Strengthening Long-Term Governance

On September 15, with the 121st school year in full swing, the Board of Trustees held its first meeting of the year, gathering dozens of community members united in a single purpose: strengthening St. Mark’s. For more than a century, St. Mark’s has grown and thrived thanks to dedicated and visionary volunteer leadership. For generations, leaders like McDermott, Green, Decherd, and Hoffman have given their time as Trustees to ensure that the School remains steadfast in its focus on mission and thinks and plans in decades, ensuring that strategic goals are measured and pursued alongside the continued growth of the School’s endowment.

The Board maintains a clear distinction between governance and administration, setting direction and policy while the Headmaster and his team carry out the day-to-day management of the School. An Executive Committee leads the Board and its standing committees: Audit, Development, Education, Facilities, Finance, Investment, and the Committee on Trustees. The committees meet dozens of times throughout the year, allowing Trustees to lend their professional expertise in many important facets. Lawyers, engineers, executives, and physicians provide extraordinary insight in serving every single Board Committee, working alongside the School’s legal counsel, Taylor Wilson, Managing Partner at Haynes and Boone, LLP.

Eugene McDermott Headmaster David W. Dini speaks to the debt St. Mark’s owes its leadership: “Because of the sustained leadership and commitment of our Trustees, the state of our school has never been stronger. A key to our collective success is an unflinching focus on mission, and an entire community, board, administration, faculty, parents, and alumni pulling in the same mission-focused direction.”

The 51 members of the Board meet four times throughout the year, and the Executive Committee meets six times. This year, David R. McAtee II ’87 begins his term as Board President, succeeding Fraser Marcus ’72, as the Board’s leadership continues its focus on mission and long-term strategy. Each Trustee balances significant professional and personal responsibilities, while prioritizing St. Mark’s. In many ways, Trustee service is the culmination of many years of meaningful engagement with St. Mark’s.

That long-term commitment extends to this year’s incoming class. Five new Trustees joined the Board, representing a cross-section of the St. Mark’s community and a vast array of personal and professional experiences:

Three of the five new Trustees, Jenkins, Miller, and Rowghani, live outside of the DFW area, bringing St. Mark’s out-of-town alumni Trustees to roughly a fifth of the Board, a measure of the broad reach of the St. Mark’s Alumni Association and the enduring strength of graduates’ connection to the School. Several Trustees called into the meeting from locations around the globe, with one Trustee waking at 4 a.m. local time to join the meeting from Singapore.

Throughout the 2026-2027 school year, Trustees will dedicate thousands of hours to ensuring the School and its teachers are well equipped to guide young boys along the Path to Manhood. The Board collectively embodies commitment to mission and values and serves as exemplars for Marksmen and community members aligned in purpose around the globe.