Board of Trustees
UWC-USA is governed by its Board of Trustees.
The Board provides general governance for the school, including collaboration with administration on strategic planning; oversight of the three pillars of UWC programming, academic, experiential, residential; reviewing and approving school budgets, and aiding in the school’s work to advance philanthropic goals.
Board members are alumni, parents of alumni, and international leaders and bring their broad experience in finance, governance, and education to the strategic management of the school. Read brief biographies of our board members below.
"How can there be peace without people understanding each other; and how can this be if they don’t know each other?"
Aditya Joshi ’91
Aditya Joshi ’91
Aditya is the Chief Strategy Officer at Thermo Fisher Scientific. He is a member of the company’s Leadership Team, and is responsible for helping to advance the company’s strategy and translate it across the various businesses and functions. Previously he was a partner at Bain & Company, Inc., a leading global management consulting firm, where he served clients across multiple industries and also led the Marketing Excellence practice area. Aditya earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Brown University. He also holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School. Aditya lives in the Boston area with his wife, Skyler, and their three children.
Allan Affeldt
Allan Affeldt
As an entrepreneur Allan Affeldt has restored historic or architecturally significant properties, revitalized communities, and transformed people and places with his visionary projects. He has restored historic properties in railroad towns, including the La Posada in Winslow, Ariz., Legal Tender in Lamy, N.M., the La Castañeda Hotel in Las Vegas, N.M. – home of the first trackside hotel for the Fred Harvey Company which also operated the Montezuma Castle – and the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, N.M. Allan’s expertise is in nonprofit and for-profit finance, strategic planning, public relations, and conflict resolution.
Aly Kassam−Remtulla ‘94
Chair
Aly Kassam−Remtulla ‘94
ChairAly Kassam−Remtulla ‘94 is the Chief International Officer of Princeton University. He leads a team of 275 individuals across three continents that enables and advances global engagement among faculty and students; supports and advocates for Princeton’s 3,100 international students and scholars; and manages the university’s global footprint including a 48,000-acre environmentally-focused campus in Kenya. He is a co-founder and the co-chair of the Faculty Advancement Network, a national consortium of research universities committed to expanding diversity and inclusion in the American professoriate. Aly is a faculty advisor for first and second-year undergraduates and a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology. In addition to UWC-USA, he is a trustee of Allegheny College, one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges, as well as Princeton in Beijing and Princeton in Africa. Aly was born in Nairobi, raised in Calgary, and attended Stanford and Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.
Belinda Nicholson ’88
Belinda Nicholson ’88
Belinda Nicholson ‘88 calls the island of Barbados home, though she has lived and worked internationally most of her life. Born in England, Belinda returned to London in 2019 to serve as the Director of Student Support Services at The American School in London. Prior to moving to London, Belinda was the Middle Division Director at The School at Columbia University in New York City. Belinda began her teaching career as a high school and middle school special education teacher before moving into school administration as a special education liaison, dean of students, and principal.
Belinda has a BA and MA in international development and social change from Clark University and an EdM in education leadership and administration from Columbia University. Belinda also leverages her experience in her work with schools on their diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, examining ways in which these practices can be embedded in a school’s mission-driven work.
Christian Janssen ’88
Christian Janssen ’88
Christian Janssen ’88 has over 25 years of experience in structured finance, real estate debt, and investment management. He currently serves as a Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Debt for Europe at Nuveen Real Estate (NRE) and is based in London. Prior to joining Nuveen in 2013, Christian was a fund manager and co-head of commercial real estate lending at Renshaw Bay, where he established and launched its maiden CRE Debt strategy. Christian also worked at Barclays Capital for 7 years where he set up its European CRE lending, securitization, syndication, and servicing platform. Prior to this, he spent seven years at Morgan Stanley’s Securitized Product Group in New York and London, and First Boston’s Mortgage Financial Engineering and Project Finance Groups in New York. Born in Chile, Christian attended UWC-USA from 1986 to 1988 and graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from Yale University.
David Ertel
David Ertel
David Ertel is chief financial officer for Vizient.
He leads finance, accounting, IT, and audit services for Vizient and Provista.
Ertel’s experience includes 30-plus years in health care and financial management, business strategy, operations, and mergers and acquisitions. He also has a long history working with Wall Street, investment bankers, and member health care organizations.
Ertel served as CFO and chief strategy officer at the University of Miami Health System & Miller School of Medicine since 2016. Prior to that, he held positions at Einstein Healthcare Network and Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, Morgan Stanley’s National Health Care Group in New York, the Health Care Public Finance Group at PaineWebber in New York, and the New Jersey State Department of Human Services.
Ertel earned a master’s of business administration degree and a master’s in
public health degree from Columbia University, with a concentration in finance and hospital administration.