Welcoming New Trustees and President’s Council Members

Henry Becton’s career has been focused on public media at WGBH, where he was President from 1984 to 2007 and still serves as Vice Chairman. WGBH is the largest producer of public television, radio, and web programming and related educational curriculum materials. Mr. Becton has received numerous honors and awards including an international Emmy and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Mr. Becton received his undergraduate degree from Yale in 1965, where he served as Chairman of the Yale Broadcasting Corporation and sang in the Yale Glee Club, and he received his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Praised for her dynamic, passionate conducting style, Taiwanese American conductor Mei-Ann Chen is acclaimed for infusing orchestras with energy, enthusiasm, and high-level music-making, galvanizing audiences and communities alike. Music Director of the MacArthur Award-winning Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011, Ms. Chen has been named Chief Conductor of Austria’s Recreation Grosses Orchester Graz at Styriarte beginning Fall 2021 after two seasons as the orchestra’s first-ever Principal Guest Conductor—making her the first female Asian conductor to hold this position with an Austrian orchestra. Since September 2019, she has also served as the first-ever Artistic Partner of Houston’s ROCO (River Oaks Chamber Orchestra). Since 2016, she has served as Artistic Director & Conductor for the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Summer Festival. Highly regarded as a compelling communicator and an innovative leader both on and off the podium, and a sought-after guest conductor, she has appeared with distinguished orchestras throughout the Americas, Europe, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Scandinavia, and continues to expand her relationships with orchestras worldwide (over 110 orchestras to date). Honors include the League of American Orchestras’ 2012 Helen M. Thompson Award; Winner, the 2007 Taki Concordia Fellowship; First Prize Winner of the 2005 Malko Competition; and ASCAP awards for innovative programming.

Born in Taiwan, Mei-Ann Chen came to the United States to study violin in 1989 and became the first student in New England Conservatory’s history to receive master’s degrees simultaneously in both violin and conducting.

(Photo credit: Kristen Hoebermann)

Clint Bajakian is joining NEC’s President’s Council following six years on the Board of Trustees. Mr. Bajakian is a 30-year award winning music composer, producer, and educator in the video games industry. Mr. Bajakian received his Double B.M. in Classical Guitar Performance and Music Theory from NEC in 1987, and his M.M. in Music Composition from the University of Michigan, before serving as Composer and Sound Design Supervisor at LucasArts Entertainment Company. He then founded Bay Area Sound in 2000, his own audio production company. From 2004 to 2013, Mr. Bajakian co-recruited and led the sixteen-person music production team at Sony PlayStation as Senior Manager of Music, working with leading composers and orchestras throughout the world. Currently, Mr. Bajakian is an independent composer and producer of music, and has served as a professor in the Technology and Applied Composition department of the San Francisco Conservatory. Over the years he has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Game Audio Network Guild Lifetime Achievement award, the Hollywood Music in Media award for Best Video Game Soundtrack, and the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Best Original Soundtrack. A frequent lecturer at schools and conferences, he resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Deniz Ince, and two children, Lara and Deren.

Saj-nicole Joni is re-joining NEC’s President’s Council after serving on the Board of Trustees for twelve years, and previously serving on the President’s Council for 12 years. Dr. Joni is an internationally acclaimed business strategist and confidential advisor to CEOs and their teams. She’s often the key advisor at the table when leaders face difficult decisions, especially when the stakes are high. Dr. Joni challenges people to think profoundly about the uncertain future and is highly regarded as a trusted, unbiased resource who will tell the truth, in good times and in bad. Saj-nicole’s clients include CEOs and Boards of large public and private companies, high-growth tech companies, and CEOs and Presidents of major non-profit organizations and universities. Before founding and serving as CEO of Cambridge International Group Ltd., Saj-nicole was a key executive at major tech companies, including Microsoft, CSC, and two venture-funded AI companies. She has also served on the faculties of MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and Wellesley College. Her research extends from algebraic combinatorics to the foundations of artificial intelligence, and her work is still quoted by scientists today. She continues to advise executives and scientists in think tanks and research centers as they seek to increase their impact for good. Saj-nicole is the author of three best-selling books and is an invited speaker across the globe. She received her B.A., M.S., and Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego.

Elizabeth Kaufman is currently a Senior Advisor with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where she spent 26 years before retiring as a Managing Director and Partner in 2020. At BCG, Beth was a core member of the Global People and Organization Leadership team and a Global Topic Leader for People Analytics. Additionally, she held a variety of leadership roles over her career such as Global Leader of Knowledge, Global Manager for the People and Organization practice, and Digital Banking Initiative People Lead. In her work, she focused on corporate strategy, post-merger integration, and operating model redesign, as well as digital transformation and higher education. Recent publications include, but are not limited to, 2020 HBR: “Building the On-Demand Workforce”; 2020 “Remote Work Works – Where do we go from here”; and 2015 WEF: “Fostering Social Emotional Learning through Technology.” Prior to BCG, Beth graduated with an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and with a BA from Oberlin College, where she studied both science and music.

Fernande Raine is a social entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Got History. She is led by a lifelong conviction that history can be fuel for a new, inclusive democratic culture. She obtained her History Ph.D. from Yale, and early in her career worked as a consultant with McKinsey and Innosight. She ran the Human Rights Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School, and launched and led the “Measurement in Human Rights” project. During her 15 years as an entrepreneur with Ashoka, she launched five programs (including Western Europe programs) and co-led the research effort into systems change leadership. She grew up playing the recorder, piano and bassoon, is a passionate chamber and orchestra musician, and has four children who all were raised musically at NEC.

Peter M. Seka is the lead mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Mars, Incorporated (“Mars”), a family-owned company that generates over $40 billion in annual sales across Mars Petcare, Mars Wrigley, Mars Food, and Mars Edge and produces some of the world’s favorite brands, including M&M’S®, SNICKERS®, DOUBLEMINT® chewing gum, BEN’S ORIGINAL® rice, and PEDIGREE® dog food.

Peter works closely with Mars senior leadership, the Mars Board of Directors, and his Corporate Development Leadership Team partners to evaluate, negotiate, and execute mergers, dispositions, and joint ventures for Mars across the globe. Notable transactions include Mars’ acquisition of Wrigley ($22 billion public acquisition); Procter & Gamble’s global pet food business (except EU); a range of veterinary hospitals including VCA, Inc. ($9.1b public acquisition), Linneaus (UK), AniCura (EU), and BluePearl Veterinary Partners (US); and the acquisitions of Grupo Turin (Mexico) and KIND, Inc. (global). Peter has also led significant dispositions, including of Mars Drinks to Lavazza (global), and is actively involved in major financings and other capital transactions for Mars. Since joining Mars in 2005, Peter has focused on strategic tax and benefits issues, Mars Board support, and corporate legal matters generally. Prior to joining Mars, he practiced tax law at Skadden, Arps in Washington, DC, where he focused on a wide variety of large cross-border transactions.

Peter’s interest in music well pre-dates his interest in the law. Peter met his wife, Jennifer Maloney, at New England Conservatory, from which both graduated in 1988 with Bachelor of Music degrees, Jennifer in piano performance and Peter in cello performance. Peter studied with David Wells and Colin Carr and attended Yellow Barn Music Festival during his summers at NEC.