A San Diego utilities executive and a retired executive and management consultant from Austin, Texas, now lead the UC Davis Foundation, a volunteer fundraising board of the University of California, Davis.

Pamela Fair '80, a vice president of Sempra Energy's California regulated utilities (Southern California Gas Company and San Diego Gas & Electric), serves as chair of the foundation's board of trustees. Kevin Bacon '72, recently retired from the public-sector practice of IBM Business Consulting Services, serves as vice chair of the 41-member board. Fair and Bacon, who were already on the board, began their one-year term July 1.

Seven new trustees, who began a three-year term July 1, are:

• Gilles Attia of Carmichael, Calif.,;
• Mike Child '76, of Atherton, Calif.;
• Fred Corson '64 '67, of Healdsburg, Calif.;
• Reno Cruz '74, of El Macero, Calif.;
• Sundeep Dugar '84, of San Jose, Calif.;
• Doug Muhleman '77 '79, of Clayton, Mo.; and
• Jeffrey Traum '85, of Palo Alto, Calif.

Current trustees elected to a second three-year term are: Gary Cusumano of Valencia, Calif.; Augie Gallego of Lake Oswego, Ore.; Jackson Gualco of Gold River, Calif.; Cheryl Harrison of San Francisco; Javad Rahimian of Sacramento, Calif.; Stephen Richards of Cupertino, Calif.; and Frank Washington of Carmichael, Calif.

About the foundation

Established in 1959, the UC Davis Foundation helps increase philanthropic support for the university. As a separately incorporated, tax-exempt organization, the foundation receives private gifts to benefit UC Davis, invests its endowed gift funds and other private contributions, and advises university leaders in areas related to public trust and support.

The endowed funds provide faculty, student and program support in perpetuity. For example, one endowment held in the foundation each year provides a $40,000 prize to an outstanding faculty member to recognize achievement in undergraduate teaching and scholarship.

"Philanthropy is key to ensuring the excellence in all aspects of UC Davis' mission -- teaching, research and public service," said UC Davis Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef. "As we celebrate the university's centennial, we are mindful of the vital role that the foundation has in UC Davis' history and future."

About the trustees

Fair, vice president of environmental, safety and facilities for Sempra's two California regulated utilities, was vice chair of the foundation for the past two years and has been a trustee since 2002. She is a member of the Dean's Executive Committee for the UC Davis College of Engineering and served on the UC Davis External Research Advisory Board. She was founding president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Cal Aggie Alumni Association and a board member of the association's engineering chapter. Fair received the 2008 UC Davis Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award.

Bacon has been a foundation trustee since 2003 and serves on other boards and committees at UC Davis. He is the chair of the Dean's Advisory Committee for the College of Letters and Science, a member of both the Davis Chancellor's Club Freeborn Circle and Herbert A. Young Society, and a business partner of the Graduate School of Management.

Gilles Attia, managing partner at DLA Piper's Sacramento office, has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer as the result of a joint research project conducted by Law & Politics and San Francisco magazines. Attia has been a strong supporter of the College of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Management and School of Medicine. He is a member of the Dean's Leadership Council of the College of Biological Sciences and of the Office of Research's External Research Advisory Board.

Mike Child '76 is a managing director of the Menlo Park office of TA Associates, a private equity investment firm headquartered in Boston. Child is a UC Davis Chancellor's Laureate and a member of the Davis Chancellor's Club. A charter member, Child serves as chair of the Dean's Executive Committee for the College of Engineering. He also serves on the Advisory Council at the Graduate School of Management.

Fred Corson '64 '67 served as vice president of research and development at the Dow Chemical Company until his retirement in 1998. Corson is a member of the Dean's Advisory Council for the College of Letters and Science and a former member of the foundation (1996 to 2002). Corson also served as a member of the UC President's Advisory Council for Research and Technology for four years, and the Cal Aggie Alumni Association honored him with a Citation for Excellence Award in 1990.

Reno Cruz '74 is a retired chief operating officer of the worldwide managing executive board of KHS Maschinen-und Anlagenbau AG, and currently does consulting work with private equity and advising on mergers and acquisitions. While attending UC Davis, Cruz was the chancellor's student assistant (1973-74) for the late Chancellor James H. Meyer.

Sundeep Dugar '84, president and founder of Spharea Pharma, is an internationally recognized and award-winning leader in the field of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery and development. In 2005, the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation named him a National Inventor of the Year. Dugar is a member of the Dean's Advisory Council of the College of Letters and Science. As a UC Davis graduate student, he was awarded the Distinguished Scholars Fellowship in 1983.

Doug Muhleman '77 '79 is the group vice president of brewing operations and technology for Anheuser-Busch Inc. He is also the chairman and chief executive officer of Busch Agricultural Resources. Muhleman is a member of the Davis Chancellor's Club and was presented with the 2005 Cal Aggie Alumni Association Service Award.

Jeff Traum '85 is a senior vice president, wealth adviser and certified investment management analyst for Morgan Stanley in Palo Alto. Traum is a past consulting trustee for the UC Davis foundation's finance and investment committee.

About UC Davis

UC Davis, a land-grant institution, educates 30,000 students and has 185,000 alumni. The university receives more than $500 million annually in research funding, and in fiscal year 2006-07 it received about $101.2 million in philanthropic gifts and pledges. UC Davis is a member of the prestigious invitation-only Association of American Universities, which includes the top 62 research universities in the United States and Canada.