Feature Stories

Joseph “Joe” Deitch is founder and chairman of Commonwealth Financial Network. He is also chairman of Southworth Development, a leader in the golf and residential resort and real estate business. He has also dabbled as a Broadway producer. Serving as principal of Full House Productions, Joe co-produced nine Broadway productions from 2009 to 2012, including The Addams Family, A View from the Bridge, and Fela. He won a Tony award as co-producer for The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

Philanthropy plays an increasingly large role in Joe’s life. In addition to founding the Deitch Leadership Institute at Boston Latin, the oldest public school in the United States, his other charitable endeavors include Commonwealth Cares, the philanthropic arm of Commonwealth Financial, Foundation for an American Vision, a private foundation created in partnership with his late wife and UM alumna Robbie Lacritz, A.B. ’70, and the Tao Jones Foundation based in Miami Beach.

Bob and Judi Newman are generous supporters of the Frost School of Music and the Frost Band of the Hour at the University of Miami, and the University of Miami School of Business Administration. Their gift made the new Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center at the University of Miami possible. They are also naming donors of the Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Box Office at the Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Adrienne Arsht Center, the Robert and Judi Newman Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Denver, and the Robert and Judi Newman Center for Theatre Education at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Bob Newman is the founder of Greenwood Gulch Ventures in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado, which provides financial and strategic support to technology companies. He also is co-founder and former director of the software company J.D. Edwards (now Oracle). Bob is on the Board of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and the Denver Art Museum as well as an Emeritus Trustee for the University of Denver.

Judi Newman is president of the Newman Family Foundation in Denver, Colorado. She worked for United Airlines in the Computer Technology, Airline Maintenance, and Apollo Reservation Divisions. She has served on the boards of the Colorado Symphony Association, the Lutheran Family Services, the Art and Culture Committee of the Denver Foundation, the University of Denver Campaign for Music and Theater, and YoungArts Miami. Judi is a trustee of the Denver Botanical Gardens and the University of Miami and serves on the Frost School of Music Advisory Board.