Jeremy Thurston appointed Board of Trustees Chair

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Jeremy Thurston appointed Board of Trustees Chair

Thurston is president of Hayner Hoyt Corporation, a Syracuse, NY-based commercial construction company serving healthcare, higher education, hospitality, entertainment, advanced manufacturing, and other markets.

The Utica University Board of Trustees formally appointed Jeremy Thurston ’00 as the new Board chair during its meeting on May 12. He began a three-year term effective June 1, 2023. Thurston succeeds Bob Brvenik ’77, who completed a four-year term as chair.

The Board also welcomed a new trustee, Christopher Crolius ’80. Crolius, a graduate of the construction management program, is founding principal of MARCH Associates Architects and Planners in Utica. He, too, will serve a three-year term.

Like Crolius, he earned his construction management degree at Utica and has been a stalwart champion and benefactor of the program – as well as the University at large – since his graduation. Most recently, he helped establish The Hayner Hoyt Corporation Construction Management Scholarship, which provides $5,000 annually to a Construction Management student, with preference given to female students and those from historically under-represented communities. He also provided leadership financial support to the Jeremy C. Thurston ’00 Center for Career Readiness and the Thurston Hall construction management building, dedicated in honor of his father and the project’s principal donor, Gary ’68.

Thurston joined the Board in 2014, after serving on the alumni advisory board that guided the reestablishment of the construction management program after the major had been discontinued in the late 1990s.

“I had kind of a different path,” Thurston says, describing his journey from the classroom to the boardroom.

“I transferred to Utica when I changed my major from business to construction management, and soon after I transferred in, it was announced that the construction management major was being eliminated. My relationship with the University deepened in the early 2000s when I was approached about championing the restart and the new foundation for the program.

“I really appreciated the opportunity that experience gave me to renew my relationship with the University,” he continues. “I’ve always believed in giving back and trying to support organizations that I believe in. When I was asked to consider the chair position, it wasn’t something I ever thought would happen. My colleagues on the Board having the confidence in me that I would be a good candidate to take on a greater responsibility for the University was an honor and something I don’t take lightly. Honestly, I was a little apprehensive at first, but this is an opportunity I feel really good about, and I very much look forward to working with President Pfannestiel, his administration, and the faculty in moving the University forward.”