Ed Place, Vice President of Finance, Greetings for Hallmark Cards, Inc, has been named Chairman of the Board of Trustees at William Jewell College. As Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Place will preside at all meetings of the Board and will appoint members of the Board to standing committees. In his position at Hallmark, Place leads a team providing financial support to Hallmark’s North American greeting card business including ten subsidiary businesses across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. During a career at Hallmark spanning more than 15 years, he has served as Group Managing Director for Hallmark Asia Pacific; Managing Director for Hallmark Australia; Director of Finance & Planning for Hallmark Asia Pacific; Financial Processing Services Director; Business Services Manager for Shoebox Greetings; Mass Markets Credit Manager; and Senior Credit Analyst for Hallmark. In addition, he served as Chairman of Hallmark’s International IT Steering Committee, overseeing strategic direction and resource allocation for Hallmark’s business technology group. He was Featured Speaker, BusinessWeek CFO Forum on the topic of “Transforming Finance to Transform Business.” He has also served as Board Chairman of Hillcrest Ministries, a Liberty-based charitable organization that helps homeless families become self-supporting. He received his undergraduate degree from William Jewell College in 1982 and an M.B.A. from the Executive Fellows Program at Rockhurst College in Kansas City. Place, his wife, Colleen, and their three children live in Liberty, Missouri.

Jeffrey Comment, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Helzberg Diamond Shops, Inc., has been named Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees. As Vice Chairman, Comment will preside at Board meetings and perform the duties of the Chairman when the Chairman is absent. Comment joined Helzberg’s Diamond Shops, Inc., in May of 1988 as President. He served side by side with Barnett C. Helzberg, Jr., growing the company from 80 to 145 stores. In May of 1995, Helzberg Diamonds became a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Comment became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Helzberg Diamonds. The company currently operates 251 stores across the U.S. After graduating from Indiana University in 1966 with a Business Marketing degree, Comment’s retail experiences began with several management positions in various department stores, including Jordan Marsh Company and Burdine’s. His last department store assignment was as President and Chief Operating Officer of John Wanamaker Department Stores, Philadelphia’s largest department store at that time. Comment is actively involved in the Kansas City community and serves on many local and national boards.

Ann C. Earnest has been named Secretary-Treasurer of the Board of Trustees. As Secretary-Treasurer of the Board, Earnest will keep records of all Board meetings and assist in various business-related functions of the College. A 1977 graduate of William Jewell, Earnest is a development officer in south Texas for the Presbyterian Foundation. Development officers serve as a referral point between the Foundation and its subsidiary, New Covenant Trust Company, N.A., which provides asset management services. Earnest previously served as Sales Vice President for AT&T Business Sales of AT&T Business Worldwide in Houston, Texas. In that capacity, she was responsible for integrated global petroleum and technology sector customers. From 1999 to 2002, she served as Sales Vice President for an AT&T division responsible for a growing global revenue stream for clients including ExxonMobil, Chevron Texaco and Royal Dutch Shell. As Vice President and General Manager for AT&T Houston from 1996 to 1999, she developed and implemented sales strategy, customer satisfaction and associate development plans. She has also held senior sales and sales management positions at Southwestern Bell, AT&T General Business Systems and Lucent Technologies. Earnest has participated in professional development programs at the London School of Business, Columbia University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Greater Houston Partnership and the Houston International Festival and serves on the President’s Advisory Board for the University of Houston. She has received the Volunteer of the Year Award from the University of Houston and the Citation for Achievement from William Jewell College.

In addition, three new members have been named to the William Jewell College Board of Trustees.

Edward D. Douglas, a graduate of Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville and the Graduate School of Banking in Madison, Wisconsin, is chairman and chief executive officer of the Citizens Bancshares Company, the holding company of Citizens Bank and Trust, a $1 billion bank with 24 locations in 22 towns in north and central Missouri. He also holds a Certified Financial Planner degree from the College for Financial Planning in Denver, Colorado. He served as president, chairman and chief executive officer of Citizens Bank and Trust Company in Chillicothe, Mo., from 1985 to 1992, and as chairman and chief executive officer from 1992 to the present. He has served as commissioner and vice chairman of the Missouri Department of Transportation and as president of the Northwest Missouri State University Board of Regents. Douglas also served on several statewide commissions appointed by various Missouri governors including the Total Transportation Commission, Task Force on Critical Choices of Higher Education and the Commission on the Future of Higher Education. He has been involved in a number of civic and community causes, including president of the Chillicothe Chamber of Commerce, Chillicothe Economic Development Corporation and Chillicothe Educational Foundation and also served as a member of the Chillicothe R-II School District Board of Education. He currently serves as co-coach of the Chillicothe High School boy’s tennis team and has been named to the Athletic Hall of Fame at Northwest Missouri State University, where he was a member of the 1973 tennis team. Douglas is the author of a book written for students, young adults and their parents and grandparents which emphasizes the importance of saving early in life and the power of compound interest entitled“Making A Million With Only $2,000 – Every Young Person CAN Do It!”

Robert G. Ulrich is a graduate of William Jewell College. Ulrich is a judge in the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, where he has published approximately 900 opinions resolving civil, criminal, administrative and domestic relation cases. He received a Juris Doctor and Master of Laws in international law from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and a Master of Laws in judicial process from the University of Virginia School of Law. On the federal level, he has served as United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri and as an Assistant United States Attorney in Kansas City and Springfield, Missouri. He represented the United States at the First and Second Binational Judicial Conferences as one of 12 judges selected by the Department of State to represent the United States in discussions with the Mexican judiciary, including the Mexican Supreme Court. He served as Chairman of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee for three years and as ex-officio chairman of the 93 U.S. attorneys who enforce the laws of the United States. As chairman, he routinely consulted with the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General about issues, solutions and programs pertaining to the United States and particularly the Department of Justice and frequently represented the Department of Justice with the White House and the Congress. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Liberty Memorial Foundation and on the Board of Trustees, University of Missouri-Kansas City. He has served as President of both the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School Alumni Association and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Alumni Association composed of graduates of all of the university’s schools.

Deborah K. (Unger) Wardrop is a 1978 graduate of William Jewell, where she was a member of Alpha Delta Pi Sorority. She began her career in the resort management industry as director of conference services at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. She served as Director of Catering and Conference Services at The Boulders Resort and Club in Carefree, Arizona, where she was responsible for catering, conference services, destination management, the business center, banquet staff and audiovisual. In 1999, she was appointed Director of Special Events-Corporate Services by the National Football League. She is responsible for planning, designing, marketing and execution of the Corporate Hospitality Village for Super Bowl Sunday, which encompasses private parties for10,000 corporate guests for Fortune 500 companies on game day. In that capacity, she directs a paid staff of more than 1,000 along with 150 volunteers. In addition to these responsibilities, she has leadership roles in the NFL draft, annual meeting, expansion drafts, technical directors meeting, Hall of Fame reunions and special assignments. Wardrop is a 25-year resident of Scottsdale, Arizona, where she resides with her husband, Michael, and son, David. David is a sophomore at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.