Dawn Arnall, National Jury Chair
Chair, SBP Capital Corporation
Aspen, Colorado
Dawn Arnall is a private investor, businesswoman and philanthropist. She currently serves as Chair of SBP Capital Corporation. A seasoned executive with more than two decades of professional experience in the financial services and real estate industries, Dawn is an active investor in energy, insurance and technology sectors. Dawn is a Director on the Board of Conservation International, a member of the Smithsonian National Zoological Advisory Board, a Trustee of The College of William and Mary Foundation Board, and former Chair of National Geographic’s International Council of Advisors. She also is a member of the George W. Bush Institute's Woman's Advisory board, serves on the executive committee of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and is a supporter of Shalva, a therapy center for mentally and physically challenged children. Dawn obtained her BA and MBA from The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. She resides in Aspen, Colorado.
Jay Abbe
Retired President/COO, JDS Uniphase
Healdsburg, California
Jay and his wife, Karen, reside on their ranch and vineyards outside of Healdsburg, California, 70 miles north of San Francisco, where they grow grapes and produce a modest amount of wine. Jay is a retired technology business executive, having served as Chief Executive Officer of Optical Coating Laboratory in the late 1990s and President and Chief Operating Officer of JDS Uniphase, a fiber optics company, until his retirement in 2001. Prior to his operating roles, Jay also served for 18 years as a management consultant and senior partner with McKinsey & Company. Currently, he remains active as a director of several public companies, a trustee of his independent secondary school in Pennsylvania, and several local community organizations in Sonoma County. Since 2009, Jay has served on the board of American Prairie Reserve, an organization that is creating the largest nature reserve in the continental United States. Having grown up outside of Philadelphia in a very East Coast family, where “the West” meant Ohio, Jay connected strongly to Montana during a summer job in 1961 working on the Minuteman missile complex in the central part of the state.
Alan Airth
Newport Beach, California
Tricia Besing
Community Volunteer
Dallas, Texas
Tricia Besing is a devoted philanthropist and an excited National Jury member. She is active with the Tiffany Circle of the American Red Cross, and has helped grow the Dallas chapter alongside her mother who is a founding member of the Tiffany Circle. She is involved in various philanthropic efforts, including A.W.A.R.E. (Alzheimer’s Women’s Association for Resources and Education), Crystal Charity Ball (supporting Dallas children’s charities) and KIPP (a nonprofit network of college preparatory, public charter schools serving elementary, middle, and high school students). She and her husband, Gil, own a small hotel in Harbour Island, Bahamas, and have been blessed to know and empower the community there. Tricia and Gil currently reside in Dallas, Texas and have two children, ages 28 and 25. They love spending time in Whitefish, Montana and are passionate about the outdoors and preserving our natural resources.
Jill E. Bough
Photographer
Big Sky, Montana
Jill Bough has been an integral part of building the growing community of Big Sky, Montana. She and her husband, Loren, were the founders of the local public high school which boasts numerous awards and an International Baccalaureate curriculum. Jill is a photographer whose work has been described as journalistic storytelling. Having lived in Russia for nine years, her projects primarily focus on Russia-related topics and people. She has exhibited in New York, Cambridge, Minneapolis and Moscow, Russia. Having grown up in Montana, Jill is passionately in love with grasslands and prairie. She and Loren own multiple ranches and split their time between the mountains of Big Sky and the prairies of Central Montana. She is excited to be part of the National Jury and hopes that her Montana roots may benefit the organization.
Parker J. Collier
Naples, Florida
David Coulter
Vice Chairman, Managing Director and Senior Advisor, Warburg Pincus
New York, New York
Mr. Coulter served as Vice Chairman, Managing Director and Senior Advisor at Warburg Pincus, focusing on the firm’s financial services practice from 2005 – 2014.
Mr. Coulter retired in September 2005 as vice chairman of J.P. Morgan & Chase Co. He previously served as Executive Chairman of its investment bank, asset and wealth management, and private equity business. Mr. Coulter was a member of the firm’s three person Office of the Chairman and also its executive committee.
Mr. Coulter came to J.P. Morgan Chase via its July 2000 acquisition of The Beacon Group, a small merchant banking operation. Before joining The Beacon Group, Mr. Coulter was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the BankAmerica Corporation and Bank of America NT & SA. His career at Bank of America was from 1976 to 1998 and covered a wide range of banking activities.
He served on the board of Aeolus Re, MBIA, Webster Bank, Sterling Financial and the Strayer Corporation. He currently is on the board of The Providence Service Corp., Triton International, and Varo Money, Inc. He also serves on the boards of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Asia Society of Northern California, American Prairie Reserve, Third Way, Macaulay Honors College, and IQ2.
He received both his B.S. and his M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University and currently serves as a Trustee for Carnegie Mellon.
Steven Cousins
President and Chief Executive Officer,
Cousins Allied Strategic Advisors, LLC
St. Louis, Missouri
Steven N. Cousins is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Cousins Allied Strategic Advisors, LLC (CASA) that serves clients throughout the country. He was a partner at Armstrong Teasdale, LLP, a 250-person law firm with offices throughout the U.S. Mr. Cousins became Armstrong Teasdale’s first African American lawyer when he joined the firm in 1980. Four years later, he founded and chaired the firm’s first financial restructuring, reorganization and bankruptcy practice – the first associate to start a department at Armstrong Teasdale. In 1987, he became the firm’s first African American partner and one of the few in St. Louis. He served on the firm’s executive committee for 15 years and was one of Armstrong Teasdale’s top rainmakers for twice that long. He has represented global corporate clients such as Peabody Energy and Payless Shoes and high profile clients throughout the country, including a former U.S. Cabinet Member who was vindicated in a Justice Department investigation. He has been listed for 24 years in The Best Lawyers in America, named as a Missouri/Kansas Super Lawyer, and listed in Black Enterprise Magazine as one of the country’s top five bankruptcy lawyers. He is the 2017 recipient of the Martin J. Purcell award from the Missouri Bar Foundation. The award acknowledges an outstanding lawyer that has demonstrated an exceptional degree of competency, integrity, and civility in both professionalism and civic activities. Mr. Cousins received his JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1980 and BA from Yale University in 1977. An active community leader, Mr. Cousins was the general counsel and member on the executive committee of the St. Louis Regional Chamber of Commerce, vice-chairman of St. Louis Children’s Hospital board and is a St. Louis Art Museum trustee. In addition, he was outside general counsel for Concordance, a path-breaking program to reduce recidivism in St. Louis and beyond. He also served on Washington University’s National Council of the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement. He served as the initial co-chair of the St. Louis Internship Program, an inner-city youth jobs program, replicated in 38 cities with more than 3,300 alumni. In addition, Mr. Cousins is a co-founder of the St. Louis Public Schools Foundation, served as a member of the University of Missouri-St. Louis Chancellor’s Council and the national Board of Governors of the Association of Yale Alumni, and was a Webster University trustee.He currently serves on the National Advisory Board of Harvard's prestigious Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.
Catherine Debs
Palo Alto, CA
Jill A. Dyal
COO, CFO and Managing Partner Dyal Company, LLC
Greenwich, Connecticut
Jill A. Dyal is a Managing Partner, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Financial Officer at Dyal Partners LP, which provides Mergers & Acquisitions advisory services to corporate clients, a company she started with her husband, Gordon Dyal. She was previously a senior Vice-President at Goldman Sachs, where she spent more than ten years working in the Investment Banking Division both in New York and London. After Goldman Sachs, she worked at the National Football League as the Director of Financial Planning and Analysis in 2009. She graduated from UCLA in 1998 (Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa), where she received a golf scholarship to play on the Varsity golf team.
Jill resides in Greenwich, CT with her husband, two children and three German shepherds; as well as at their ranch, Diamond 4D, in Choteau, Montana, where they raise bison. She was previously on the Board of the New York Foundling.
Aaron Enrico
Founder and Managing Partner, Black Bear Partners
Dallas, Texas
Aaron is the Founder and Managing Partner of Black Bear Partners, a growth capital investment firm located in Dallas, Texas. He has had a broad and expansive career in principal investing, marketing and strategy consulting, and general management. He was most recently the Chief Financial & Development Officer for Genesco Sports Enterprises, Inc., a sports marketing and consulting firm based in Dallas and with offices in Charlotte, Chicago, and New York.
Aaron served as a Principal with CIC Advantage Holdings LLC (CIC Partners LP), with a particular investment focus on restaurant, retail, consumer packaged goods, and media. Aaron started his career with McKinsey & Company, and also served in marketing and management capacities with the sports marketing conglomerate International Management Group (IMG) and the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Aaron currently serves as a Director of Bitty Foods, Hail Merry Inc., Seven Mile Suites Ltd. (Comfort Suites Grand Cayman), Vice Cream, and Wolf Manufacturing, and as a Board Member of Ecologic Brands, Inc. He formerly sat on the boards of giggle, MosquitoNix, Red Mango, Signstorey (CBS Outernet) and Yummy Spoonfuls. In addition, he has served in various advisor and board capacities with the Greenhill School, Duke University Annual Fund Executive Committee, Duke University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Board of Advisors, the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas and the AFI Dallas International Film Festival.
Aaron received his BA in History and Comparative Area Studies from Duke University and his MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management. He lives in Dallas with his wife Catie and their three children, Daniel, Joseph, and Gisele.
Candy Fazakerley
President, CG Investments
Middleburg, Virginia
Candy Fazakerley was the owner and principal of CRE, a commercial real estate company which specialized in the sale of corporate and association headquarters building in the Washington, D.C., area. She and her husband are partners in CG Investments, a commercial real estate development firm which develops, constructs, and manages office buildings and hotels in the Washington area and most recently, San Francisco, CA. Candy is currently an active Board Member of Middleburg Humane, a non-profit dedicated to saving and rescuing animals in the Virginia Hunt Country where she and her husband currently reside. She has two sons and four grandchildren who reside in the San Francisco Bay area.
Liliane A. Haub
Philanthropist
Greenwich, Connecticut
Liliane, a native of Switzerland, grew up in Austria, now living between the US and Germany, enjoyed her education at Sotheby's and Habsburg, Feldman in London, Geneva, and New York before becoming a full-time mother to her four children.
Due to her passion for the environment, art, and education, she leads the family's environmental engagement by serving on the Board of Trustees of Pace University and works closely with the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace which has one of the world’s best environmental law programs. She has served at the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming for over a decade and is a Director of American Prairie Reserve. In addition, she is a member of the Advisory Board of the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgetown University, serves on the Board of Trustees of the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington, and is on the Patrons Steering Committee for the McMullen Museum at Boston College.
Liliane used to be an avid runner and has finished the NYC marathon 4 times to raise funds and awareness for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Liliane and her husband, Christian, have been co-chairing the Parents Leadership Council at Boston College for five years and are on the Board of Regents where they are engaged in international outreach for the university.
Frederick B. Hegi, Jr.
Founding Partner, Wingate Partners
Dallas, Texas
Fred Hegi is the founding partner of Wingate Partners, a partnership that takes controlling interests in companies in industries going through structural change. He has been Chairman of the Board of United Stationers; Loomis, Fargo & Co., Kevco, Inc. and was lead independent director of Lone Star Technologies. He currently serves on the boards of Hallmark Cards and LCI Industries.
He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Southern Methodist University. He is former Chairman of the Advisory Council of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas and its Foundation. He is a former Chairman of Interfaith Family Services, a Dallas-based ministry to homeless families, which in 1997 established the Frederick B. Hegi, Jr. Humanitarian Award. He is a past Chairman of Communities Foundation of Texas and is a trustee of the AT&T Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, UT Southwestern Medical Foundation, UT Southwestern Board of Visitors and the Chancellor’s Executive Council of the UT System. In 2012, Mr. and Mrs. Hegi were recognized with the Spirit of Contact Award for leadership to those facing significant personal crises, and in 2015, Mr. Hegi received the Henry Cohn Humanitarian Award from the Anti-Defamation League. The Hegis were honored in 2016 with the Spirit of Generations Award by the Senior Source.
Karen Isaac
Community Volunteer
Larchmont, New York
A Larchmont, New York resident since 1986, Karen, is a former PR professional (corporate, consulting and agency), community volunteer and mother of four. Karen has had leadership positions in numerous civic, community, performing arts, religious, educational and athletic activities. Board positions have included: the Emelin Theatre of Performing Arts, Larchmont Avenue Presbyterian Church, Junior League of Westchester on the Sound and Larchmont Temple Religious School Board. Golf, family and friends are her particular passions.
Elizabeth Baker Keffer
Managing Director and Chief Network Officer, BDT & Company
Chicago, Illinois
Elizabeth Baker Keffer is a Managing Director and Chief Network Officer of BDT & Company. Prior to joining BDT, Elizabeth was President of AtlanticLIVE, the events division of The Atlantic, where she also was Publisher from 2001 to 2007. Prior to joining Atlantic Media, Elizabeth served as EVP and Chief Marketing Officer at the Advisory Board Company and Corporate Executive Board. Elizabeth is a board member of Research!America and Ford’s Theatre, and a member of the National Jury for the American Prairie Reserve’s Ken Burns American Heritage Prize. Elizabeth received a BA in English and minor concentration in Human Biology from Brown University.
Kate Kelly
Author and Historian
Los Angeles, California
Kate Kelly is a writer and publisher of America Comes Alive, a website dedicated to telling little-known stories of America’s past. The site is visited by more than a half-million readers annually. She is author of many books, including Election Day: An American Holiday, An American History as well as a six-volume history of medicine for the college market. About 30 of her other works were collaborations with doctors and business people. She has been an instructor at The New School, NYC, and Osher Institute, UCLA. She is currently on the Board of Trustees of the American Battlefield Trust. Her former board service includes the national board of the SLE Lupus Foundation, Lupus LA, the Westchester County Historical Society, and the Friends of Smith College Libraries. She was a committee member of the Wildlife Health Sciences Committee, NY Zoological Society. Before moving to L.A, she and her husband were long-time residents of Larchmont, NY. They have three grown daughters.
Judy Koch
Palo Alto, California
Jean Lee
Executive Director, MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation
Mamaroneck, New York
Jean Lee is the first Executive Director of the MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation, a joint initiative between Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association, in the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball. In her personal and professional life, she uses the impact of philanthropy and multi-stakeholder partnerships to improve communities in the areas of: youth sports, education, health and wellness, conservation, and the performing arts. During her leisure time, she loves being outdoors and stays active playing golf, tennis, squash, skiing, shooting, and fly-fishing with her family and friends. Jean’s special connection with the American Prairie Reserve’s mission can be attributed to growing up in Canada and exploring the great outdoors by backpacking and camping throughout North America. She also cherishes special memories from her family’s annual horseback-camping trips in beautiful Montana and Wyoming. Jean is a graduate of Columbia University and Cornell University. She has served for two years on the National Jury for The Ken Burns American Heritage Prize and is a Young Partners Board Member at The Public Theater, which produced the smash hits A Chorus Line and Hamilton.
Jacqueline B. Mars
Retired Vice President, Mars, Inc.
The Plains, Virginia
Mrs. Mars is the owner of a working farm that specializes in organic farming and equine training and breeding. David and Karen O’Connor, Olympic Gold, Silver and Bronze Medalists in the sport of three-day eventing, have trained and ridden her competition horses at her two locations in The Plains, Virginia, and Ocala, Florida. Mrs. Mars is the retired Vice President of Mars, Inc., where she was responsible for development of new food products and their marketing strategy. She is a strong supporter of conservation groups concerning land use and the environment as well as an advocate and supporter of women’s education and their employment in the business community. Since 2014, Mrs. Mars has served on the board of American Prairie Reserve, an organization that is creating the largest nature reserve in the continental United States. A passionate promoter of the arts, she is Chairman of the Washington National Opera, a member of the board of trustees of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, as well as Vice Chairman of the National Sporting Library & Museum.
George E. Matelich
Managing Director, Kelso & Co.
Larchmont, New York
George joined Kelso in 1985 and is a Senior Advisory Partner and Managing Director. He is a director of several Kelso portfolio companies, has served as a director of many former Kelso affiliated companies, and as lead director of two public companies. George earned an M.B.A. from Stanford GSB in 1982 and a B.A. in Business Administration, summa cum laude, from the University of Puget Sound in 1978. He was a C.P.A. and holds a C.M.A. George is also a director of Evergreen Capital Trust, Insomnia Cookies, Suvery.com, and US WorldMeds. He served for six years on Stanford GSB Advisory Council and for 23 years on the University of Puget Sound Board of Trustees.
Susan Matelich
Philanthropist
Larchmont, New York
Susan Matelich is a philanthropist and devoted volunteer at many organizations. She is a regular, active crew-member and Board Treasurer of her local Volunteer Ambulance Corps and she holds New York State, National Registry EMT and Wilderness EMT certifications. Susan and her husband, George, are also dedicated to aiding first-generation college and graduate students, and have established undergraduate scholarships at the University of Puget Sound and Vanderbilt University, as well as an important fund for fellowships at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In 2008, Susan joined the board of American Prairie Reserve, a privately funded organization working to build America’s largest grassland public park, and currently serves on the Governance Committee and is the Chair of the Safety Committee. In the fall of 2015, Susan joined the Board of Trustees of the New York Botanical Garden and currently serves on their Budget Committee. Born in Alberta, Canada, Susan moved to New York and earned a BS in Marketing, cum laude, from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and enjoyed a successful 15-year career as a commercial fashion model and spokesperson. Susan and George currently reside in Larchmont, New York, when they are not fly-fishing with their three adult children in Montana.
Lore Harp McGovern
Hillsborough, California
Ms. Harp McGovern is a serial entrepreneur. She co-founded Vector Graphic Inc., a pioneering PC company in 1976, initiated a successful IPO in 1981 and co-founded Pacific Technology Venture Fund in 1981 in Tokyo and San Francisco. She founded Aplex Corporation and holds two patents, and Good Morning Teacher Publishing, sold in 1990 and 1999 respectively.
Ms. Harp McGovern has been an Angel investor and mentor since 1998, and established in 2000 with her husband, The McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT and serves as its Chair.
She is a native of Germany and has been awarded the 1983 Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Women’s Business Owners of New York Distinguished Citizen Award, Commonwealth Club of San Francisco Distinguished Alumni Award, Pepperdine University.
Board positions include:
Computer History Museum
Visiting Committee for Theater Art at MIT
Center for Brains, Minds and Machines at MIT
Council for the Arts at MIT
Springboard
Karen Petersen Mehra
Greenwich, Connecticut
Jeff Miller
President, JAMM Ventures
Diablo, California
Jeff Miller is President of JAMM Ventures, a business consulting company. Prior to establishing his firm, Jeff spent most of his career in operating companies. He was CEO of Documentum, Inc. (DCTM), an enterprise document management software company, from 1993 to 2001, and Chairman of the Board from 1999 to 2003, growing it from 15 employees into a publically traded NASDAQ company with 1,200 employees and revenues over $200 million. Jeff has more than 40 years of high tech experience, in semiconductors, hardware, and software companies, having spent the early years of his career at Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, and holding senior marketing and general management executive positions at Adaptec and Cadence Design Systems. From 2002 through 2006, Jeff was a venture partner with Redpoint Ventures, focused on mentoring CEOs of several Redpoint companies, particularly those in the enterprise and infrastructure software markets. Jeff has served on the Board of Directors of a number of high technology companies. He currently serves on the Board of one public company, ServiceNow (SaaS for IT; NOW NYSE). Jeff also serves on four philanthropic Boards, The American Prairie Reserve; the Golden State Warriors Community Foundation (he is a minority owner of the GS Warriors); and two connected with Santa Clara University, the Board of Trustees and the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, where he Chairs the Advisory Board. Jeff holds a Masters of Business Administration (1976) and a Bachelors of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (1973) from Santa Clara University.
Thomas Minckler
Author & Historian
Billings, Montana & New York, New York
Thomas is an expert on the history of Montana and the American West. As a private art dealer, he builds comprehensive collections of historical significance including vintage photographs, documents, rare books, and paintings - such as the L.A. Huffman collection placed with the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, WY. He has published a book on the art of Joseph Henry Sharp (the founder of the Taos Society of Art), and is currently working on a book on the history of the Upper Missouri and the Northern Plains based on his collection of over 11,000 historical documents. A second- generation Montanan, Thomas owned a gallery in Billings for over 40 years. As a private art dealer, he operates out of Billings and New York City. He currently serves on the National Advisory Board of Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa and on the Montana Historical Society Board of Trustees.
Nancy Mueller
Retired Founder/President, Nancy's Specialty Foods
Palo Alto, California
Nancy Mueller’s interest in nature and marine preservation is derived from her world-wide experiences. Growing up in Latham, NY, she majored in biology and then chemistry at Russell Sage College in Troy, NY. Upon graduation, she joined her future husband, Glenn Mueller in Palo Alto, CA where he earned a Stanford MBA and she worked for Syntex Corporation in pharmaceutical chemistry.
Two children later and with a venture capital husband, Nancy started her own business, Nancy’s Specialty Foods, parlaying Nancy’s Quiche, both appetizers and entrees, to national distribution through retail and club store venues. She sold the business after 22 years of exciting entrepreneurism in 1999.
Widowed in 1994 and with a desire to dream, she had a Feadship Superyacht built for round the world cruising and SCUBA diving. Ten years later, after touring hundreds of remote islands and countries with friends and family, she sold the vessel and returned to a more normal life.
She serves on the boards of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Waimea Ocean Film Festival, San Francisco Opera as well as the American Prairie Reserve.
Nancy is married to Robert A. Fox, retired business executive, and lives in Palo Alto, California. She continues to travel extensively and spends time in Hawaii.
Susan Myers
Philanthropist
Atherton, California
Susan has been a board member of American Prairie Reserve along with her husband Gib since 2002. The opportunity to assemble a huge prairie ecosystem full of wildlife in the 21st century is very compelling and exciting to her. Every time she visits the prairie she enjoys being on the landscape and going to find the bison herd. She and Gib would love to see a herd of 10,000 bison in their lifetime. Susan has an interest in food sustainability and has been a member of a food investor group through the Philanthropy Workshop in San Francisco. She is also involved with FoodCorps a national nonprofit that connects kids to healthy food in schools. The intersecting issues of food, health, wellness and social justice are important ones to her. Susan is a member of Impact Partners, a social interest film fund that invests primarily in documentaries. IP has supported a number of films at the Sundance Film Festival. She is also on the advisory board of the Bay Area Lyme Foundation.
In the past, she has served on an independent school board, Crystal Springs Uplands School and the Peninsula Bridge, an educational summer experience for underprivileged students. Susan has three children and eight grandchildren. She enjoys travel, golf, skiing, bridge, reading and spending time with her family. Susan holds a BA in German Studies from Stanford University.
Roland Parrish
President, CEO/Owner of Parrish Restaurants, Ltd
Dallas, Texas
President, CEO/Owner of Parrish Restaurants, Ltd, which owns 23 McDonald’s in North Texas. The company consistently makes Black Enterprise Magazine’s BE 100 as one of the Top 100 Black Owned Businesses in the U.S. He also is the immediate Past Chairman/CEO of the National Black McDonald’s Owner/Operators Association.
Parrish earned his Bachelor’s and MBA at Purdue University’s Krannert School of Business. A scholar/athlete, he lettered four years, served as team captain, was a two time MVP for the Purdue track and field team while making the Dean’s List 7 out of 8 semesters.
His leadership gift supported renovations of the former Management and Economics Library at Purdue and was renamed the Roland G. Parrish Library of Management and Economics. His gift of philanthropy led to the Rev. John and Marie Parrish (parents) Medical Clinic in Fort Portal, Uganda which opened in 2016.
Roland and his wife Jewel have been married 40 years, and have two sons and daughter– Rowland (UNT-BA 2002), Wesley (CAI-BA 2013), and Jade (Purdue BS 2012). His hobbies include running, biking, reading, playing musical instruments and collecting automobiles.
Gerald L. Parsky
Chairman, Aurora Capital Group
Rancho Santa Fe, California
Gerald Parsky is the Chairman of Aurora Capital Group, a private investment firm. Previously, Mr. Parsky served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs from 1974-1977. For the next 14 years, Mr. Parsky was affiliated with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where he was a Senior Partner and member of the Executive and Management Committees. In 1991, Mr. Parsky founded Aurora Capital Group. Past activities include: Regent, University of California; Trustee, Princeton University. Present activities include: Trustee, The RAND Corporation; Trustee, George Bush Presidential Library Foundation; Trustee, Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation; Board of Directors, The Irvine Company. Mr. Parsky is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Virginia Law School.
William R. Price, III
President, Driva Solutions, LLC
Bellevue, Washington
Bill Price was raised in Baltimore and received a BA from Dartmouth. He spent five years as a Naval Officer and received an MBA from Stanford. Price served as the Senior Engagement Manager of McKinsey and Company in San Francisco and Stockholm, a COO at Automated Call Processing Corp (ACP), and a Vice President of MCI Call Center Services. Price was Amazon’s first Global Vice President of Customer Service. He was the lead co-author of The Best Service is No Service and Your Customer Rules! He founded and serves as President of Driva Solutions, a customer service consultancy. Price also currently is an Adjunct Professor at University of Washington’s Michael G Foster School of Business and is an advisor at Antuit, a big data company.
David M. Rubenstein
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of The Carlyle Group
District of Columbia
David Rubenstein is a Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman of The Carlyle Group, founded in 1987. Rubenstein is Chairman of the Boards of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Council on Foreign Relations; President of the Economic Club of Washington; and a Fellow of the Harvard Corporation. Rubenstein is on the Boards of Trustees of the University of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art, the Institute for Advanced Study, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Johns Hopkins Medicine. He is also Chairman of the Harvard Global Advisory Council and the Library of Congress’ Madison Council. Mr. Rubenstein is an original signer of The Giving Pledge. Mr. Rubenstein has served as Chairman of the Duke University Board of Trustees and Co-Chairman of the Brookings Institution.
Stuart Spodek
New York, New York
Mara Talpins
Active Volunteer
New York
Mara’s lifelong passion for wildlife began as a child and she has been actively involved with the Wildlife Conservation Society for almost 20 years, originally as a volunteer at the Central Park Zoo and she currently serves on their Council. She is passionate that educating children to appreciate wildlife is a key to society’s long-term support for the co-existence of humans with wildlife and wild spaces. Over the years, she has also volunteered at various education initiatives including the American Museum of Natural History and local schools. Mara loves experiencing wildlife and various cultures in developing nations, having traveled to over 40 countries.
Mara devotes the majority of her time to raising her two wonderful children and Italian Water Dog in New York. She looks forward to all the family time she spends with nature at their second home in Montana as well as looking forward to the day that large numbers of students from around the country can visit the bison herds and prairie dog towns at American Prairie Reserve.
Shauna Varvel
Greenwich, Connecticut
Shauna Varvel was raised in Utah, spending time in Wyoming and Montana, where she first developed her love for the vast beauty of the American West. Shauna attended BYU as an undergraduate and now serves on the President’s Leadership Council and National Advisory Committee for the university.
Shauna began her professional career in PR for Estee Lauder, in New York and ultimately co-heading PR for its Prescriptives brand in Tokyo. She continued expatriate life in Asia for a total of 16 years. Through her experiences doing charitable work in Indonesia and Cambodia Shauna became passionate about the education of children. Shauna served on the New York and Greenwich boards of Room to Read.
Shauna recently completed the renovation of a farmhouse in Provence, France, set on 65 acres of working farmland, which she owns and operates. She enjoys spending time there with her husband of 31 years and their five children.
Anne Ward
Greenwich, Connecticut
Winifred Warner
Executive Coach & Photographer
Dallas, Texas
Raised on the coast of Southern California, Windy Warner received her BA from UC, Berkeley, then enjoyed 25 years with IBM’s sales organization. Subsequently Windy moved into executive coaching where she supports her clients career advancement while helping them create positive, productive work environments.
In addition to her business pursuits, Windy is a lifelong environmentalist, a photographer whose principle subjects are animals and people in their natural setting, and suffers from an incurable case of wanderlust and curiosity. She has travelled extensively throughout the world, including photography expeditions to Cuba, Croatia, and Zimbabwe.
With her husband, Tim, and their two Westies, Windy splits her time between Dallas, TX and Bozeman, MT. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a member of the International Association of Coaches, the International Coach Federation, and an Alumna of Leadership Texas.
Margot Weinstein
Greenwich, Connecticut
As an adventurer, wanderer, and tourist, Margot Weinstein has traveled as far and as frequently as life has allowed. Her love for the outdoors and all things sporty has been a life-long theme, and has contributed to her enthusiasm for the American Prairie Reserve. A native Midwesterner, born outside of Chicago, Margot has always felt naturally at home on the prairie. But her appreciation grew even more after cycling across America and seeing the geography of the country unfold beneath her pedals. For Margot, one of the only things that can further sweeten the experience of indulging her wanderlust, is doing it with family and friends. She feels incredibly blessed by her three daughters, son-in law, and wonderful husband, Gary Weinstein, as well as her eclectic extended family who she adores. In addition to her enthusiasm for the American Prairie Reserve, Margot enjoys supporting and volunteering for various causes, particularly ones related to autism.