Bernstein brings both entrepreneurial and community service experience to the board of trustees. He also has a long history of service to the College, including time as class president. "I have been very active in education and in Amherst-related activities for a long time," he said. "However, I can't imagine any experience that will prove more interesting and rewarding than serving on the Amherst board of trustees."
President Anthony Marx said he is looking forward to working with Bernstein. "I'm delighted to have Alan as a trustee and he's been working at learning more about the institution and talking to lots of folks," said Marx. "He is another addition to what I think is the most responsible board of trustees that I know of in higher education." Marx noted that once alumni trustees are elected, there is no distinction on the board between them and the 14 term trustees who also serve-all are focused on their responsibility to the institution.
When Bernstein's name was not placed on the ballot by the alumni trustee nomination committee, he decided to initiate his candidacy himself. "The election process … provides that alumni may place an additional name on the ballot provided such nominee obtains executed nomination forms representing at least one percent, about 190, of the outstanding alumni," said Bernstein. "I became a candidate through this write-in process."
After gaining the required number of votes to add his name to the trustee ballot, Bernstein traveled to the College to meet with members of the administration, faculty and student body to update himself on the current state of the College to prepare for writing his personal statement for candidacy, which all four candidates was required to submit.
Bernstein chose to focus on the themes of admission, curriculum, technology and facilities in his statement. "While there is much to applaud in Amherst's recent history, our College faces many challenges ahead," he wrote in his statement. "We must chart a course that enables Amherst to stay on top in the rapidly changing, competitive world of higher education."
Bernstein graduated from the College with a B.A. cum laude in economics and received an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1966. He then travelled to Peru to work for an investment firm. While in Peru, he met his wife, Jayusia Perelman. In 1993, he and his wife launched Stratigraphic Asset Management, Inc., an investment advisory business in Coral Gables, Fla.