Related articles:

Napolitano names former senator, private investor to board of regents

Other articles by Howard Fischer:

AZ might get $210M a year from traffic eyes Playground-injury suit tossed Court: Conspiracy charges for smuggled entrants OK Payments to firm hired for photo traffic tickets will rise if more pay up Napolitano again opposes legislators' raise Goddard bars use of House surplus for school vouchers Gov. gets nationwide Obama role ACLU revises suit against Arpaio TGI Thursday?: State mulls four-day workweek Small-biz owners like Goddard in '10 governor's election

Driver/Transportation
Best Paving
Haul Truck Drivers General
CENTURION GROUP
JANITORS Driver/Transportation
CPC Southwest Materials
Drivers Trades/Construction
ARS Service Express
Plumbers General
SMALL WORLD
Assistant Director & Teachers Administrative & Professional
Tucson Symphony
House Manager Administrative & Professional
Pinal County
Director I - Network Development

PHOENIX — A former U.S. senator and a private equity investor with a background in home building are the newest members of the state Board of Regents.

Gov. Janet Napolitano on Monday named Dennis DeConcini and Anne Mariucci to serve on the board, which oversees the operations of the state's three universities. Their appointments are subject to Senate confirmation.

They replace two former state legislators, Jack Jewett from Tucson and Chris Herstam of Phoenix, both Republicans.

DeConcini is originally from Tucson and Mariucci is from Phoenix. Both are graduates of the University of Arizona.

The move to the regents is a big change for DeConcini, who, after leaving the Senate in 1995, became a lobbyist in Washington. More recently, DeConcini said, he has been splitting his time between Tucson and La Jolla, Calif.

DeConcini said he needs to become re-educated on higher-education issues.

"I used to be very close to the universities," he said. "I was able to secure them millions of dollars when I was in the Senate."

The appointments come as the three universities are again talking about increasing tuition. DeConcini said he will work to help get more support — including financial — for the schools.

"I believe the universities . . . are truly the economic driving force for benefits and technology for Arizona, which is where I believe the state should continue to go down that path," he said. DeConcini said that includes not only more money from the state but also more private funding.

Prior to entering the Senate, DeConcini was Pima's county attorney.

Mariucci, who grew up in Nebraska, is a certified public accountant who worked for KPMG and American Continental Corp. before going to the Del Webb Corp., where she was executive vice president in charge of the company's Arizona operations.

After a merger in 2001 with Pulte Homes, she became group president of Webb operations, remaining there until 2003.

Last year, she and Kathy Munro, a former top executive at Bank of America, bought a 25 percent interest in the Phoenix Mercury women's basketball team. That deal, however, lasted less than a year, when the Phoenix Suns bought back the share.

Mariucci is no stranger to Napolitano, having served on the governor's Citizens Finance Review Commission, which looked at possible changes to the state tax structure.