Don’t mess around with Washington University’s board of trustees. It’s a who’s who list of the big name CEOs around town — and in some cases, the nation.

The university sent out a news release today announcing six new board members, all heavy hitters in their own right who will fit in well with the rest of the 56-member board. Five of them began their terms on July 1. The sixth will start in December.

Here’s the list of newcomers:

• Gregory Boyce, chairman and chief executive officer of Peabody Energy

• John Dains, chief executive of Helm Financial Corp., a rail car company based in San Francisco

• Steven Leer, chief executive of Arch Coal

• George Paz, president and chief executive of Express Scripts

• Harry Seigle, principal of The Elgin Co., a real estate, investing and philanthropic company

• George P. Bauer, chairman and chief executive officer of GBP Group, an investment-banking firm based in Connecticut. He previously was an IBM executive.

The rest of the 56-member board isn’t too shabby, either. David Kemper? He’s on it. So are John McDonnell, Sam Fox, and Craig Schnuck.

Also on the board are Hugh Grant, CEO of Monsanto; Maxine Clark, chief executive of Build-A-Bear Workshop; Robert Hernreich, co-owner of the Sacramento Kings; Steven Lipstein, CEO pf BJC Healthcare; W. Patrick McGinnis, CEO of Nestle Purina; Walter Metcalfe, Jr., senior counsel for Bryan Cave; Jai Nagarkatti, CEO of Sigma-Aldrich Corp.; William Neaves, CEO of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research; Gary Rainwater, executive chairman of Ameren; Andrew Taylor, CEO of Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Wow. No wonder the school is so good at raising money.

Click here to see the full list of board members.

The Grade is the St. Louis region’s premier blog on education and child welfare. To read other recent posts, go to www.stltoday,com/thegrade.