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Washington and Lee University Elects Three New Members to Board of Trustees

Washington and Lee University’s Board of Trustees has elected three alumni as new members. They are John Baker Gentry Jr. of Fort Worth, Texas; Robert E. Sadler Jr. of Buffalo, N.Y., and William M. Webster IV of Spartanburg, S.C.

John Baker Gentry Jr., of Fort Worth, Texas, is the CFO of HBK Capital Management, a Dallas hedge fund. A C.P.A., he practiced public accounting with Dudley, Ruland and Chateau from 1988 to 1991. He received an M.B.A. in 1993 from the University of Texas, where he was a Sord Scholar. Gentry joined HBK in 1993. From 1997 to 2004, he headed the firm’s London office and was responsible for convertible bond arbitrage and distressed debt investments in Europe and Asia.

Gentry has served on W&L’s Williams School Board of Advisors since 2006 and as co-chairman of his 20th reunion. A member of the W&L class of 1988, Gentry has a B.S. in commerce, cum laude, with a concentration in accounting. He served in the Army Reserve and the National Guard as a captain.

Robert E. Sadler Jr., of Buffalo, N.Y., is vice chairman of M&T Bank Corp. and its principal subsidiary, M&T Bank. From 1970 to 1983, he was associated with Chemical Bank, holding several key national and international positions in New York and London. He joined M&T in 1983 as executive vice president for commercial banking. He was president of M&T from 1996 to 2007 and CEO from 2005 to 2007. Sadler serves on the board of Delaware North Companies Inc., Gibraltar Industries and Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York.

Sadler earned a B.A. from W&L in 1967 and an M.B.A. from Emory University in 1970.

William M. Webster IV, of Spartanburg, S.C., is the co-founder and vice chairman of the board of Advance America, Cash Advance Centers Inc., the largest payday-advance lender in the United States. He is the past president and a founding board member of the Community Financial Services Association (CFSA), the national trade association for payday advance lenders.

Before founding Advance America in 1997, Webster belonged to the (George H.W.) Bush-Clinton transition team and subsequently served the Clinton Administration in various capacities, including chief of staff to Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley and assistant to the president and director of scheduling and advance in the White House.

Webster is a Fulbright Scholar and a 1979 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of W&L, where he earned a B.A. in English and German. He holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia.