Westmont Magazine Westmont Alumnus Brings Corporate, Non-Profit Expertise to Board

Westmont alumnus Rick Ifland ’83, a successful private equity investor and entrepreneur, has joined the college’s board of trustees. “I’m thrilled to help create an optimal environment where tomorrow’s leaders can learn deeply,” he says.

The unanimous approval of the college’s Master Plan, a $75 million gift and a new president have created one of the most exciting times in Westmont history, Ifland says. “Westmont has the opportunity to do something that Oxford, Harvard and Yale originally intended: integrating academic rigor with a deep Christian faith,” he says. “Each of those fine institutions attempted this and failed, and they chose academia over their Christian heritage. Westmont may be in the best position of any institution to demonstrate that deep faith and top scholarship are not mutually exclusive and can be married in an enormously positive way.”

An economics and business major, Ifland earned an M.B.A. from the University of Kentucky and founded ICS, one of the largest mortgage credit reporting companies in the country. He sold ICS to a Fortune 500 company in 1996 and now serves as the managing partner of Titus Equity Partners LLC.

Ifland also works with several non-profit companies. Through technology,World Wide Open links the resource-rich with resource-poor opportunities. Voice for Humanity uses audio devices to bring life-saving, life-changing information to oral learners and illiterate people in regions such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Sub-Saharan Africa.