The LEAGUE Board of Directors
There is a powerful synergy that comes from joining together individuals from the corporate, educational and nonprofit worlds. The LEAGUE benefits from the combined dedication and experience of these philanthropic-oriented leaders.
Dave Barger | Dave Barger JetBlue Airways began operations in February, 2000 and now, serves 29 cities across the U.S and the Caribbean with a fleet of 73 new Airbus A320 aircraft. As President and Chief Operating Officer, David (Dave) Barger leads JetBlue's charge to bring humanity back to air travel and to establish JetBlue as a new standard in the airline industry for service, performance and innovation. Dave joined JetBlue after 18 years with Continental Airlines and New York Air. At Continental, he was one of 38 officers of the company and the Vice President for the Newark Hub Operation, the largest airport operation in the New York area, handling more than 50,000 passengers and 800 flight movements each day. While in Newark, Dave was the Chairman of the Regional Business Partnership (Chamber of Commerce for the metropolitan Newark region). He also served as a board member of: Prosperity New Jersey, the Newark Economic Development Corporation, the Governor's Panel of Higher Education in New Jersey, and a Trustee for the Newark Museum. Before being named Vice President for the Newark Hub Operation, Dave held a number of executive positions within Continental: Staff Vice President of Airport Operations at Newark; a Regional Vice President of the Central Region; and a Regional Director (1990-92) in Guam and the Pacific Asia Division. Dave joined Continental in 1988 as Regional Director for the Northeast Region based in New York. From 1982-1988, Dave held various positions with New York Air including the position of Director of Stations. Dave's educational background includes studies at the University of Michigan where he majored in Economics and Political Science. For more on Dave, read his JetBlue Biography.
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Doug Becker Chairman & CEO | Doug Becker As chairman and chief executive officer, Douglas Becker led the transformation of Laureate Education (formerly Sylvan Learning Systems) from a domestic tutoring provider into the world's leading international higher education company with operations in over 15 countries.Mr. Becker has served a Chairman and CEO of the Company since 2000, and was formerly its President and Co-CEO. Under his leadership, Sylvan became the undisputed leader in K-12 tutoring with nearly 2,000 learning centers, over 200,000 students and the most recognized consumer brand name in education. The K-12 business of the company, now known as Educate, Inc., was sold in 2003 in order to allow the company to focus all of its energies on post-secondary education - its fastest growing line of business. It was in recognition of its new focus on higher education that the company changed its name to Laureate Education, Inc. in 2004. Today, Laureate Education offers career-oriented degree programs to over 215,000 students through its network of 20 campus-based and online institutions in Europe, Asia and the Americas - a network known as Laureate International Universities. In 1996, Doug relocated Sylvan's corporate headquarters to Baltimore's Inner Harbor East district in order to contribute to the revitalization of his hometown. Today, Laureate's headquarters are still located in Baltimore City along with the headquarters of other education companies that were founded under the Sylvan umbrella such as Thomson Prometric and Educate, Inc. In 1997, Doug also established the Sylvan Learning Foundation (now known as the Sylvan/Laureate Foundation) to provide support for education initiatives in Baltimore and around the world. Beyond Laureate, Doug demonstrates his commitment to community through his service as Vice Chairman of the International Youth Foundation and as Chairman of Port Discovery - The Baltimore Children's Museum. He is also a trustee and director of several other non-profit organizations, including FIRST Robotics and the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore.
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Morgan Binswanger Chief of Staff | Morgan Binswanger Morgan Binswanger joined the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) as Chief of Staff in June 2008. He is a member of the executive management team and provides leadership, direction and vision facilitating LAF's short-term and long-term strategic planning.His responsibilities include managing the LAF's vision and purpose, creating mileposts and symbols to rally support behind the vision and making the vision sharable by everyone. He also defines, develops and implements a leadership development program for the management team and serves as a bridge on business and politically related activities relative to the Foundation's growth and position within the world of philanthropy. He works closely with the LAF Board and its committees. Before joining the LAF, Morgan served as Interim COO for Habitat for Humanity Greater Los Angeles and as Director of Habitat's Jimmy Carter Work Project. Prior to that, he was the COO for the Entertainment Industry Foundation and Co-Director of the Creative Artists Agency Foundation for seven years. He has served as a consultant for Rock the Vote, the Broad Foundation and America's Promise. He served at the United States Department of Education as Chief of Staff in Elementary and Secondary Education. Morgan taught history and coached for four years at Deerfield Academy in western Massachusetts. He has a B.A. in history from Bowdoin College and studied language at Kansai Gaidai University in Hirakata, Japan. He serves on the Board of The League, a national afterschool initiative. He reluctantly runs marathons and preferably eats blueberry pies from his home state of Maine. |
C. David Campbell | C. David Campbell David Campbell is President and a Trustee of the McGregor Fund, a private independent foundation that focuses its grantmaking activities in metropolitan Detroit and has assets of approximately $170 million. Prior to joining the McGregor Fund in 1996, Campbell worked as a Program Officer and then Vice President, Programs, for the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan. His previous work includes positions in higher education as Dean of Students at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit for six years and Associate Dean at Alma College for three years.David was elected to the board of directors of the Council on Foundations in 2004. He also serves as a member of the Council's Advisory Committee for Executive Programs and the Media and Public Affairs Committee. Since 1995, David has served on the Board of Trustees of the Council of Michigan Foundations, including a number of officer and committee positions, and as the board chairman from 2001-2003.
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Robert S. Collier | Robert S. Collier Robert S. Collier's 28-year career in philanthropy includes work with the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Gannett Foundation, Rotary Charities of Traverse City, and the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation. Since 1995, he has been with the Council of Michigan Foundations (CMF) serving as the President of the nation's largest regional association of grantmakers since 2000. Host to guests from throughout the world, CMF is recognized internationally as a resource on community foundations, youth as grantmakers, and the role of support organizations to organized philanthropy.
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Shakim Compere | Shakim Compere Shakim Compere is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flavor Unit Entertainment. Mr. Compere, together with business partner Dana Owens (a.k.a. "Queen Latifah"), began Flavor Unit Entertainment in 1989 and built it into one of the most powerful names in urban music management. Today, Flavor Unit Entertainment is the parent company to Flavor Unit Management and Recording, Flavor Unit Television and Film, and Flavor Unit Marketing and Publishing. Shakim began his career as Queen Latifah's manager, helping her to launch and build an extremely successful career in urban music. With Shakim's leadership and management expertise, Queen Latifah became one of the most highly regarded female recording artists, selling millions of albums. Her debut album, All Hail the Queen, went gold and she became the first female artist in urban music to win a Grammy Award.Mr. Compere and Ms. Owens worked together to build Flavor Unit into a successful music management company, responsible for launching many chart-topping artists. Shakim acted as manager and A&R Director, and is responsible for signing several platinum-selling artist including Naughty by Nature, LL Cool J, NEXT, Outkast, Monica, and Faith to their Flavor Unit Records label. Shakim and Ms. Owens eventually branched out into television and film, launching Flavor Unit Television and Film. It is through this entertainment subsidiary that they produced the box office hit, Bringing Down the House, with Steve Martin, and the successful, The Cookout, which Shakim co-wrote and co-produced. Mr. Compere has become actively involved with the Lancelot H. Owens Scholarship Foundation, which provides scholarships to students who excel scholastically, but have limited financial resources. Mr. Compere currently resides in New Jersey.
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Julie F. Cummings Foundation Trustee | Julie F. Cummings Julie Fisher Cummings is a social activist, foundation trustee, and philanthropist. She is President of the Board of Directors of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics, and a trustee of the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher foundation, the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan, the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties, and a former trustee of Rollins College in Orlando, Florida.Ms. Cummings is also on the Advisory Board of the Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership Center at Rollins College. Her philanthropic interests center on issues of social justice, improving the lives of women and children, and promoting and enhancing volunteerism and philanthropy.
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Betty Edwards | Betty Edwards Betty Edwards has been a teacher, assistant principal, district curriculum director, state department director of curriculum and assessment, associate director of a non-profit organization, and assistant vice-president for an education assessment company. Middle level education has had a central place in her life since the first time she stepped into the classroom as a seventh grade teacher. As an assistant principal, she led the school through transition from a junior high to a middle school. As both a district and state administrator, middle level education programs were in her area of responsibility. She served as the president of both the Kentucky Middle School Association and the National Middle School Association. During her nine years on the NMSA Board of Directors, she worked with others as the association moved through challenging times.
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Susan Hassan | Susan Hassan Susan S. Hassan is a corporate partner concentrating on mergers and acquisitions, corporate financings, securities law matters and general corporate governance. Ms. Hassan advises Fortune 500, middle market and emerging companies across a wide range of industries on corporate, securities and business-related matters and in a variety of transactions. She regularly represents issuers and investment banks in a broad spectrum of public offerings, private placements and venture capital financing.In their mergers and acquisitions area, Susan has worked on behalf of buyers and sellers in public and private acquisitions and dispositions, leveraged buyouts, corporate restructurings, spin-offs, joint ventures and other strategic alliances. She represented Ameritech Corporation in its $62 billion merger with SBC Communications Inc. and Sara Lee Corporation in the $1 billion disposition of its subsidiary, Coach, Inc. Susan advised in the $805 million sale of Wisconsin Energy Corporation's water business to Pentair, Inc. and the sale of SBC Communications Inc.'s security businesses to both Tyco International Ltd. and a buyout group led by GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC. She has also advised LaSalle Partners Incorporated acquisitions of the global property management business of Lend Lease Corporation Limited, SUPERVALU Inc.'s sale of its bakery subsidiary to The Pillsbury Company, Best Lock Corporation's sale to The Stanley Works, and AMCORE Financial, Inc. in various acquisitions and dispositions of banking institutions. Ms. Hassan has also represented issuers and underwriters in numerous public and private securities offerings. She recently represented Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. in connection with its holding company restructuring, initial public offering and subsequent follow-on offerings, and represented Morgan Stanley in a $1 billion notes offering by Abbott Laboratories. Susan has advised many investment banks including Bank of America Corporation, CIBC World Markets, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Morgan Stanley, and Prudential Securities in numerous equity offerings and private placements involving the health care, medical device and life sciences industries. Ms. Hassan provides continuing advice to a number of corporations regarding general corporate and securities law matters, including corporate governance and disclosure issues.
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Bill Hoogterp | Bill Hoogterp Originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, Mr. Hoogterp graduated from Aquinas College with a degree in International Relations and French. After a decade of work helping develop national volunteer programs such as The National Student Campaign Against Hunger, Into The Streets, Break Away and COOL, Bill moved to Newark, working with the Amelior and MCJ Foundation. He helped Michael Sanchez and Andrew Shue found Do Something (www.dosomething.org) and ClubMom (www.clubmom.com and www.cafemom.com) in New York City.Bill is a co-principal with Jim Mustacchia at Mountain Lakes International. He and his wife, Maria, formerly a chemist for Schering Plough, have two children, Peter (5) and Anna (2) and live in New Jersey. He enjoys playing basketball, softball and golf.
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Elizabeth "Beth" Hurvitz VISA, Inc. | Elizabeth "Beth" Hurvitz Beth served as the former Chief Operating Officer of The LEAGUE. She lives in New Rochelle with her daughter Aviva. Beth completed the ARC 1990 transatlantic sailboat race. She also holds board positions on the Executive Forum and the Hebrew Institute of White Plains.Beth comes to The LEAGUE from American Express, where she held several Senior Vice President positions, the last being SVP Global Network Information Insights, Strategy and Privacy. Beth ran American Express' global internet business which was responsible for significant acquisition, loyalty, and reengineering for the company. Prior to American Express, Beth was a Principal with Mercer Management Consulting and an Engineer with IBM. Beth holds a MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University. |
Dorothy A. Johnson Vice-Chair & | Dorothy A. Johnson Dorothy A. Johnson is president of the Ahlburg Company, Grand Haven, Michigan and President Emeritus of the Council of Michigan Foundations, a position she held from 1975-2000. The Council is the largest regional association of grantmakers, serving more than 400 foundation and corporate members making grants for charitable purposes.Ms. Johnson is a trustee and former Chair of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. She serves as a trustee and former Chair of both the Grand Valley State University Board of Trustees and the Indiana Center on Philanthropy Board of Directors. Dorothy is a Director of the Kellogg Company and the Corporation for National and Community Service, appointed by Presidents Clinton and Bush. She is also a Trustee of the Citizens Research Council and former director of the Council on Foundations, Foundation Center, the INDEPENDENT SECTOR, the National Charities Information Bureau, the National Center on Family Philanthropy, Michigan Community Service Commission and the Presbyterian Foundation. She has been appointed by two Presidents (Democratic and Republican administrations) to serve on the Board of the Corporation for National and Community Service. |
James A. Kelly | James A. Kelly James A. Kelly is a senior advisor to foundations, corporations and nonprofit organizations. His clients have included the National Academy of Sciences, Asia Society, World Bank, Standard & Poors, and two education technology firms, Wireless Generation and SchoolNet.James is a member of the Executive Board of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education and the Board of Overseers of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1987 to 1999 he was the founder and President of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. James previously served as a program officer at the Ford Foundation, a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a public school teacher and administrator.
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Lee Kravitz | Lee Kravitz In his 20-year career as an editor and media executive, Lee Kravitz has launched, led and run some of the nation's most widely read publications. He has also initiated dozens of high-profile, public-awareness campaigns with corporate and not-for-profit partners. His mission has been "to tell stories that connect emotionally to everyday Americans, moving them to actions that improve their lives, the nation and the world."From 2000 through 2007, Kravitz was Editor-in-Chief and Senior Vice President of PARADE, the Sunday magazine distributed by more than 400 newspapers. With more than 70 million readers, PARADE was and remains the world's largest-circulation magazine. At PARADE, Kravitz developed several new columns and expanded the magazine's coverage of food, personal finance and health. He edited major articles by such noted writers as Mitch Albom, Michael Crichton, David Halberstam, Norman Mailer, Elie Wiesel, Colin Powell and Bill Clinton. And he initiated cause-related campaigns with such organizations as the American Heart Association, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Research!America, Share Our Strength,HGTV, the Food Network, ABC Entertainment, General Mills and The Nature Conservancy. Kravitz came to PARADE in 1995 to launch REACT, the pioneering, newspaper-distributed magazine for teenagers that reached a weekly circulation of 3 million through 245 newspapers before its close in June 2000. REACT's web site, react.com, was among the most popular teen sites on the Internet, with as many as 7.5 million page impressions per month. The REACT Take Action Awards, a program Kravitz developed with the non-profit New World Foundation, gave away $1 million in college scholarships and philanthropic donations each year to the nation's top young activists. From 1987 to 1995, Kravitz was an editorial director of Scholastic Inc. He oversaw several classroom magazines, including Choices, Science World, Search, Update, and Junior Scholastic and served as director of new media and special projects for the company's 37 magazines. Among the new products and programs he developed were the Scholastic/NBC News Videos with Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric, the National Student Town Meeting Series on C-Span and "Write Lyrics!" with Elektra Records. An honors graduate of Yale University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Kravitz began his career as a freelance writer and photojournalist, traveling to more than 40 countries. He has received more than 200 journalism awards, including the President's Award from the Association of Educational Publishers. Kravitz serves on several not-for-profit boards including those of the Public Education Network, National History Day and Youth Service America. He is president of Youth Communication Inc., a publisher of writing by foster children and inner-city teens. He is a founding board member of The League, which is developing a new school- and web-based model for community service. And he is a member of the Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Health Literacy. He lives in New York City with his wife, the literary agent Elizabeth Kaplan, and their three children: Benjamin and Caroline, 11, and Noah, 8. To find out more about Lee, read his Parade biography. |
Michelle Kydd Lee | Michelle Kydd Lee Michelle Kydd Lee is the Executive Director of the CAA Foundation at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), a talent and literary agency based in Beverly Hills. In this role, Ms. Lee serves as a consultant to clients, executives and corporations on their philanthropic and pro-social initiatives.The CAA Foundation supports teaching and learning in America by using the natural resources of the entertainment community to create positive social change. The Foundation also develops art and technology programs for the underserved schools of Venice, CA, Nashville and New York City, reaching more than 8,000 students and teachers in those communities. The focus of the work is supporting the arts and technology to the underserved. Michelle also serves on the national board of Project Rebirth, a cinematic landmark chronicling the rebirth of Ground Zero in New York City. Project Rebirth will capture the restoration of the entire World Trade Center site through 35mm time-lapse photography. This project is being produced by Project Rebirth, Inc., a New York nonprofit corporation dedicated to the film's creation, production and distribution. Michelle also serves on the national board of the Step Up Women's Network and First Art. Michelle currently lives with her husband Damon and their sons Carter and Beckett, in Santa Monica Canyon, CA.
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Van Nguyen | Van Nguyen Mr. Nguyen is the Managing Partner of Laurel Ridge Asset Management, an investment firm he founded in 2002. Previously, Mr. Nguyen was a Senior Managing Director, Member of the Operating Committee, Global Head of Trading and C.O.O. for Equity Financial Products (EFP) at Bank of America. At the end of 2000, he established a stand-alone proprietary operation and implemented a multi-strategy market-neutral portfolio with volatility trading, convertible arbitrage, event-driven and statistical arbitrage. At AIG-FP, he started the equity trading business. At JPMorgan, Mr. Nguyen traded in New York and London for 6 yrs in equities derivatives. He has a degree in Economics with honors from Harvard. He is a Co-Chair of the Harvard College Fund, and serves on the Major Gifts, the Schools and Scholarship, the Classes & Reunions committees, and has served on the CBOE Institutional Dealers, the ISE Rules and Regulations Committee, the Board of Bank of America Securities - Japan, and the NY Committee of Do Something.
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Ethan Penner | Ethan Penner A dynamic visionary, Mr. Penner permanently re-defined the business of real estate finance by pioneering the introduction and application of securitization technology to the business. At the helm of the Capital Company of America, formerly known as Nomura Asset Capital Corporation, he led the firm to its position as the largest lender in the United States real estate market. Mr. Penner played a pivotal role in the development of the market for liquid commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) in the United States. The CMBS market, which barely existed in 1992, has grown dramatically to become a primary source of capital for the real estate industry. Mr. Penner has received numerous awards of distinction during his career including "The Financial Services Executive of the Year" for each year that he headed The Capital Company of America/Nomura. In 1999, The National Real Estate Investor recognized Mr. Penner as one of the 20th century's 100 icons of the United States real estate industry. Prior to Pacific Star, Mr. Penner was primarily engaged in the areas of private equity investment as well as select financial advisory work. Active in numerous industry and philanthropic organizations.Ethan Penner founded The Penner Group, a firm involved in the financial industry, in September 1998. Mr. Penner was the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Capital Company of America, and its predecessor Nomura Asset Capital Corporation, from 1997 until September 1998. In addition, he was a member of Nomura's Operating Committee and the Executive Managing Director of Nomura Securities International, Inc. from 1994 until September 1998. From 1992 to 1994, Mr. Penner was President of Magellan Financial Services, an investment banking firm which he founded in 1992. Prior to founding Magellan Financial Services, Mr. Penner was a Principal at Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc. from 1987 to 1992. Mr. Penner is an Advisor to the Wharton School's Real Estate Center, serves as a Trustee of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the California Pacific Medical Center and is the founder and current President of The Walt Frazier Youth Foundation.
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Gerry Tirozzi Executive Director National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
| Gerry Tirozzi Dr. Gerald N. Tirozzi is the Executive Director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). He assumed leadership of NASSP in March 1999. NASSP is the preeminent organization and the national voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals, and aspiring school leaders. A native of Connecticut, Dr. Tirozzi is a nationally recognized leader in education reform, having spent over 45 years working to improve teaching and learning for all students by promoting high academic standards and initiating major teaching reforms.From 1996-1999, Dr. Tirozzi served as Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, a position appointed by President Clinton. As Assistant Secretary, Dr. Tirozzi oversaw the administration of 42 federal education programs that represented an $11 billion budget. Dr. Tirozzi served as Connecticut's Commissioner of Education for eight years (1983-1991), and was responsible for many improvements in the state's educational system. He played a major leadership role in developing and implementing the Connecticut Mastery Test, which received national recognition as an assessment model to promote high academic standards and expectations. In addition, he implemented major teaching reforms that promoted both higher salaries and standards, which were at the core of an unprecedented $300 million Educational Improvement Act from the Connecticut General Assembly (1986). He instituted the Connecticut Academy for School Executives, which improved the management and administrative skills of superintendents and central office staff. He developed the Connecticut Principals' Academy, which enhanced the instructional leadership skills of building level administrators. Dr. Tirozzi has held other educational positions, which include a tenured professorship at the University of Connecticut's Department of Educational Leadership, where his concentration was on urban education, educational policy, and the preparation of school superintendents (1993-1995); and the President of Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts (1991-1993). Dr. Tirozzi served as Superintendent in the New Haven (CT) Public Schools from 1977-1983. Other positions he held in that district included: principal, assistant principal, director of secondary education, director of middle schools, director of community schools, guidance counselor, and teacher. Dr. Tirozzi is the author of numerous articles on educational topics, which have been published in educational and scholarly journals. In 2002, NASSP published Reflections on School Leadership, a collection of his writings and speeches. Dr. Tirozzi serves on a number of educational advisory boards. Currently, he is the Chairperson of the Learning First Alliance and the Vice President of the International Baccalaureate of North America Board of Directors. Dr. Tirozzi holds a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Educational Administration and Higher Education from Michigan State University. He has a Sixth Year Certificate in Education Administration from Fairfield University in Connecticut. He received a Master of Arts Degree in Guidance and Counseling and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education from Southern Connecticut State University.
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George H. Walker CEO | George H. Walker George Walker was previously the co-head of Goldman, Sachs and Co.'s Hedge Fund Strategies group and became a Goldman partner at age 29. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the Wharton School and serves on the Advisory Board of the Wharton Financial Institutions Center, an independently managed site at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania that sponsors and directs primary research on financial institutions. Additional philanthropic activities include serving on the National Advisory Board of Youth I.N.C.
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