Two Join Seminary Board of Regents

The Most Reverend Jeffery Monforton, bishop of the Diocese of Steubenville, and Richard A. DiClaudio, chief executive officer and managing partner of Blue Tip Energy Management, LLC were recently named to the Saint Vincent Seminary Board of Regents. Saint Vincent Seminary is the fourth oldest Roman Catholic Seminary in the United States. It has its canonical foundation in the papal bull Inter ceteras (1855), issued by Pope Pius IX, but its actual origins go back to the vision of a single Benedictine monk from Bavaria, Boniface Wimmer (1809-1887) who founded Saint Vincent Archabbey, College, and Seminary in 1846. Since then nearly 2500 men have been ordained to the priesthood, and among our distinguished alumni are 30 bishops, archbishops, and cardinals.

Bishop Monforton was ordained and installed as the new bishop of the Diocese of Steubenville in September 2012. He succeeded Bishop R. Daniel Conlon, who was installed as bishop of the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois in July 2011.

Born May 5, 1963, in Detroit, he is the eldest of three sons of Marc Louis Monforton and Virginia Rose Ackerman Monforton.

He attended Tinkham Elementary School and John Marshall Junior High, Westland, Michigan, and graduated from Wayne Memorial High School, Wayne, Michigan After high school, he attended Wayne State University and then entered Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, from which he received a bachelor of arts in philosophy degree in 1989. While studying at the Pontifical North American College, Rome, he received a bachelor’s in sacred theology in 1992; and, then, he obtained a licentiate in sacred theology and was awarded a doctorate in sacred theology from Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Detroit, by Archbishop Adam Maida on June 25, 1994.

Following his ordination, he served in the Archdiocese of Detroit as associate pastor at the National Shrine of the Little Flower, Royal Oak, from 1994 to 1996, while also serving the faculty at the parish high school for two academic years in the department of religion. From 1998 to 2005, he served as the personal priest-secretary to Cardinal Maida. During that time, he was also a member of the Sacred Heart Major Seminary faculty and assisted weekends at Saint Paul on the Lake, Grosse Pointe Farms, and Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, Sterling Heights. In April 2005, he traveled with Cardinal Maida to the Vatican and remained there for the funeral Mass of Pope John Paul II, the conclave, and the election of Pope Benedict XVI. On July 1, 2005, he was named pastor of Saint Therese of Lisieux Church, Shelby Township, Mich., and that same year was named a monsignor by Pope Benedict. In addition, he was named as an apostolic visitor by the Congregation for Catholic Education to participate in the apostolic visitation of U.S. seminaries and houses of formation for the academic year 2005-2006.

On August 24, 2006, Cardinal Maida named him as the 12th rector of Sacred Heart Major Seminary. He was installed as the rector October 29, 2006, and concluded his six-year term as Sacred Heart’s rector May 5, 2012. Under Monsignor Monforton’s leadership, the seminarian population at Sacred Heart grew to the largest it had been in 38 years.
He concluded his six-year term as Sacred Heart’s rector in May 2012. He served as pastor of Saint Andrew Parish in Rochester, Michigan for only two months before being named as the fifth Bishop of Steubenville.

Since his appointment as Bishop of Steubenville Bishop Monforton has been appointed to the Board of Regents of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, in November 2012, and to the United States Conference of Bishops subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, also in November 2012.

Mr. DiClaudio has 30 years business management and leadership experience, the last 23 years in all phases of private equity investing, focused primarily in the energy industry. As Chief Executive Officer, his responsibilities include overseeing all phases of portfolio development and management, investor relations. He also helps directs the business development and finance/treasury functions at the Fund. Prior to co-founding Blue Tip Energy, he worked for 17 years for The Hillman Company, a high net-worth single family office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of the nation’s most active private-equity investors since the 1970s. During his last five years with that group, he was the senior officer and a board member of its diversified energy portfolio holding company.

Over the last 15 years, DiClaudio has managed 22 energy investments, achieving a strong track record of value creation in several strategies. He has extensive experience in energy investment and portfolio management, due diligence, business development, negotiating and structuring investment transactions, turn-around and work-out experience, operations management, and building successful operating groups.

He has served and currently serves on several boards and advisory boards, including Amylex Corporation, Applied Carbon Corporation, as president of Legatus, on the national board of Silver Ring Thing, as president of the Riverview School District, Oso Oil & Gas Properties, Inc., Freedom Energy, Inc., Production Access Corporation, Hillman Energy Group, Inc., Protechnics Corporation, Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation, Emerald Land Company, Broughton Operating Corporation, Duquesne University School of Business Management, and Amachi Pittsburgh.

He is a frequent guest lecturer, keynote speaker and panel member throughout the United States on private equity investing, energy investing and U.S. energy security, including lectures at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz Graduate School of Public Policy, Dow Jones Investor, National Private Equity Conferences, National Hedge Fund Conferences and others.

DiClaudio received a bachelor of science degree in finance and economics from Saint Vincent College and has earned 64 graduate credits in business studies at Duquesne University and Baldwin Wallace University. He has been married to Carole, a 1981 graduate of Seton Hill University, for 29 years, and they have two children. He is active in the Catholic Church and with several Catholic and Christian apostolates.

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