Alan Wurtzel

As the CEO of Circuit City Stores, Alan Wurtzel developed Circuit City into one of the nation's largest retailers of consumer electronics and appliances. He joined the company in 1966 as vice president for legal affairs, served as CEO from 1972 to 1986, as Chairman of the Board from 1984 to 1994 and then as Vice-Chairman of the Board from 1994 to 2001. Circuit City was one of 11 companies profiled in Jim Collins' best-selling business book, Good to Great.

Alan WurtzelMr. Wurtzel graduated from Oberlin in 1955 and in 2007 began his second stint of service on the Board of Trustees.

Mr. Wurtzel has been a member of the Virginia State Board of Education, a trustee of Virginia Commonwealth University and a member of the Virginia Commission for Higher Education. Mr. Wurtzel was the director of several not-for-profit, standards-based, education-policy organizations including New American Schools, the National Center of Education and the Economy and the Council for Basic Education. He was also a director of Dollar Tree Stores, Inc., and, from 1989 to 1996, he served on the board of Office Depot. Mr. Wurtzel also serves on the boards of two privately held companies.

In the not-for-profit arena, Mr. Wurtzel is a trustee of The Phillips Collection: America's First Museum of Modern Art in Washington, DC, where he is working to spearhead and develop expansion plans. He is also active with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group dedicated to saving the bay.