Governor Bob McDonnell recently announced appointees to the UVA Board of Visitors (and, as you’ll recall from our coverage of everything from school architecture to tuition increases, the board wields some serious power). The most familiar name on the list? Tim Robertson, son of televangelist Pat Robertson, who previously served on the BOV and also helped launch UVA’s Media Studies program with a $1.2 million donation for an endowed chair and a new media center.
Robertson’s family has supported McDonnell over the years, and McDonnell, a graduate of Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network University, served for eight years on that school’s Board of Trustees. So, what goes around…
The appointees also include McGuire Woods partner George Keith Martin (a colleague of McDonnell’s former senior policy advisor, Eric Finkbeiner) and UVA alum John Nau, the Houston-based beer baron whose $8.5 million donation for the development of the South Lawn nabbed him a building in his name.
As we mentioned above, the BOV has quite a bit of clout. Track its influence in our Power Issue.