most to them.
Pennington is deeply committed to the St. Louis community, serving as chair of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center board of directors and as a board member for the James S. McDonnell Foundation and Greater St. Louis Inc. At WashU, Pennington and her husband, Mike Fidler, are Danforth Circle Chancellor’s Level members of the Eliot Society and have permanently endowed a scholarship in support of exceptional students from St. Louis.
In addition, the board elected five new trustees to four-year terms, which also begin July 1. They are:
- John F. Anderson, chief investment officer of the multistrat fund at Capula Investment Management, London
- Andrew Chee-Yuen Chan, PhD ‘86, MD ‘86, retired senior vice president at Genentech, San Francisco
- Jared Della Valle, MArch ‘96, MS ’96, founding partner and chief executive officer of Alloy Development, New York, N.Y.
- William R. Frist, principal at Champion & Co. Inc., Nashville, Tenn.
- Michael Lefenfeld, BS ‘02, president and chief executive officer of Hexion Inc., Columbus, Ohio.
