NEW YORK – Standard Motor Products (SMP) has appointed Joseph McDonnell and Alisa Norris as independent directors to the company’s board of directors, effective Oct. 9.
 
McDonnell and Norris will serve as members of the Audit Committee, Compensation and Management Development Committee, and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.
 
The additions of McDonnell and Norris fill one vacancy on the board due to the passing of director Robert Gerrity in July and increase the size of the board from nine to 10 directors.
 
McDonnell, 61, currently serves as the dean of the College of Management and Human Services at the University of Southern Maine, which includes the Schools of Business, Education, Social Work and Public Service, and was instrumental in launching its first PhD program in Public Policy and Educational Leadership. He previously served as the interim dean of the College of Business at Stony Brook University and was the president and CEO of the New York International Commerce Group Inc., which provides business services for companies doing business in China. McDonnell holds an Executive Program Certificate from Harvard Business School, a PhD in Communications from the University of Southern California, and an MA and BA from Stony Brook University.
 
Norris, 42, currently serves as the chief people officer and was a founding member of Opera Solutions LLC, one of the largest predictive analytics companies in the world. Norris has been a key member of Opera Solutions in developing its governance structure and growth strategy. She previously was a founder and senior vice president of Zeborg, a venture-backed procurement software solutions company, and served as a strategy consultant for AT Kearney and Mitchell Madison Group. Norris holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Trinity College, where she was Phi Beta Kappa.