Monticello Announces New Board Members and Leadership

Media Contact: J.A. Lyon, Director of Marketing & Communications, jlyon@monticello.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - January 31, 2025

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the private, nonprofit organization that owns and operates Monticello, announced new leadership for its Board of Trustees as of January 2025. Molly Hardie was named chair of the board, and Michelynn Woodard as vice chair. Monticello also welcomed five new trustees from across the nation: Peter M. Grant II of Charlottesville, Virginia; Duane Hughes of Weehawken, New Jersey; Louise McNamee of Charlottesville, Virginia; Michael Silverman of Dallas, Texas; and Sylvia Yount of New York, New York.

“With our new chair and vice chair and the addition of these exemplary trustees, Monticello continues its tradition of thoughtful and visionary board leadership,” said Dr. Jane Kamensky, president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. “They bring decades of investment, marketing, and museum expertise to our board. I look forward to working alongside them to advance Monticello’s mission as we prepare for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.”

Molly Hardie begins her tenure as board chair after two years as vice chair. She follows outgoing chair and tech pioneer Tobias Dengel, who served in the role from 2023 – 2024. She became a trustee in 2017.

Ms. Hardie is a successful businesswoman and entrepreneur. She is co-chairman of H7 Holdings, LLC, a private family investment company that takes significant positions in various asset classes with her husband, Robert. She is actively involved in a variety of investments, most notably H7’s ownership of Keswick Hall and Golf Club in Keswick, Virginia, and The Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. Molly and Robert Hardie's work restoring those properties was recently recognized with a Historic Hotels of America® Lifetime Achievement Award. Ms. Hardie also oversees H7’s ownership of Clover Hill, LLC, a working cattle farm in Keswick, Virginia. 

Since 2001, Ms. Hardie has served on several boards, including the University of Virginia Health Foundation Board and the Virginia Discovery Museum Board. She was an active member of the Young Families Committee for the Children’s Medical Center and the Children’s Medical Center/Children’s Hospital Committee at the University of Virginia and participated in the long effort to plan and build the Battle Building at UVA Children’s Hospital. In addition to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Board of Trustees, she also serves on the boards of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture and Peabody School. 

A graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia Medical School, Ms. Hardie focuses on her partnership responsibilities, civic life, and her family. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband and five sons.

Michelynn “Miki” Woodard joined the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Board of Trustees in 2022. She is a highly respected philanthropist and social impact entrepreneur. Most recently she served as president and CEO of Texas Women’s Foundation. As leader of one of the largest women’s funds in the world, she spearheaded efforts to raise funds for research, advocacy, and grantmaking on behalf of Texas women and girls. The Texas Women’s Foundation’s assets of over $40 million are invested in its innovative 100% mission-aligned gendered portfolio.

Ms. Woodard previously held executive positions at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Be the Change, Inc., and The Artemis Agency, and was Vice President, Philanthropy at JCPenney, managing a $30 million global corporate giving portfolio. She was president and CEO of charitable foundations for Dr. Phil, Senior Advisor of the Katie McGrath and J.J. Abrams Family Foundation, and Head of Social Impact, Diversity, and Inclusion for Bad Robot Productions, Inc.

Ms. Woodard serves on the board of the Community Coalition in Los Angeles, California. She is a founding board member of The Papa John’s Foundation and sits on the Trust for Public Land (TPL) Black History and Culture Advisory Board. Ms. Woodard is a proud fourth-generation graduate of Hampton University.

Peter M. Grant II has over 35 years of experience in private equity investing, investment banking, and capital markets transactions and is a founding partner of Anchormarck Holdings, LLC. Prior to forming Anchormarck, Mr. Grant was a founding partner of Stone Arch Capital, LLC in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He also served as U.S. Chairman of RBC Capital Markets, as president and COO of Dain Rauscher Wessels (DRW), and on the executive and operating committees of both firms.

Mr. Grant has been a member of the New York Stock Exchange, served on the management committee of Royal Bank Capital Partners, and was the managing partner of DRW Venture Partners, LLC. In addition, he served on the Board of Directors of Tamir Fishman & Company (the largest investment bank in Israel) and the Advisory Board of Tamir Fishman Ventures. Prior to RBC Capital Markets and Dain Rauscher Wessels, he had a distinguished career as managing director in the equity capital markets divisions of Credit Suisse First Boston and Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) in New York.

Mr. Grant is a past chair of the Board of Managers of the Alumni Association of the University of Virginia, where he also served on the College Foundation Board, and the board of the Jefferson Scholars Foundation. He currently serves as chair of the University’s Licensing and Ventures Group and on the Board of Trustees of the Darden Foundation. Mr. Grant also serves as volunteer chair for the University’s Honor the Future capital campaign. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Grant is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s College of Arts & Sciences and of the University’s Darden Graduate School of Business. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his wife, Colleen.

Duane Hughes serves as chair of the UBS Americas Advisory Council, leading an interdisciplinary team that brings money-can’t-buy liberal arts experiences to clients and colleagues. The Council includes three retired legends in their field: a men's college basketball coach, a college president, and a 4-star Admiral/Chief of Naval Operations. 

With over three decades of global financial services experience, Mr. Hughes has held key leadership positions, including Senior Finance and Business Manager at JPMorgan's Latin America Private Bank and COO of Morgan Stanley's international Wealth Management business. His expertise spans strategy, finance, and risk management, complemented by professional fluency in Portuguese and Spanish.

Mr. Hughes’ thought leadership includes his TedX Talk, "Check Your Preference and Improve Your Results," and recent publications on workforce diversity, governance, and risk management. His corporate governance experience extends to several prestigious boards, including The Thirty West Forty-Fourth Street Foundation (Penn Club Board Secretary), and the Lauder Institute Advisory Council of the Wharton Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Hughes holds JD, MBA, and MA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA degree summa cum laude from Howard University. His career began at Wall Street law firms Shearman & Sterling and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. He resides in New Jersey with his wife and dedicates his free time to mentoring young professionals, including his three adult children. Mr. Hughes is the first descendant of Monticello’s enslaved community to serve on the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Board of Trustees.

Louise McNamee is the former president and partner of MVBMS Euro RSCG, a $1-billion-plus advertising agency based in New York City. Ms. McNamee's career expertise is in strategic planning, brand development, and consumer communications. Among her agency's clients were Nestle, Evian, JP Morgan Chase, and Schering-Plough. She has been a frequent speaker at marketing conferences and was recognized for her work and named "A Leader and Legend" by Advertising Age magazine and "Advertising Woman of the Year" by the Advertising Women of New York. She retired in 2005 after a 30-year career in advertising and marketing.

Ms. McNamee is an emerita trustee and a past chair of the board of Mary Baldwin University and a former trustee of the Museum of the City of New York. She is a past chair and an emerita trustee of The Women’s Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to providing mental health services to women regardless of their ability to pay. She is Public Director of the University Physicians Group of UVA Health and chairs its Compensation Committee.  

Ms. McNamee and her husband, Peter McHugh, live in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Mike Silverman is Executive Managing Director at Cresset Capital. In this role, he works with clients to identify their personal and financial aspirations, delivering personalized, strategic solutions that address their complex and evolving needs. As part of Cresset’s Investment Committee, Mr. Silverman works with the investment team to source and underwrite new alternative investments for the Cresset platform.

In 2024, Cresset acquired CH Investment Partners, where Mr. Silverman served as co-president and CIO, growing the firm to over $6B in AUM from 2012-2024. As CIO of the firm, Mr. Silverman led the Investment Strategy team, overseeing investment research, asset allocation, and risk management. Previously, he was employed by Crow Holdings-affiliated entities. Mr. Silverman assisted in the transition of Wyndham International from a privately held enterprise controlled by Crow Holdings to a publicly traded company. As vice president of finance, he was responsible for bank and investor relations, corporate finance related to mergers and acquisitions, and various other finance and capital raising activities.

Mr. Silverman is a member of the Board of Directors for the Children’s Health System of Texas. He chairs its Investment Committee and is also a member of the Quality, Credentials, and Appointments Committee. Additionally, Mr. Silverman serves as a trustee for the endowment funds of the Notre Dame School of Dallas. He earned a Bachelor of Science in economics from Southern Methodist University.

Dr. Sylvia Yount is the Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In her role, Dr. Yount is responsible for the administrative and curatorial oversight of the department of historical “decorative” and “fine” arts by a wide range of African American, Asian American, European American, Latin American, and Native American makers, from the Colonial Period to the mid-twentieth century, with some contemporary expressions.

Before moving to The Met, Dr. Yount served as Chief Curator and the Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Curator of American Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Margaret and Terry Stent Curator of American Art and department head at the High Museum of Art.

Dr. Yount began her curatorial career at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, America’s oldest art school and museum. In addition to strategically expanding holdings and completing pivotal collection reinstallations at her former institutions, she has organized major exhibitions, with accompanying publications, on American modernism, Maxfield Parrish, Cecilia Beaux, Native American art, Jacob Lawrence, and Winslow Homer, among other topics focused on women and artists of color in regional and national contexts. She recently co-curated the critically acclaimed Mary Sully: Native Modern, with Patricia Marroquin Norby, as well as New York Art Worlds, 1870-1890, with Thayer Tolles, and conceived and directed the American Wing’s centennial reinstallation, The American Wing at 100. Dr. Yount continues to lecture and publish widely on American art and culture as well as on issues of curatorial responsibility and museum practice.

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About The Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation was incorporated in 1923 to preserve Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Today, the foundation seeks to bring history forward into national and global dialogues by engaging audiences with Jefferson’s world and ideas and inviting them to experience the power of place at Monticello and on its website. Monticello is recognized as a National Historic Landmark, a United Nations World Heritage Site, and a Site of Conscience. As a private, nonprofit organization, the foundation’s regular operating budget does not receive ongoing government support to fund its twofold mission of preservation and education. For information, visit monticello.org.