Following a family tradition, Miniati devotes himself to the University of Rhode Island.
By Paula M. Bodah ’78Photos by Nora Lewis
For Peter Miniati III, the new president of the Alumni Association’s executive board, involvement in the University of Rhode Island is a family tradition. His dad, Peter Miniati Jr.; his uncle, Laurence Miniati; and his sister Mary Jean (class of ’83 and a varsity swimmer) all attended the University. When it was his turn to apply to college, he says, “My sister was already there, and she loved it so much, I decided that’s where I wanted to go, too.”
He graduated in 1985 with a B.S. in business administration. Now a vice president and trust officer at Washington Trust Company, Miniati and his wife, the former Sandra O’Brien, live in Barrington with their three children, ages 6, 7, and 9.
As a student, Miniati threw himself into campus life, becoming active in student government, joining Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and working in the freshman orientation program, where he met Sandra, also a 1985 graduate of the College of Business Administration. He maintained his ties with the University after graduation, and has long been a committed member of the executive board of the Alumni Association.
Pleased as he is with the new Alumni Center, Miniati is modest about his role in the project, giving the credit to past presidents Kathleen Goulding, Lincoln D. Almond, and Alan Wasserman and their work with Michele Nota, executive director of Alumni Relations, and Robert Beagle, vice president for University Advancement. “They did all the hard work,” he says. “I get to step into a beautiful new facility.”
Miniati has plenty of hard work ahead of him, too, spearheading the Alumni Association’s efforts to increase its 8,000-member base and building on the group’s many past successes. To meet the challenge of building membership, he says, “We plan to recruit over all class years. We use technology to reach out now. Through Web sites and emails we talk about the benefits of membership. We’d like all of our alumni to be dues-paying members.”
He’s especially proud of the association’s work with students. “We leverage the skills of our alumni, from a mentoring and job placement standpoint,” he says. “We have a broad range of skills in many fields among our alums to draw on.”
The Ram Fund, a program in which business students manage the Alumni Association’s investments is, he says, a prime example of bringing students and alumni together to everyone’s benefit. “Students are taught to invest using real money. We have alums who are in senior positions on Wall Street and in investment firms, and we’ve brought them together with the students. The success has been tremendous.”
Miniati would like to see more programs of this nature. “Building on the types of success of the Ram Fund and leveraging the strengths of our alumni—that’s really the theme I think we want to repeat,” he says. “That really does tie to the mission of the University. Our alumni have a lot of pride in what they do, and they enjoy sharing their success.”
Paula Bodah is the former editor of Rhode Island Monthly.
