Board of Directors

Steve Balog '77
Steve is a general partner of Cedar Creek Management, an investment partnership based in Summit, New Jersey. Previously, he was a Wall Street research professional, most recently as director of global technology research for Merrill Lynch. He has lectured about the research business at numerous universities and has co-authored a case study on the management of research, which will be published by the Harvard Business School. He earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering at Bucknell and an M.B.A. in finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Fortunately, none of his fellow board members hold his brief time in the Ivy League against him. He and his wife, Rosalie, live in New Vernon, New Jersey with their three children, Katy, David, and Alex.

Allison Kasic '05
Originally from Colorado, Allison was one of the few Bucknellians to make the cross-country journey to Lewisburg from the West. At Bucknell, she quickly became involved on campus, hosting "The Rock Show" on 90.5 WVBU and writing the popular "AK's Rapid Fire" column for The Counterweight for four years. She was also an active sister in the Chi Mu chapter of the Chi Omega Fraternity and was keen to play eighteen holes at the Bucknell Golf Club whenever her schedule allowed. Allison graduated summa cum laude with a degree in managment.

Since graduating, Allison has relocated to Alexandria, Va., where she is active in the D.C. alumni association and, before she managed to break her foot playing slow-pitch softball (somewhere, emergency room doctors are still laughing), she was a regular on the stellar alumni softball team.

Dawn Meling '06
Dawn graduated from Bucknell with a B.S. in business administration. During her time on campus, she served as vice president for finance of the Conservatives Club, senior editor of The Counterweight, and president of a Christian fellowship. Presently, she is a management associate for United States Steel at the company's headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as well as pursuing a master's degree in business administration at Duquesne University's Donahue School of Business. Previously, she worked as a business banker for PNC Bank.

Roger Mertz P'95
Roger is part of ABB because of the experiences he and his wife, Martha--both Stanford grads themselves--had being Bucknell parents. Their son, Peter, graduated from the University in 1995--with a B.A. in economics and political science--and went on to earn an M.B.A. at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Roger is a partner in the San Francisco office of Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP. He earned a B.A. in history from Stanford University in 1966 and a J.D. from the University of Southern California in 1969. He and Martha live in Hillsborough, California, and are very involved with numerous Stanford initiatives, including the Cantor Arts Center and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace--where Roger serves on the Board of Overseers.

Charles Mitchell '05
While growing up in the public schools of suburban Philadelphia, Charles found the prospect of attending a small, private college among the cornfields to be intriguing. During his four years at Bucknell, he gained great affection for Central Pennsylvania and returns there often. He was privileged to participate in a number of other activities on campus: spending four years as a student journalist for various publications, becoming a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (despite a total lack of athleticism), serving as a member of the Community Judicial Board and the Committee on Planning and Budget, and getting to know a young lady named Charissa Reimer--who's since become, to no one's surprise more than his own, Charissa Mitchell.

Charles also had the honor of working for the Department of History and being named one of The Bucknellian's People of the Year for 2004. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in history and economics. He and Charissa now live in Northern Virginia.

Richard Werther '79
A New Yorker by birth, Richard now carries the torch for his alma mater in his adopted home state of Michigan, where his Bucknell attire frequently raises the question, "Where's that?" He earned a degree in Business Administration, and went on to obtain his CPA certification two years later. After four years in public accounting at Price Waterhouse (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers), he spent thirteen years with AT&T, the last five of which were as controller of a company subsidiary in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Enjoying life in the Midwest, he passed on the opportunity to move back east with AT&T and eventually ended up at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan as director of budgeting. In early 2007, he was named vice president of finance and administration for DenteMax, a subsidiary acquired by BCBSM in 2002. He lives in Novi, Michigan with his wife of 21 years, Ann, and three children: Bryan (18), Christian (16), and Caroline (11).

From a distance, Richard has continued to follow events at Bucknell. He is concerned with the state of education in general in this country, and would like to make his contribution by giving back to the institution that is responsible for many of the successes he has had in his career.