Gerald L. Parsky, National Jury Chair
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.
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
Alan Airth is a member of the Board of Directors at Mars, Incorporated. He is chairman of the Board Digital Sub-Committee and the Board Advisor Search Committee, as well as serving on the Audit and the Benefits Funding & Investment Oversight Committees.
Prior to joining the Mars board in 2016, Alan was a successful commercial real estate executive. He has extensive experience in asset management, property investment, and executive leadership with a variety of national firms as both manager and owner. Alan was a trusted advisor to Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank during the 2008-2012 great recession. He served on the SoCal Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties Board of Directors for 10 years holding multiple leadership roles including President of the organization.
He serves on the American Prairie Reserve Board of Directors and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Foundation Board. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Orange County Council, Boy Scouts of America, and a lifetime member of the National Eagle Scout Association. He holds a Fellowship with the National Association of Corporate Directors and is a member of the Private Directors Association. Alan has a Bachelor’s degree in finance and real estate from the University of Arizona and earned his MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA.
Terry Beaty
Senior Partner, Brown Advisory
Bethesda, Maryland
Terry Beaty has a lifelong love of history and the outdoors. Educated at Choate, Princeton and Harvard Business School, he came to Washington to work for Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Terry has since worked for 49 years as investment advisor to many wealthy families with a specialty in real estate. He is currently a Senior Partner at Brown Advisory in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The Beaty’s live in their National Historic Registered home, “Old Loughborough” constructed in 1700 as a Native American trading post. Terry has been active in many historic organizations including the Advisory Board for the Princeton History Department, Ford Ticonderoga, Decatur House and the American Battlefield Trust. He ADMIRES Ken Burns. He also continues his family’s 100-year passion for the Adirondack Mountains and lakes. He has been an active supporter of the American Prairie Reserve and was an early camper at Kestrel Camp.
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.
Landon Butler
Retired
Upperville, Virginia
Landon Butler was Deputy Chief of Staff in the Carter Administration from 1977-1981. In that capacity, he facilitated communication across a broad array of Administration-wide task forces that were formed to support Carter-Mondale initiatives, and he had lead roles in the Panama Canal and SALT II ratification efforts.
In 1981, he co-founded the Multi-Employer Property Trust, a real estate commingled fund serving US, Canadian, and European pension plans. He was also a founder of the first private sector venture capital in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
He has many non-profit interests, and served for ten years as Board Chair of Shakespeare Theatre Company, a Tony Award winning regional theatre company in Washington, DC. Now retired, he and his wife, Carol, divide their time between Washington and their farm in northern Virginia.
He is a graduate of Washington & Lee University and Harvard Business School, and served as an officer in the US Marine Corps.
Parker J. Collier
Naples, Florida
David A. 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.
Amy Duff
Healdsburg, California
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.
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 senior marketing and management capacities with the sports marketing conglomerate International Management Group (IMG), the U.S. Olympic Committee, and Genesco Sports Enterprises, Inc.
Aaron currently serves as a Director of Bitty Foods, Hail Merry Inc., Pathwater, Seven Mile Suites Ltd. (Comfort Suites Grand Cayman), 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 & 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 is a member of the George W. Bush Center CEO Advisory Board.
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.
Peter Kimmelman
New York, New York
A graduate of the Wharton School and Harvard Law School, Mr. Kimmelman has since 1970 specialized in asset allocation, representing the interests of several families as well as two foreign institutions. Among his non-profit affiliations, he has just completed a four-year term as chairman of the Freer/Sackler Galleries (Smithsonian Institution), Washington. He serves as a trustee, officer, and member of the Executive Committee of World Monuments Fund (30 years plus) and as a trustee of American Federation for Aging Research. Mr. and Mrs. Kimmelman share a passion for traveling, spending more than two months a year for the past 40 years in visiting more than 100 countries. Their two children –a daughter, Kweilen, and son, Damian –both live and work in London and continue to join their parents in their world travels.
Judy Koch
Palo Alto, California
Mike Levinthal
Park City, Utah
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 has served as a director of more than 20 former Kelso affiliated companies and as lead director of two public companies. George earned an M.B.A. from the 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.
He has served as Chairman since 2013 and has been a director since 2008 of American Prairie Reserve, and is a director of Rx Green Technologies, Square Roots, Survey.com, and Storefront. George is also an advisory director of Investco and US WorldMeds, and is also an advisor to the Investment Committee of the New York Botanical Garden and the University of Puget Sound. He served from 2010 for 6 years on the Stanford GSB Advisory Council and he was treasurer of the University of Puget Sound Board of Trustees, on which he served from 1989 for 23 years.
“I was born and raised in SeaTac, Washington, and now live in Larchmont, New York. My family and I have been Montana property owners since 1997, with a ranch on the Boulder River near Big Timber. We enjoy spending time there fly fishing and hiking with family and friends.”
Susan Matelich
Philanthropist
Larchmont, New York
Susan Matelich is a philanthropist, gardener, and volunteer. She is a CPR instructor, a crewmember and Treasurer of her local Volunteer Ambulance Corps, holding NY State, National Registry EMT certifications with wilderness training. Susan and her husband George are dedicated to aiding first-generation college and graduate students with scholarships at several universities. In 2008, Susan joined the board of American Prairie Reserve, 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 serves on their Finance Committee. Born in Alberta, Canada, Susan moved to New York and earned a BS in Marketing, cum laude, from NYU’s Stern School of Business, and enjoyed a career as a commercial fashion model and spokesperson. Susan currently resides in Larchmont, New York, when not fly-fishing with her husband and three adult children and son-in-law 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
Visiting Committee for Biological Engineering at MIT
Karen Petersen Mehra
Active Volunteer
Greenwich, Connecticut
Karen has devoted her energies to preserving America’s last few wild areas, believing land conservation and the preservation of natural habitats are key to providing a meaningful future for our children. Growing up in the wilds of Utah and then living and working in Connecticut and New York have led Karen to APR, which she believes is the most exciting and meaningful land and wildlife conservation project in America today. Along with serving on the American Prairie Reserve National Board of Directors, Karen serves on the boards of the Connecticut Land Conservation Council and The Nature Conservancy of Connecticut, and is actively involved with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and The Garden Clubs of America. Previously, Karen worked at the American Museum of Natural History. She enjoys travel, music, gardening, reading, puzzles, moments in nature, and above all, time with her four boys and husband, Sanjeev. Karen received a B.A. in government from Harvard University and an M.A. in anthropology from Columbia University.
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.
Nancy S. 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
Roland Parrish is the 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 a 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.
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.
Martha McGeary Snider
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Martha McGeary Snider is a patron of the arts and a cultural entrepreneur who promotes creative, strategic solutions for philanthropic, community and corporate advancement. An innovator who is guided by the tenets of civility and integrity, she serves on numerous museum and cultural boards in leadership positions.
After a career in education, art and museum administration, Martha served in both ownership, business development and management positions at Comcast Spectacor, a sports and entertainment company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She served as Policy Advisor on Arts and Culture for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for two terms under Governor Edward G. Rendell, working directly with the commonwealth’s Department of Community and Economic Development to support cultural, heritage and arts initiatives.
Martha is Vice President of Organizational Strategy at Source Digital, Inc. an interactive platform activating time driven acquisition of information or goods through video content across any device.
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.
Aaron Taryle
Director, Sound Point Capital
New York, New York
Aaron Taryle is currently a Director at Sound Point Capital in New York City where he is focused on the origination, structuring and underwriting of commercial real estate debt investments.
Mr. Taryle has been the Vice Chair of the American Prairie Reserve’s Young Professional Leadership Network (the “YPLN”) since 2015. The goals of the YPLN are to generate a passionate base of younger supporters for the American Prairie Reserve by driving awareness and fundraising efforts, promoting visits to the Reserve among individuals who value the mission and continue to foster a strong sense of community among existing YPLN members.
Mr. Taryle, originally from Greenwood Village, CO, is a devoted outdoorsman, hiker, runner, skier and American History enthusiast. Mr. Taryle holds a BA from Vanderbilt University.
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
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.