FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 25, 2000 CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119 DRAKE BOARD OF GOVERNORS ELECTS 3 NEW MEMBERS Drake University's Board of Governors recently elected three new members: Patricia Hines Cownie, a community volunteer in Des Moines; Paul D. Seyb, president of Paul Seyb and Associates Inc. of Eden Prairie, Minn., and former Des Moines businessman David N. Walthall, principal of Walthall Asset Management Corp. in Dallas. All three new members will serve three-year terms on the Board of Governors, which meets four times yearly and serves as the University's policy-making and governing body. Cownie will serve on the board's Academic Affairs Committee and Student Life Committee. Seyb has been appointed to the board's Enrollment Committee and Student Life Committee. Walthall has joined the board's Institutional Advancement Committee. Although Cownie is a graduate of the University of Iowa, she has many family ties to Drake. Her father, a physician, took classes at Drake, and her mother, brother and sister are Drake graduates. In addition, three of her children have attended Drake and her daughter-in-law is completing her third year of study at Drake Law School. Cownie is active in numerous community organizations. She serves on the Civic Center of Des Moines Board of Trustees and Officers as well as the Des Moines Arts Festival Board of Directors and the Des Moines Metro Opera Board of Directors. She also is a member of the Mercy Medical Center Foundation Board and St. Augustin's Foundation Board. Seyb received his bachelor's degree in retailing from Drake in 1966. For most of his career, he has been in the brokerage business as a manufacturer's representative. He specializes in developing programs for retail operations, such as Target Stores, in conjunction with manufacturers throughout the United States, Asia and Europe. Seyb is a board member and past president of the Twin City Toy Association and treasurer of the advisory board of the Salvation Army of Minneapolis. At Drake, he has served as chair of the Drake National Alumni Association and an ex officio member of the University's Board of Governors. He also chaired the Presidents Circle Council of the Francis Marion Drake Society, Drake's premier gift club. In addition, he has been active in student-recruitment efforts and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Drake alumni chapter. Walthall, a former Des Moines banker and cable TV executive, holds a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Kansas and an MBA from Drake. In the 1970s and 1980s, he worked for the former Iowa Des Moines National Bank (now Norwest Bank Iowa), the former Hawkeye Bancorporation (now Mercantile Bancorporation) and the former Heritage Communications Corp. (now AT&T Cable Services). In 1987, Walthall moved to Dallas as a co-founder of Heritage Media Corp., a New York Stock Exchange-listed broadcasting and marketing services firm. He was chief executive officer of Heritage when it was sold to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Ltd. in 1997. He then became president and chief executive officer of Lyrick Corp., the parent of Lyrick Studios, which produces and distributes "Barney and Friends" and "Wishbone" for PBS. He left Lyrick in 1999 to establish his own investment firm.