Lafayette College welcomes new trustee, honors those retiring

Chip Bergh ’79 H’22

Alumnus Chip Bergh ’79 H’22, retired president and chief executive officer of Levi Strauss & Co., recently joined Lafayette College’s Board of Trustees and will serve a five-year term, which became effective July 1. 

After graduating from Lafayette College and serving for four years in the U.S. Army, New York-born Bergh began his career in brand management by taking a position with Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 1983. During his 28-year career with the company, Bergh served in a number of leadership positions with increasing levels of complexity and scope. His last assignment before joining Levi Strauss & Co. was group president for global male grooming. He was the first P&G employee assigned to the Gillette business following P&G’s $57 billion acquisition of Gillette in 2005. He led the integration and then ran the Gillette Blades & Razors business along with all of P&G’s male grooming brands (Gillette, Old Spice, and The Art of Shaving). Prior to that, Bergh led all of P&G’s business in India, Southeast Asia, and Australia. 

Bergh has led many iconic brands during his career, including the creation and launch of the Swiffer (P&G’s most successful new brand in the last three decades), the turnaround and growth of Old Spice, in addition to Gillette, Folgers, and Jif peanut butter.

Following Bergh’s retirement from P&G, in 2011 he joined Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co) as CEO.  At that time, LS&Co was one of the world’s largest brand-name apparel companies and a global leader in jeanswear with more than $4 billion in sales annually and a presence in more than 110 countries. His leadership emphasized sustainability, as well as a greater appeal to the millennial and Gen-Z markets through collaborations with high-fashion brands. 

During Bergh’s tenure at LS&Co, the company experienced a dramatic turnaround marked by outstanding performance, purpose-driven leadership, and a return to the public markets with a successful IPO in March 2019. He also led the retailer’s acquisition of Beyond Yoga and its deeper expansion into women’s fashions. Bergh retired from LS&Co in April 2024, and will stay on as an adviser through the end of the company’s fiscal year (November 2024). 

Bergh joined the board of directors of HP Inc. (HPQ), the market-leading printing and personal systems company, in 2015 and was named lead director in 2016. In March 2017, Bergh became chair of the board. He also recently joined the board of directors of Pinterest (PINS) in May 2024. Bergh has previously served on the board of directors for VF Corp. (VFC) and the Economic Development Board of Singapore.  

In April 2019, Bergh was named one of the World’s Greatest Leaders by Fortune Magazine, coming in at No. 16, and has been widely recognized for his position on values-driven leadership.

Bergh earned a B.A. in international affairs at Lafayette, where he studied under Ilan Peleg, Charles A. Dana Professor of Government and Law, and Robert Weiner, Jones Professor of History. In 2017, Bergh returned to the College’s campus to deliver a lecture on leadership. In 2019, he generously provided a gift that helped establish the Bradbury Dyer III ’64 Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Bergh Startup Accelerator Program at the College, a 10-week program that provides students with the tools and resources they need to develop and launch their startup ventures. Initiating an opportunity for students unlike any other in the College’s history, Bergh and his wife, Juliet, donated $5.25 million to Lafayette in 2022 to establish the Bergh Family Fellows program, which supports the internships, global engagement, and research experiences of 200 students per year across five years. By 2026, the program will have provided $5,000 individual fellowships to a total of 1,000 students.

In addition, two trustees retired from the board effective June 30:

David Roth ’70, senior managing director of SouthOcean Capital Partners, joined the Lafayette College Board of Trustees in 1994. Over the course of 30 years, Roth served on numerous committees—having served as vice chair on the Committee on Audit and the Committee on Educational Policy, and as a member of the Trustee Educational Policy, Trustee Audit, Trustee Financial Policy, Campaign Executive, and Trustee committees. In 2007, Roth and his wife, Linda, established the David M. ’70 and Linda Roth Professorship Fund, which created three professorships for Lafayette faculty who are exceptional teachers, successfully mentor students (by directing activities such as independent study and EXCEL Scholar projects), and are recognized as leading scholars in their fields. The Roths also established the David M. Roth 1970 Scholarship Fund, which provides funding to students on both a “need” and “non-need” basis. 

Lauren Steinitz ’08, wellness coach and yoga instructor, joined the Lafayette College Board of Trustees in 2019, where she served as a member of the Committee on Financial Policy and the Committee on Student Life. She was elected to the board after having served as an inaugural trustee associate from 2015 to 2018. The Trustee Associate position represents alumni who have graduated from the College within a 10-year timeframe. While Trustee Associates are typically appointed to two-year terms, Steinitz’s term was extended by one year. Steinitz formerly worked as a senior manager and management consultant at Accenture, one of the world’s largest consulting firms. Prior to joining Accenture in 2012, Steinitz worked for five years as a consultant with IBM in Philadelphia. She was one of the youngest alumni to join the West Coast Advisory Council, and she has had a keen interest in establishing a West Coast presence at Lafayette as well as strengthening the Lafayette brand on the West Coast.

Learn about new officers of Lafayette College’s Board of Trustees.