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Mark Rioboli admits that when a longtime friend asked him to consider joining the OSB board, he was initially reluctant to add anything else to his plate. “I’d been on boards before and even chaired one,” he says. “I know how much work it is.”
The friend, Bruce Fenster was already a board member and the chair of the investment committee. He convinced Rioboli to tour OSB with him – during school hours. “I was so impressed. I decided right then to get involved,” Rioboli said. “I saw these amazing kids zipping up and down the hallways with their white canes. I don’t even think they saw themselves as having challenges.”
That was in 2019. Rioboli joined the board that same year, and he now chairs the investment committee. His more than thirty years in wealth management made him a natural fit for the position, and for a collaborative committee filled with similarly accomplished folks.
``There are no egos here,’’ he says. ``It’s all about these kids who have already overcome so much at a young age.”
It’s why OSB’s investment committee is unique, he says: Members actively manage the school’s endowment. “We are not simply relying on an advisor,” he says. “The committee’s decisions are made “Through the lens of how it will benefit the children.
``This is also for the students yet to come.”
It’s why the committee’s cohesiveness and stewardship of the school’s funds is so important, he says, especially during the worst economic downturns. It facilitates OSB’s dedication to the students and ability to serve them now, and in the future. “I’m proud to be a part of OSB because [it’s] on the cutting edge of so much, whether teaching, or the CVI [initiative],’’ says Rioboli. ``This is a premier organization.”
Rioboli and his wife Joan have been married for over thirty-two years and have two adult children. Professionally, he has served in a variety of leadership roles, most prominently as chair with the Philadelphia chapter of The Tri-State Financial Planning Association, a trade organization of roughly 600 members. A self -described avid learner who is perpetually curious, Rioboli is looking forward to serving under the board’s first blind president, Lyle Stine.
“What a tremendous learning opportunity for all of us,’’ he says.
Once hesitant to serve on the board, his commitment these days is long-term. A picture he once saw hung at the school, he says, has become a personal metaphor for that. A young girl, learning to cross a street with the guide of her white cane and of a teacher -- a scene of both trust and skill.
“That’s why I do this,” he says. “It’s an awesome responsibility that I’m happy to be a part of.”
