Lamont taps finance executive as UConn board chairman

Gov. Ned Lamont has named finance executive Dan Toscano chairman of the University of Connecticut board of trustees, Lamont announced Thursday morning.

Toscano, who graduated from UConn in 1987, replaces interim Board Chairman Thomas Ritter, who has held the position since Thomas Kruger stepped down in April.

He is the managing director of global leveraged finance at Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc. and a current member of the board of trustees of the UConn Foundation, the nonprofit that fundraises for the university.

“In order to be successful in a 21st century economy, it is essential that our state’s schools and universities strongly connect themselves with the business community,” Lamont said in a statement. “My appointment of Dan Toscano as chair of the UConn board of trustees should be seen as a step forward to strengthen this bond.”

A Bristol native, Toscano now lives in Darien. He has three children, including a son who is a junior at UConn.

“Dan’s leadership will not only come from the perspective of a business leader and alumnus, but he will also provide the board with the muchneeded voice of a parent who has a teenager currently enrolled at UConn,” Lamont said.

Toscano and his wife, Tresa, have been active donors to the university, Lamont said, and as a member of the Foundation’s board, he has served as chair and led the Investment Committee. He was on the search committee that selected new president Thomas Katsouleas earlier this year.

Lamont also reappointed four members of the board, including West Hartford mayor Shari Cantor, who Kruger had recommended as his successor.

The governor also rejected Kruger’s recommendation to keep longtime trustee and donor Denis Nayden on the board for another term, choosing to fill his seat with former Tulane University president and UConn alumnus Scott S. Cowen.

Nayden backed Lamont’s election opponent, Republican Bob Stefanowski, though Lamont told the Connecticut Mirror in April that was not a factor in his departure from the board.

Charles F. Bunnell, Andy Bessette and Andrea B. DennisLaVigne were also reappointed to the board.

University of Connecticut / Contributed photo Gov. Ned Lamont said he is appointing Dan Toscano, of Darien, as chairman of the UConn Board of Trustees.

Gerry McCarthy / Contributed photo In this December 2017 photo, philanthropist Peter J. Werth, UConn Foundation President and CEO Josh Newton and UConn Foundation Board Chairman Dan Toscano at a press conference announcing a $22.5 million commitment from Werth in the NextGen Residence Hall on the Storrs campus.