Benedum Foundation Names Tom Heywood Board Chair

June 28, 2023

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (June 28, 2023) – The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation welcomes its newest Board Chair, Mr. Thomas A. Heywood. Effective June 13, 2023, Mr. Heywood will lead the Foundation’s nine-member Board of Trustees succeeding Mr. Lloyd G. Jackson, II who masterfully chaired the Benedum Board for the full allowable term of ten years. 

Mr. Heywood has been a Trustee of the Foundation since March 2012 and is a leading attorney in West Virginia with Bowles Rice, a regional law firm, where his expertise spans health care, banking, and corporate/commercial law. In addition to being an immediate past Managing Partner of Bowles Rice, Mr. Heywood is a former Chief of Staff and Counsel to West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton. He works closely and regularly with businesses, educational institutions, community leaders, and elected officials across the region, and is the recipient of numerous awards for his public service and leadership on civic boards and initiatives. 

Benedum Foundation President Jen Giovannitti said, “Mr. Heywood was unanimously elected by his peers to serve as the Benedum Foundation’s incoming Board Chair,” adding, “the Foundation has an esteemed history of board leadership coming from West Virginia including two Governors, a U.S. Senator, a federal judge, two West Virginia state senators, four university presidents, and well‑known industry leaders.”

“I am humbled and honored to be elected chair of the Benedum Foundation,” said Mr. Heywood. “The Foundation has touched and improved lives in West Virginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania for almost 80 years, thanks to the generosity and vision of our benefactors and the talents, leadership, and hard work of the Board, management, and staff of the Foundation over the years. I look forward to building on the accomplishments of all who have come before, and seeing that the vision of Michael and Sarah Benedum continues to be realized in the years ahead.”

The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation was established in 1944 by Michael and Sarah Benedum, natives of West Virginia, as a memorial to their only child, Claude Worthington, who died in 1918 at the age of 20. The Foundation is a regional foundation focusing primarily on West Virginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania. For more information on the Foundation, please see https://benedum.org/.