Betsy Raftery of Wilton Named Colby College Overseer

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Betsy Rafferty

WATERVILLE, ME (11/18/2009)(readMedia)-- Betsy Raftery of Wilton, Conn., has been named an overseer of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Raftery, a certified bookkeeper in Fairfield County, is a 1998 graduate of Colby.

Elected by the college's Board of Trustees, Colby overseers help assess the effectiveness of academic and administrative departments and serve as an informal advisory group to the college's president and trustees. During each four-year term, an overseer is expected to participate on one or more four- to five-person visiting teams that evaluate departments based on criteria such as learning goals and outcomes for students, staffing levels and resource use, and overall strengths and weaknesses. Overseer reports are presented to the Board of Trustees, which uses them to help shape policy at the college.

"Colby's overseer program, now almost three decades old, is among the most effective of its kind in the nation," said Robert E. Diamond Jr. '73, chair of the Board of Trustees, president of Barclays Bank PLC, and a former Colby overseer. "Made up entirely of volunteers who are motivated by the desire to see Colby thrive now and into the future, the overseer group really digs into the details of the college's operations. Without their work, the trustees and the college administration would be at pains to duplicate the in-depth understanding both of challenges and of successes that overseer reports provide."

Raftery, who majored in Spanish and history at Colby, worked for several years at PanAmSat, one of the world's largest fixed satellite services providers, ending as senior manager of billing and revenue services. She is a member of the board of directors of the Oaklawn Foundation, established in 1948 to support education through scholarships. In 2008, she received a volunteer service award from the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation for her volunteer work at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center. She and her husband, Bill, have an infant son, Sean.

Other new overseers include:

Jason Klein '97 of Rye Brook, N.Y., curator of the Trailside Nature Museum at the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Cross River and vice president of the Federated Conservationists of Westchester County.

Edward Marchetti '60 of Essex, Mass., founder and former president and CEO of Boston-based Office Environments of New England and now a partner at Swimex-Pearson Pilings LLC, a Fall River, Mass.-based manufacturer of recreational and rehabilitative pools for commercial, therapeutic, and residential use.

Graham Powis '90 of Greenwich, Conn., managing director and head of U.S. equity capital markets for Lazard Frres.

R. James O'Neil '83 of Malvern, Pa., a partner in the investment management firm Cooke & Bieler, L.P. and a portfolio manager and analyst with a concentration in the financial and consumer sectors.

Amy Walter '91 of Arlington, Va., editor-in-chief of The Hotline, Washington's premier daily briefing on American politics.

Founded in 1813, Colby College is the 12th-oldest independent liberal arts college in the nation. Colby provides a rigorous academic program that fosters transformational relationships between students and faculty. Graduates emerge as committed leaders ready to make an impact on their world. The college enrolls 1,850 students.

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