Five new members of the Second Quorum of the Seventy were sustained Saturday afternoon. They are Claudio Roberto Mendes Costa, Sao Paulo, Brazil; W. Don Ladd, Potomac, Md.; James O. Mason, Farmington, Utah; Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Darmstadt, Germany; and Lance B. Wickman, Poway, Calif.
Elder Costa, 45, is a native of Brazil. He studied marketing as a young man, but for the past 13 years has been director of the Church's Institute of Religion in Sao Paulo.He has served as a bishop, stake president's counselor, regional representative, and mission president. He and his wife, Margareth Ferandes Costa, have four children.
Elder Ladd, 60, has been vice president for government affairs for Marriott International, Inc., in Washington, D.C., for the past 14 years. He previously served 15 years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a variety of managerial positions, and has also been an administrative assistant to a U.S. congressman from Florida.
The San Mateo, Fla., native studied chemical engineering at the University of Florida and spent three years in the U.S. Army. He has served as a stake president, and as an adviser to the Church on international and governmental affairs.
He and his wife, Ruth Lynne Pearson Ladd, are the parents of four children.
Elder Mason, 63, recently retired from the U.S. Public Health Service, which he headed from 1989-1993, serving simultaneously as assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services.
He earlier was director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in Atlanta, Ga. Before that, he was executive director of the Utah Department of Health and earlier served as Church commissioner of health services.
A native of Salt Lake City, he holds bachelor's and medical degrees from the University of Utah, and master's and doctor's degrees in public health from Harvard University.
He has served as bishop, stake president, regional representative, and a member of the Young Men General Board. He has also served on the National Scouting Committee of the Boy Scouts of America. Elder Mason and his wife, Marie Smith Mason, have seven children.
Elder Uchtdorf, 53, has been with Lufthansa German Airlines since 1965, most recently as senior vice president of flight operations and chief pilot. He earlier served as head of the airline's pilot school and director of inflight services.
After his formal schooling, he studied technical engineering and then served in the German air force as a fighter pilot. He later studied at a business administration school in Cologne, Germany, and at the International Management Institute in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Elder Uchtdorf has served as a high councilor, stake mission president, and stake president, and as vice chairman of the Frankfurt Germany Temple Committee. He and his wife, Harriet Reich Uchtdorf, are the parents of two children.
Elder Wickman, 53, is a lawyer in San Diego, Calif. He is a native of Seattle, Wash., a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and earned his law degree from Stanford University.
He has served as a bishop, high councilor, stake president, and regional representative. He has also served as president of the Boy Scouts of America Desert Pacific Council. He and his wife, Patricia Farr Wickman, have five children, one of whom is deceased.
