SEACOLOGY BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Seacology is administered by a Board of Directors who care deeply about protecting island cultures and ecosystems. All of the board members serve without compensation, and each has made significant donations of their own funds and time to Seacology.
Donald M. Arntz
Donald M. Arntz is a Bay Area native. He graduated from California State University, Chico, with a degree in business administration. After graduation, Don joined Arntz Builders, a family business which he currently runs with his brothers. Arntz Builders specializes in public works projects such as the recently completed Berkeley Public Library. He currently lives in Novato with his wife Adrian and his children Chris and Martina. He is also a director of the Arntz Family Foundation.
Larry Barels
Larry Barels was founder and chief executive officer of Wavefront Technologies, a leading innovator of graphics software for film, interactive multimedia, industrial design and visualization markets. Subsequently, he was the chairman of the board of Software.com, a leader in carrier-scale messaging products. Currently, Mr. Barels is a principal of Pacific Capital Resources and an advisor to Vantage Point Venture Partners, through which he structures and arranges venture and leveraged mezzanine capital for companies with high growth potential. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Driveway Corporation. He is an active member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and has been the subject of feature articles in publications including Forbes, TIME, Venture, Entrepreneur and The Wall Street Journal. Larry Barels is an avid scuba diver, surfer and sailor.
Michael Burbank, President
Michael is an Executive Director with Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management and manages a team that provides highly customized financial advice and investment solutions to individuals, families and foundations with $20 million or more in investable assets. Michael is a Certified Investment Management Analyst and CFP and completed the Securities Industries Association Management Program at the Wharton School and the GE Management Course. An avid boater, fisherman and scuba diver, Michael graduated with a B.S. in Aquatic Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Before starting his financial services career in 1983, Michael ran field research diving projects under grants from the California Department of Fish & Game and the National Science Foundation at the UCSB Marine Laboratory and for Neushul Mariculture, Inc. Michael, his wife Cindy Roberts, and their children, live in San Francisco.
Lucien d'Sa
Lucien has held senior management positions in a variety of industries in the United Kingdom. He was Founder and CEO of Southbank Systems plc, a leading developer of infrastructure management software with a worldwide customer base. The company was acquired by MapInfo Inc in 2005. Since then, through the family charitable trust and Rotary International, he actively supports health and educational projects in the UK and Africa. He travels extensively with his wife Caroline and by the end of 2012 will have toured 136 of the world’s 193 UN countries. Lucien, who was born on the island of Zanzibar, is a keen pilot, a Chartered Director, Chartered Marketer and Incorporated Engineer.
Paul Alan Cox, Chairman
Seacology was founded by world-renowned ethnobotanist Dr. Paul Alan Cox. Dr. Cox is a botanist whose scientific research focuses on the ecology of island plants and the ethnobotany of island peoples. Receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard University, he served for many years as professor and dean at Brigham Young University and later became King Carl XVI Gustaf Professor of Environmental Science at the Swedish Agricultural University and the University of Uppsala. For seven years he was Director of the Congressionally-Chartered National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) in Hawaii and Florida, and is currently Executive Director of the Institute for Ethnomedicine, which is affiliated with the NTBG. He is the author of over 150 scientific papers and reviews, and was chosen by TIME Magazine as one of eleven “Heroes of Medicine” for his search for new medicines from plants. In 1997 he received the Goldman Environmental Prize for the conservation efforts described in his book Nafanua: Saving the Samoan Rainforest ( New York: W.H. Freeman), which has been translated into German, Japanese and Samoan. He speaks a variety of island languages and is internationally renowned for his advocacy of indigenous peoples.
Scott S. Halsted
Scott Halsted received an A.B. in biomechanical engineering from Dartmouth College in 1981, and a B.E. from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth in 1982, also in biomechanical engineering. In 1987, he received an M.M. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. He joined Morgan Stanley Venture Partners in 1987, where he is a managing member of their health care group. Scott serves on the board of directors of several health care companies. He grew up cruising on sailboats and it is there that he developed his appreciation for islands and their unique biodiversity and cultures. Along with his wife Lisa and four children, he continues to make regular visits to the islands of the South Pacific, Caribbean, Mexico and the United States.
Douglas Herst, Vice President
Doug is CEO and Chairman of Herst Ventures, a real estate development firm that emanated from his sale of Peerless Lighting to Acuity Brands in 1999. He is a pioneer of indirect lighting systems for schools and offices and holds over twenty utility patents and forty-five design patents in the field of illumination in the US, and ten patents in other countries. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Lumenetix, a lighting technology company. Doug attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he received a B.S. in business administration. He is past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Northern California Chapter of the World Presidents' Organization and the Golden Gate Chapter of the Illuminating Engineering Society. He was a founder and board member of the Barbary Coast Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization, a board member of the Northern California Chapter of YPO, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Graduate Theological Union. Doug has a keen interest in the environment and enjoys being in and around nature as an avid hiker, mountain biker, skier, scuba diver and photographer.
Suzanna Jamieson, Treasurer
Suzanna Jamieson is a naturopathic doctor with a focus on classical homoeopathy and experience as a personal coach. She also has a background in accounting and previously served on the Seacology audit committee. Suzanna is a passionate diver and has served on the board of Seacology US from 2002 - 2006. In 2007 she became a founding member of Seacology Germany where she volunteers as treasurer. Suzanna currently lives most of the year in Germany but spends part of each year in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Masayuki Kishimoto
Masayuki Kishimoto and his wife, Tamako, are successful distributors for Nu Skin International, Inc. They co-ordinate two-thirds of their sales in Japan, where they spend about half of their time. Before becoming involved with Nu Skin, Mr. Kishimoto was a senior account marketing executive at Japan Airlines. Mr. Kishimoto has a Master's Degree in business administration from the University of Maryland and was a recipient of Fulbright fellowships for two consecutive years. He currently serves as a trustee of the National Tropical Botanical Gardens. Mr. Kishimoto is also the founder and president of Kishimoto Family International, Inc.
Barbara Meyer
Barbara Meyer received her BA from the University of Pittsburgh and did graduate studies at Columbia University in history. After moving to Los Angeles, she raised her two children, was a part-time instructor at UCLA, and was active in the community. She focused on educational issues in the foster care system, serving on several boards in these areas. After returning to school at UCLA in Landscape Architecture and being selected as a Coro Fellow she founded with a partner Consensus Planning Group, a public policy consulting and training company. Since selling CPG, Barbara has had the flexibility to pursue diverse interests in the world's varied cultures and environments. This led her to become a fellow of Seacology and join Seacology trips to Tanzania to visit the Chumbe Island project and more recently Vietnam to visit the Cat Ba langur project. On these trips, she has experienced firsthand the "win-win" Seacology philosophy in action. She continues to be involved in the community, some small garden design/restoration, and enjoy active time with three young grandchildren.
Ken Murdock, Vice Chair
Ken founded Nature's Way, one of the world's leading herbal companies, after his mother was cured from a serious illness by plants. He spent several years in Samoa doing volunteer work, residing in the remote islands of the Manu'a group where he became fluent in the language. Ken has always had a special place in his heart for the Polynesian people. When he learned of the impending destruction of the Falealupo rain forest, Ken immediately offered to help stop the logging. In addition to winning major environmental awards, Ken's former company, Nature's Way, funded all of Seacology's administrative costs for three years and has played a key role in Seacology since its inception.
Peter Pistor
Peter C. Pistor was born in Berlin, Germany, where he finished law school with top honors. After practicing law for several years he founded a real-estate business which modernized historic buildings in the heart of Berlin. In 1989 Peter moved to Rome, Italy, where he began his entry into the arts, working as a stage actor in a repertoire theatre company until he was hired to direct the international troupe in classical plays around the country. In 1993, after completing his first film in Rome, he traveled to Los Angeles to study film at UCLA. To date he has produced and directed four films, his latest "In Pursuit," stars Daniel Baldwin and Claudia Schiffer. He speaks fluent English, French, Italian and German.
Shari Sant Plummer, Vice President
Shari Sant Plummer is President of Code Blue Charitable Foundation, Secretary/Trustee of the Summit Charitable Foundation, Vice President/Trustee of Seacology, Trustee of the Deep Search Foundation, President of Lechuza Beach Conservancy, and member of the Smithsonian Ocean Initiative Advisory Council, and WWF National Council and Marine Leadership Committee. A graduate of NYU with a BA in sociology. Ms. Plummer worked as a stylist and Design Director of Ralph Lauren in NY for 9 years, then moved to San Francisco to be Visual Director of Esprit. She founded the environmental fashion and home furnishings store Worldware in San Francisco in 1994, which was one of the first cutting edge lifestyle stores with an environmental focus. Ms. Plummer sold the business in 2001 and devotes her time to environmental conservation. An avid diver, Ms. Plummer travels extensively throughout the world promoting environmental conservation.
Gordon Radley
Gordon Radley consults, advises, and serves on the Board of Trustees of public, private and start-up companies in the entertainment and media industries. He has been working in the entertainment industry for over 35 years and is retired from Lucasfilm Ltd. where he had been President since 1993. He joined Lucasfilm in 1985 and held various senior executive positions, including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Business Group Vice President and General Counsel. During his Presidency, Lucasfilm became one of the most financially successful and pre-eminent entertainment companies in the world, known for its excellence, creativity, and technological achievement. Prior to Lucasfilm, Radley held senior executive positions at major motion picture studios and independent production and distribution companies. Radley has twice served in the United States Peace Corps, as a volunteer in Malawi, Central Africa, and as a project Training Director in Western Samoa, South Pacific. He has been a trustee for foundations working in the arts, international environmental and cultural preservation, and African health and development. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School.
Peter Read
Peter is a Partner of Read Investments, specializing in commercial real estate acquisitions and development. He is the former Co-Owner of Grocery Outlet Inc., a retail grocery business with 135 stores located throughout the western states and Hawaii. Peter attended high school and college both in Switzerland and in the United States, and completed his education as an Economics graduate at the University of San Francisco. He is a Board member of the San Francisco SPCA, Advisory Board member of the California Shakespeare Theatre, and former member of the Advisory Board at Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business. The Otter Cove Foundation, which was established by Peter and his family, supports a number of philanthropic causes in the San Francisco Bay Area, such as the Alta Bates Summit Foundation, the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, and the Marine Mammal Center. Peter who resides in Piedmont, California, most enjoys spending time with his family. He has three grown daughters: Gilan (residing in Carmel Valley with her husband Chris and three young sons); Megan (residing in Lafayette with her husband Eric and their three children); and Carrie (residing in Gig Harbor, WA, with her husband Evan and their two young children). Peter's passion for skiing, car racing, and travel are surpassed only by his passion for his eight grandchildren.
James Sandler
James Sandler is a trustee of the Sandler Foundation where he leads their efforts in the environmental philanthropy. Mr. Sandler has visited many island villages in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.
Joseph Scalzo
Joe Scalzo lives in Colorado and is the President and CEO of WhiteWave and Morningstar Foods Companies, maker of leading organic brands Horizon Organic and Silk soymilk. Joe believes that doing right is good business and has not only supported but helped propel his company's efforts to sustain and improve the environment, with significant commitments to sustainable farming practices and wind energy. Prior to joining WhiteWave, Joe served in various executive roles at the Gillette Company, the Coca Cola Company and Procter & Gamble. Prior to his business career, Joe was a naval officer where he developed his love for sailing, diving and the sea. He holds a Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame and serves on the Board of Directors at HNI Corporation, a manufacturer of office furniture and home hearths. Joe is an avid scuba diver and has traveled the world pursuing his passion.
Michael Staffieri
Michael Staffieri has served for over three decades as president of Financial Advisory Corporation, a financial consulting practice specializing in managing a broad range of financial services to closely held businesses, trust estates and foundations. He has served on several community and corporate boards including; San Diego Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Alumni Executive Council Brigham Young University and the Advisory Board of Chubb & Sons. Michael is a former collegiate All American athlete and recipient of the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship prior to his four-year tenure with the Cincinnati Reds Organization. He is married to the former Marilyn Black and they have 6 children and 14 grandchildren.
Nadine Tang
Nadine Tang is a social worker in private practice in Berkeley, and an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley and Tsinghua University in Beijing. She has served on a number of non profit boards, including the UC Berkeley Foundation where she was the former chair. She is a keen diver and loves the outdoors. Together with her family, she supports a marine research station in Hong Kong where she was raised. Nadine was a member of the Seacology expedition to Uganda.
Sandie N. Tillotson, Vice President
A co-founder of Nu Skin Enterprises, a leading personal care and nutrition company, Sandie has always been deeply interested in improving the quality of people's lives throughout the world. She was named one of the top ten female business owners in the U.S. by Working Woman magazine. As a Seacology Board member, she helps to administer the Nu Skin Force for Good Foundation, an innovative program that links sales of the Epoch line of Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. ethnobotanical products to preservation of indigenous cultures and peoples. Sandie played an important role in expanding Seacology's donor base, and personally launched the Falealupo water supply campaign. Sandie has traveled throughout the world visiting projects supported by both Seacology and the Nu Skin Force for Good Foundation.
Jake Walker
James Leslie Walker, IV, known as "Jake," grew up in San Francisco and now lives in Kentfield, California. Jake attended the University of Virginia (B.A. Economics 1973), Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco (J.D. 1976) and Golden Gate University where he earned an MBA(Tax)-1982. Professionally, he has been an attorney since 1976, is qualified as a California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law and is now a partner in DeMartini & Walker LLP of San Rafael, California. He is a current or former member of several community and charitable organizations, both public and private, but considers Seacology the most effective organization with which he has had the pleasure to serve.
Marsha Garces Williams
Marsha Garces Williams founded Blue Wolf Productions, the film production company that produced Mrs. Doubtfire, among other films. She also started Windfall Foundation, championing philanthropic efforts locally and globally in arenas ranging from art to environmental support to health and educational assistance for underserved children. Along with Seacology, Marsha is also an active board member for the Agassi Foundation, which focuses on children's issues, education, and health. Williams lives in San Francisco when she isn't traveling to some of the world's most remote locations or exploring with her three adult children.