St. John Fisher College Welcomes New Board of Trustees Chair, Vice Chair

Jack DePeters ’73, senior vice president of store operations for Wegmans Food Markets, Inc., has been named chair of the St. John Fisher College Board of Trustees. DePeters succeeds Martin K. Birmingham, president and chief executive officer of Financial Institutions, Inc. and its subsidiary, Five Star Bank, who completed a two-year term as chair. Diana Nole, chief executive officer of Wolters Kluwer Health, will become the first female to hold the role of vice chair of the College's Board.

The Board of Trustees determines the general, educational, and financial policies of the College. In addition, the Board has responsibility for sound resource management of the institution and works closely with the president in planning the strategic direction of the College.

"I am very grateful for Martin Birmingham's exemplary leadership of the Board during his tenure as chair, and I look forward to building on his good work," said President Gerard J. Rooney. "Jack DePeters and Diana Nole bring nearly two decades of collective Board service to their leadership positions. That demonstrated commitment to the College, paired with their sound executive acumen, will serve Fisher well as we enter into the next exciting chapter of our history."

DePeters, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Fisher in 1973, began his career at Wegmans in 1966. Over the last five decades, he has risen from part-time to full-time employee, and held positions of night manager, front end manager, store manager, and grocery buyer. 

In 1982, he was named head grocery buyer and director of Wegmans Brand and in 1986, was named director of grocery, dairy, and frozen foods. In this role, he was responsible for implementing category management at Wegmans, and throughout his time with the company, has been involved with many industry projects, including work with the Food Marketing Institute’s Efficient Consumer Response committee. In 1996, along with Colleen Wegman, now chief executive officer of the Rochester-based supermarket chain, DePeters started the Nature’s Marketplace department and Italian Classic extension to the Wegmans Brand line.  He was promoted to senior vice president of store operations in 1999. 

DePeters has been a member of the College’s Board of Trustees since 2007. He is a former member of the United Way Board of Directors and continues to actively promote United Way causes.  He currently heads the annual campaign at Wegmans and assists with promoting the United Way campaign to area businesses.

As chief executive officer of Wolters Kluwer Health, Nole leads a global provider of trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers, students, and the next generation of health care providers with advanced clinical decision support, learning and research, and clinical intelligence. The company’s solutions support more than 2.5 million clinicians in 187 countries and educate over 1 million medical and nursing students.

Under Nole’s direction, research and development investments leverage the latest technologies including artificial intelligence to deliver innovative solutions that improve the quality and cost of health care.  Prior to joining Wolters Kluwer Health, Nole served as president of Carestream’s Medical Digital division, a global leader in medical imaging systems. In recognition of her accomplishments, she was named to the Rochester Business Journal’s “40 Under Forty” list (2002), a finalist for both the Athena Award (2012) and Technology Woman of the Year (2013), and included in Becker’s Health IT “Female Health IT Company CEO’s to Know” (2016).

Nole joined Fisher’s Board in 2010 and has served on the Trusteeship and Audit committees. In her capacity as vice chair, she will now lead the Board’s Finance and Facilities committee. In addition, she sat on the 2015 College Presidential Search Committee. She also serves on the Board of Director for ESL Federal Credit Union, and was a past board member for the United Way of Great Rochester and Hillside Family of Agencies.

She holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the William E. Simon Business School and a bachelor’s degree with magna cum laude honors in computer science and mathematics from the State University of New York at Potsdam.