The Free Library announced today that it has named two new members to the Library's Foundation Board of Directors, which is charged to expand, enhance, and support library services, collections, and activities, primarily through fundraising.

William R. Sasso, partner and firm chairman at Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP, brings to the library a breadth of professional and charitable expertise. In his 30-plus years of experience he has handled tax law and counseled privately and publicly held companies as well as religious and nonprofit organizations on corporate and securities law, mergers and acquisitions, health care, taxes, and real estate.

In his private life, Sasso has served as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Trustees of the Holy Redeemer Health System; board member for M.A. Bruder & Sons, Advanced Medical Inc., and Churchill Medical Systems Inc.; trustee for the Leo Niessen, Jr., Charitable Foundation and LaSalle University; and member and the chairman of the Board of Directors of the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. In addition, he has been finance chairman for the Republican State Committee, special counsel to the Montgomery County Higher Education and Health Authority, a member of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Economic Development Finance Authority (appointed by then Governor Tom Ridge), and member of the Children's Commission Advisory Committee (appointed by Mayor John Street). A former chairman of the Board of Manor Junior College, he is also a member of the Board and the Executive Committee of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Sasso received his J.D. from Harvard University Law School and his B.A. from LaSalle University.

Robert J. Hall was the publisher and chairman of Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. from 1990 until his retirement in 2003. In addition, he has served as chairman of Greater Philadelphia First and the Arts and Business Council, and has been on the boards of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, Children's Hospital, and Drexel University. He headed the early 1990s campaign to raise $10 million for the Freedom Theatre and chaired the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania's 2000 campaign. He is on the local Philadelphia Community Advisory Council of the Knight Foundation.

A native of Philadelphia, Hall has only spent five years elsewhere, when he worked for the Detroit Free Press. He began his career while an undergraduate at Drexel University, working in the Philadelphia offices of Ernst & Ernst (now Ernst and Young).

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