BAA Board Elects Tom Nesbitt ’94 President, Hires New CMO and Finance Manager

The Baylor Alumni Association (BAA) has elected Tom Nesbitt ’94, an Austin labor and employment law attorney, as its 2015-16 president, and re-elected James Nelson III ’04 and Emily George Tinsley ’61 as treasurer and secretary, respectively.

Nesbitt, who succeeds Tyler attorney Keith W. Starr ’83, said, “I am proud to serve an organization that has supported and connected Baylor alumni for 156 years and will continue to do so for many years to come.”

A native of Waco, Tom is listed in Best Lawyers in America, and Texas Monthly recognized him as a Super Lawyer in the practice of Labor & Employment law. Tom has a BA in English from Baylor, and earned his JD with honors from the University of Texas School of Law. He and his wife, Nancy Crosthwaite Nesbitt ’94, have two children.

Starr and Nesbitt told attendees of the BAA’s annual membership meeting on May 30 that the organization is defending itself in a lawsuit brought by the Baylor University administration.  “The Baylor Alumni Association did not seek this fight,” Nesbitt said.  “Nor do we shrink from it.  We stand in defense of principles that are important: to preserve an engaged, independent voice for alumni of this university and to insist on the very simple proposition that Baylor’s leaders honor their commitments.”

“The evidence so far supports our view that the Baylor Board of Regents set out to marginalize the BAA with no regard to or respect for long-standing agreements,” Starr said after the meeting.

The BAA also has hired Peter Osborne as its new chief marketing officer to replace Chief Operating Officer Chad Wooten ’03, who served the organization for nearly 10 years.  Osborne has been working with the BAA since September 2014 on a variety of communications, marketing, and social-media initiatives, including production of the Spring 2014 Baylor Line and launching of the twice-monthly Between the Lines e-newsletter.  Osborne has been a business journalist and spent nearly two decades in corporate communications, marketing, and education for MBNA America and Bank of America.  He spent a number of years with both companies as the executive in charge of collegiate affinity credit-card and banking programs, working with hundreds of alumni associations and universities across the country, including the University of Texas-Austin and Texas A&M.

In addition, the BAA has hired James McInnis as its new finance manager.  A CPA and Waco resident, McInnis joins the BAA with many years of experience in not-for-profit accounting and banking.

Osborne told the meeting attendees that the BAA is focusing on continuing to strengthen its website content and membership benefits; sharing news about Baylor and its alumni through a variety of print and online publications; broadening its distribution channels; raising scholarship money for the children and grandchildren of Baylor graduates, and connecting with young alumni despite the university’s efforts to make that difficult.