Caldwell College Appoints Corporate Executives & An Attorney To The Board

The Caldwell College Board of Trustees recently appointed two senior corporate executives and an attorney to their board, announced Anthony V. Bastardi, board chair.

Alexander R. Giaquinto, Ph.D., of West Caldwell, senior vice president, worldwide regulatory affairs for Schering-Plough Corporation in Kenilworth, Maureen T. Bezer of North Caldwell, a telecommunications consultant and Nancy Costello Miller, Esq., of Tenafly, a senior deputy attorney general for the State of New Jersey, will each serve a three-year term.

“The new board members have committed themselves to help continue building on the proud tradition of Caldwell College,” said President Sister Patrice Werner, O.P., Ph.D. “Their management experience combined with their extensive spiritual and leadership skills will help the board in providing the educational, intellectual and spiritual opportunities to prepare our students to meet the challenges ahead.”
Dr. Giaquinto joined Schering-Plough in 1974 as a senior scientist in the Pharmaceutical Development Group.

His positions with the company have included associated director of pharmaceutical research and development, clinical manufacturing and packaging development director, director, senior director and vice president of regulatory affairs before his appointment to his current position in 1993.

Dr. Giaquinto serves on the PhRMA Regulatory Affairs Coordinating Committee (RACC) for which he is currently vice chairman. He is a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the New York Academy of Sciences. He has served as a member of the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) Steering Committee since its inception in 1990 as one of the two U.S., pharmaceutical industry (PhRMA) representatives and chairman of the Common Technical Document (CTD) coordinating committee.
He graduated from St. John’s University, Jamaica, New York with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Connecticut.

Bezer is currently engaged in private consulting for Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) that recently launched its first business model for MVNO’s in the United States.

Previously, Bezer served as executive vice president and general manager for American Express’ U.S. Consumer Charge Card, a position she held since 2000.
This position was created as part of American Express’ efforts to move toward a Business Unit structure following their reorganization and the replacement of the company’s chairman.

Prior to this, she had a long career with AT&T for almost 23 years, beginning her tenure as a member of the Company’s Management Development Program in June 1977 and retiring in January 2000. During her early years at AT&T, Bezer held positions in sales, operations, human resources and marketing. As she advanced with the company, Bezer’s main focus was in finance. From 1984 until 1994 she was with AT&T Capital Corp. holding positions as vice president of business planning, treasurer and ultimately senior vice president and CFO.

Bezer returned to the parent company from 1994-1999 as senior vice president and corporate controller. During this time she led the reengineering of AT&T’s financial systems, converting from an internally built system to an Oracle platform suite, realizing an ongoing annual expense reduction of about $300 million. She was also the financial lead on the AT&T’s 1996 “trivestiture” which included the partial Initial Public Offering (IPO) and ultimate spin-off of Lucent Technologies, the spin-off of NCR, the sale of AT& T Capital Corp. and the restructuring of the remaining parts of AT&T. During her last year with AT&T, Bezer served as senior vice president and group CFO for the Consumer Services Group, which represented over $33 billion in revenue.

She currently serves on the Board of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. Prior board affiliations include founding member of the Conference Board’s Council for Financial Services CFOs, the AT&T Foundation, AT&T Capital Corp. and Lucent Technologies and a small star-up MaMaMedial.com She is also trustee of her alma mater at St. Peter’s College.

Bezer holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from St. Peter’s College and a MBA in Taxation from New York University and has successfully completed the New Jersey CPA exam.

Miller is currently the senior deputy attorney general for the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety in Newark, where she represents the state with particular emphasis on administrative law.

Her present assignment is as primary counsel for the New Jersey Board of Dentistry, providing legal services related to licensing and disciplinary matters and regulatory initiatives and appellate matters. She is also the counsel for the Alternative Dispute Resolution Unit, the Bureau of Kosher Enforcement and a member of the Division of Law hiring committee for applicants seeking the position as deputy attorney general.

Previous assignments have included Counsel to the Board of Social Work Examiners, New Jersey Cemetery Board, the Legalized Games of Chance Commission, the Bureau of Securities, Office of Consumer Protection, the Lemon Law Unit and the Board of Public Utilities.

She is currently a member of the Board of Trustees for the Tenafly Nature Center and the Tenakill Swim Club in Tenafly. Previously she was the recording secretary for the swim club from 1994-97. She is also a member of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church in Tenafly, where she serves as a C.C.D. teacher from 1993-96 and 1999-2000 and on the search committee for Religious Education Director in 1997.

She has also volunteered during food collection drives for the Center for Food Action in Englewood.

Miller received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a minor in philosophy in American Studies from Caldwell College and a law degree from Seton Hall University, where she also served as editor-in-chief for the Seton Hall Law Review from 1981-82 and as a member from 1980-81.