Loyola Marymount University has named five new members to its Board of Trustees, strengthening the board’s renown and advancing LMU as a leader in higher education.
“As we seek to create the world we want to live in, we require a quality of partnership commensurate with our academic rigor and bold aspirations,” said President Timothy Law Snyder, Ph.D. “Our new LMU trustees boast distinctive perspectives and a broad range of skills and leadership prowess that will serve us well in the years ahead. Their sterling dedication to our university community is, indeed, vital to our growth and exceptionally suited for our ambitions.”
The new trustees are: Alex Martin Chaves ’86, CEO of Parking Company of America; Brian S. Kabateck, LLS ’89, managing partner of Kabateck Brown Kellner LLP; Johnny Lopez, founding partner of Platinum Equity; Stephen A. Privett, S.J., president of Verbum Dei High School; and James Toth ’92, head of content acquisition and talent at Quibi. The trustees are serving three-year terms that began June 1, 2019.
Alex Martin Chaves is CEO of Parking Company of America, a privately held parking services company based in Los Angeles. Founded in 1964, PCA has almost 1,800 employees in California, Georgia, Kansas and Wisconsin. Chaves is a 1986 LMU graduate.
Chaves served on LMU’s Board of Trustees from 2009-18, and as a regent of the university from 2003-09. He is a current board member and president of LMU’s Latino Alumni Association, and serves on the advisory board of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles. In 2006, the university honored him with its Distinguished Alumni Award.
Brian S. Kabateck is the founding and managing partner of Kabateck LLP, a nationally renowned plaintiff’s law firm based in Los Angeles. With a focus on consumer rights, his legal team represented the NAACP in a lawsuit alleging discriminatory lending practices by major banks; the legal action ultimately resulted in the development of programs to improve access to lending in underserved communities.
He appears frequently in the media as a legal analyst. A 1989 LMU Loyola Law School graduate, Kabateck is the immediate past president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He has also held leadership roles with the National Trial Lawyers Association, State Bar of California, Consumer Attorneys of California, and served on LMU Loyola Law School’s board of directors.
Johnny Lopez is a founding partner of the global investment firm Platinum Equity, which specializes in mergers, acquisitions and operations of companies in a broad range of business markets. He helped to develop Platinum’s trademark M&A&O strategy and continues to work with Platinum executives to ensure its successful execution.
A member of Platinum’s Investment Committee, Lopez led Platinum’s efforts in 2014 to acquire a 70% stake in Sensis – Australia’s leading print and online directory and digital advertising services provider – marking the firm’s first Australian acquisition.
Stephen A. Privett, S.J., was named president of Verbum Dei High School in 2018. He also served for 14 years as president of the University of San Francisco, as an instructor and principal at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, and as professor and provost at Santa Clara University.
Father Privett joined the Society of Jesus in 1960 and was ordained as a priest in 1972. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Gonzaga University, a Master in Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, and a doctorate in catechetics from the Catholic University of America.
James Toth, a 1992 LMU graduate, is head of content acquisition and talent at Quibi, a short-form video entertainment platform launching in April 2020. He was previously a partner at Creative Artists Agency, representing a distinguished roster of talent including Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson, Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.
Toth also serves on the board of trustees at Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, and the boards of directors of the Just Keep Livin Foundation and Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA). He has served on the LMU School of Film and Television’s advisory council.
