Laura Yerkovich ’80 arrived at Amherst as a member of the first co-ed first-year class. She went on to become a petroleum geologist, an investment banker and, later, a homemaker. In June the alumni body elected her to a six-year term on the college’s Board of Trustees.
Yerkovich, who lives in New York City, is an active volunteer for Amherst. She was co-chair of the Annual Fund and has served on such committees as the Trustee Nominating Committee and the Executive Committee of the Alumni Council. She received the college’s Distinguished Service Award as an individual in 1995 and as a member of her class 10 years later.
A geology major at Amherst, she worked in Texas, Colorado and Montana as a petroleum geologist. After receiving an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, she joined the Chase Manhattan Bank global energy group, where she provided financing and mergers and acquisitions advice to corporate clients. She later became a managing director in investment banking at Chase, leading a team that arranged financing for power plants, pipelines, refineries and Major League baseball parks.
Yerkovich left the corporate world in 1998 after the birth of her first child. With her family, she moved to Berkeley, Calif., where she was a full-time homemaker and a volunteer at her church and her children’s schools. She and her family
returned to New York City last year.
Yerkovich is one of six trustees elected by the alumni. The board chooses the other 14; the president is an ex officio member.