Keene – Monadnock United Way recently added Rob Harris of Marlborough and John Round of Keene to their Board of Directors.

Harris grew up in Ohio and graduated from The Ohio State University with a BSChE degree in Chemical Engineering. He worked for Esso Research and Engineering Company (Now Exxon Mobile) in New York City for several years and later received his MSChE and PhD in Chemical Engineering. Harris then moved to St. Louis and worked for Monsanto Company in their New Enterprise Division where he was responsible for commercializing Monsanto technology by starting-up new venture companies. In 1973 he joined The Standard Oil Company in Cleveland where he was a lead engineer and one of the project manager’s for the design and operation of the Trans Alyeska Pipeline. In 1988 he received a MBA from Case Western Reserve University. He founded several “start-up” companies which he later sold to accept a position as Vice President and General Manager of a business unit for AT&T International. After leaving AT&T in 1997, Harris joined Case Western Reserve University as a Professor with a joint appointment in the Business School and the Engineering School. In 2008, he and his wife, a defense civil litigation trial attorney, retired and moved to the Monadnock Region.

Harris enjoys teaching, cooking (he attended ICASI Culinary Institute in Cleveland), anything having to do with the outdoors and giving back to the community. He currently serves on the Marlborough, NH, Zoning Board, The Colonial Theatre Board, where he is Vice Chairman, and he is also teaching in the Cheshire Academy for Lifelong learning at Keene State College.

Round, a graduate of Dartmouth College, joined IPG Employee Benefits in January of 1996. He now serves as Vice President of Administration. He is a member of the Employer’s Council on Flexible Compensation and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. Round earned his Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS) designation in 1999. He maintains memberships in the International Society of Certified Employee Benefits Specialists, its Greater Boston Chapter, and the Society for Human Resource Management.

Outside of work, Round currently serves as the Chairman of the Board for The Colonial Theatre Group. He is also on the Monadnock Region Board of Advisors for the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and chairs the Foundation’s Statewide Fiscal Policy Committee. Previously, he has served as Chair of the Board of Directors of both the Trustees of Trust Funds for the City of Keene and the Monadnock Waldorf School and is a 2006 graduate of Leadership New Hampshire. He has served the Monadnock United Way most recently as a three-year member of the Allocations Committee.

Round and his family reside in Keene.

About Monadnock United Way
Founded in 1952, Monadnock United Way is a volunteer organization dedicated to increasing the organized capacity of people to care for one another. Empowering individuals and building communities is what we do. We evaluate, allocate, cultivate, and generate resources to invest in the region’s future. Monadnock United Way serves 36 towns in all of Cheshire and Western Hillsborough counties. For more information on volunteering and how to make a donation, please call 603-352-4209; visit our web site at www.muw.org. You can also “like us” on Facebook.