Announcement
Boston, MA —
Ann Lembeck Leary, BFA ’85, and Raj Sharma, MS ’83, have been appointed to the Emerson College Board of Trustees.
“I am enormously grateful to Ann and Raj for their willingness to join the College’s Board of Trustees at this critical juncture in Emerson’s history,” said President Lee Pelton.
Ann Lembeck Leary graduated from Emerson with a BFA in 1985. She is the author of two novels and a memoir and has written for television and film. Her 2004 memoir, An Innocent, a Broad (Morrow) chronicles how she and her husband, Emerson alumnus Denis Leary, went to England for a weekend in 1990 and stayed for nearly six months, due to the premature birth of their son, Jack. The book also shares the emerging success of Denis as a stand-up comedian in the United Kingdom and later in the United States. Her first novel, Outtakes from a Marriage (Crown) was published in 2008 and her latest novel, The Good House (St. Martin’s) will be published in January 2013. She has also been published in numerous magazines. Ann is a member of the advisory committee of Ploughshares, an award-winning literary magazine based at Emerson. In November 2011, she co-chaired the 40th anniversary celebration of Ploughshares with author Alice Hoffman. She and her family live in New York and Connecticut.
Raj Sharma is managing director of investments and head of The Sharma Group of Merrill Lynch Private Banking and Investment Group. He has more than two decades of experience in financial planning and asset management. He holds a master’s degree in business management, with a specialization in finance, from the Institute of Management Studies, Osmania University, India, and a master’s degree in mass communications from Emerson College. For nine consecutive years (2004–2012), Raj has been recognized by Barron’s as one of America’s top 100 advisors, and for four consecutive years (2009–2012), as the top financial advisor in Massachusetts. He lives in Sharon, Massachusetts, with his wife and four children.
About Emerson College
Located in Boston, Massachusetts, opposite the historic Boston Common and in the heart of the city’s Theatre District, Emerson College educates individuals who will solve problems and change the world through engaged leadership in communication and the arts, a mission informed by liberal learning. The College has 3,453 undergraduates and 837 graduate students from across the United States and 50 countries. Supported by state-of-the-art facilities and a renowned faculty, students participate in more than 80 student organizations and performance groups, 14 NCAA teams, student publications, honor societies, television stations including the Emerson Channel, and WERS-FM, the nation’s highest rated student-run radio station. Emerson is internationally known for its study and internship programs in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., the Netherlands, London, China, and the Czech Republic. A new permanent facility on Sunset Boulevard is being constructed for its LA-based program, estimated to be completed by January 2014. The College has an active network of 32,000 alumni who hold leadership positions in communication and the arts. For more information, visit emerson.edu.