Deborah L. Duncan Named Chair of Smith College Board of Trustees

The Smith College Board of Trustees recently elected Deborah L. Duncan, a member of the class of 1977, as the next chair of the board. She will serve a three-year term beginning July 1.

Duncan succeeds Elizabeth Mugar Eveillard, class of 1969.

Named to the board in 2009, Duncan has chaired its finance and academic affairs committees. She is also a senior advisor and member of the Board of Advisors of Fremont Group, a San Francisco private investment company. Formerly, Duncan was executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Fremont Group. Prior to that, she spent 21 years with the Chase Manhattan Bank (now J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.). In her final position at Chase, she led the global asset management business and was a member of the management committee.  

In addition to her leadership role at Smith, Duncan is a director of the Guardian Life Insurance Company and the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation. She previously served on a number of other nonprofit boards, including the New York University Stern School of Business, the YMCA of Greater New York, the United Way of Tri-State and the Ronald McDonald House in New York.

Duncan majored in economics at Smith. She received a master’s degree in accounting at New York University and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York. She and her husband, Barnett Lipton, live in Tiburon, Calif.

Founded in 1871, Smith College educates women of promise for lives of distinction. The largest women’s liberal arts college in the United States, Smith enrolls 2,600 students from nearly every state and 62 other countries.