Meet ISI’s New President, Charlie Copeland
On November 1, 2016, Charlie Copeland succeeded Christopher Long as president of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. The Board of Trustees unanimously selected Charlie to be ISI’s new president.
Charlie Copeland is a business leader, political leader, and philanthropist. ISI Chairman of the Board Alfred S. Regnery said: “In both the private sector and public service, Charlie has established himself as a powerful and effective advocate for the principles at the heart of ISI’s mission. As secretary-treasurer and as a member of the Board’s Executive Committee for the past several years, he has been an important part of ISI’s leadership, working closely with Chris Long. Charlie is the ideal person to take the helm at ISI after Chris’s very successful tenure as president.”
Charlie Copeland is a prominent community leader in ISI’s home state of Delaware. With a BS and an MBA from Duke University, Charlie began his career with the DuPont Company before becoming president of Associates International Inc. in 1994. Over the past two decades he has grown the direct marketing company from a nine-person operation to an internationally recognized firm. From 2002 through 2008 he served as a Delaware state senator and senate minority leader, emerging as a leading voice for education reform, government accountability, and criminal justice reform. Charlie serves as board chair of the Longwood Foundation, which has made more than $2 billion in grants to nonprofits since Pierre S. du Pont founded it in 1937. He also serves as cofounder and president of the board of the Challenge Program, a nonprofit organization that trains at-risk youth in construction skills, and vice president of the board of the Mt. Cuba Center, which has protected more than 2,500 acres of open space in the Brandywine Valley.
Chris Long became president of ISI in April 2011. Chris had spent seven years running ISI’s educational programs before embarking on a very successful career in financial services, including as CEO of hedge fund adviser Endowment Capital Group LP and managing director of the global investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners.
“Chris has done an exceptional job leading ISI,” Regnery said. “During his five and a half years as president, he has made ISI’s educational programs more effective than ever. His financial leadership has been just as impressive. He enabled ISI to become debt-free for the first time in more than a decade, and this fiscal year ISI is off to one of the best starts in its history. In my decades involved with ISI, I have never seen the organization in a better position, programmatically or financially. The Board extends its deepest thanks for all that he and his team have accomplished.”
Chris Long commented: “I have loved my time at ISI, and it was not an easy decision to step aside from the presidency. But thanks to the incredible work of the ISI team and the support and encouragement of the Institute’s many friends, ISI is now on very strong footing. It is well positioned to educate and develop increasing numbers of outstanding student leaders.”
Long continued: “Recently I was presented with an exciting opportunity to return to the financial services field. I leave ISI knowing that the Institute will be in the very capable hands of Charlie Copeland, whom I have known for twenty years and with whom I have worked closely on the Board of Trustees for the past several years. I wholeheartedly endorse the Board’s decision to name Charlie the next president of ISI.”
Charlie Copeland said: “I am humbled by the Board’s offer to become the seventh president in ISI’s more than sixty-year history. From the days of its first president, William F. Buckley Jr., to its current president, my friend and colleague Chris Long, ISI has done indispensable work grounding future leaders in the principles that have made America free and prosperous. I am extremely excited by the opportunity to help build on the impressive work Chris and the whole ISI team are doing.”
Chris Long will continue to serve ISI as a trustee.
Please join the Board of Trustees in welcoming Charlie Copeland as president and thanking Chris Long for his exceptional service.