{"id":8591,"date":"2025-12-03T11:04:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T16:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/?p=8591"},"modified":"2025-12-03T11:08:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T16:08:25","slug":"udm-board-adds-members-elects-new-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/2025\/12\/03\/udm-board-adds-members-elects-new-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"UDM board adds members, elects new leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

University of Detroit Mercy has named two new members to its Board of Trustees and named a new chair and vice chair.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The new trustees are Christopher Kouza \u201902, chairman and founder of Koucar and Kouza Capital, and creative brand consultant Marlena Peleo-Lazar \u201972. Both were approved at the Board\u2019s June meeting and they began their service at the October meeting.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Also at the October meeting, former Ford Motor Company vice president James Holland \u201989 began his service as chair of the Board and president and owner of Hamilton, Anderson Associates, Rainy Hamilton Jr. \u201978, began his service as the vice chair.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUniversity of Detroit Mercy is thrilled to add Chris and Marlena to the board. They bring with them a wealth of experience and ideas that will help move the University forward,\u201d said University President Donald B. Taylor. \u201cJim and Rainy have already made important contributions to the University through their work on the board, and we look forward to their leadership.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"PhotoKouza, who graduated from Detroit Mercy Law, is a licensed attorney and businessman. After several years handling litigation for privately held business and banking institutions, he was hired as director of managed assets and first vice president at Peoples State Bank. In 2010, he stopped practicing law for third-party clients and embarked on the path to becoming an independent entrepreneur, purchasing real estate assets for development and distressed businesses in the hopes of setting them up for long-term success, mergers and acquisitions of military defense tech companies.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MarlenaPaleo-Lazar received degrees in Media Studies and English before embarking on a career in advertising, where she had a long, storied career. She rose in the creative ranks to become senior vice president, global creative director on such brands as Kellogg\u2019s, Procter & Gamble, Starkist, Sears and more. Most notably, Paleo-Lazar was the chief creative officer for the McDonald\u2019s Corporation where she was responsible for developing and implementing the company\u2019s most successful campaign\u2014 \u201cI\u2019m lovin\u2019 it.\u201d Today she acts as a brand and creative advertising consultant with institutions across the country.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Holland has served on the Board for 10 years. During his 35-year career with Ford, he held positions of increasing responsibility across the world and at home, retiring as vice president, Vehicle Component and Systems Engineering.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hamilton established his own Detroit-based architectural firm in 1994. Since that time, Hamilton Anderson Associates has designed major commercial projects including, hospitality, higher education, multifamily residential and community-based projects in Michigan, Nevado and Georgia. His mission is to contribute to the positive evolution of urban environments. He has been with UDM\u2019s Board of Trustees since 2023.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Detroit Mercy\u2019s 27-member Board of Trustees is responsible for the University\u2019s overall governance, including strategic planning, financial oversight and hiring the president.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University of Detroit Mercy has named two new members to its Board of Trustees and named a new chair and vice chair.\u00a0 The new trustees are Christopher Kouza \u201902, chairman and founder of Koucar and Kouza Capital, and creative brand consultant Marlena Peleo-Lazar \u201972. Both were approved at the Board\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":7316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2021\/03\/Photo-Oct-09-1-30-08-PM-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Kcng-2ez","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8591"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8594,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8591\/revisions\/8594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}