Robin
Acker - President
Ken H. Levinson, CPA - Vice President
Maggie McArthur - Treasurer
Kathy Pfeiffer - Secretary
Carol Campbell
Jeff DuBois
Seth Golub
Sue Graham Johnston
Jean Mitchell
Caroline Orrick
Doyle Ott
Wendy Parkman
Jean Bernard Querree
Steve Wilbur
Stanford Graduate School of Business Board Fellows:
Nishita Gupte
Marta Ibanez Nobell
Board Biographies:
Robin Acker President
Robin Acker has provided direct service to individuals and families,
and has designed and directed programs in the not-for-profit sector
for over 20 years. She has held numerous positions at Edgewood Center
for Children and Families, including Director of the Circle of Care
Program, Assistant Director of School- Based Services, Interim Director
of Development and finally Associate Clinical Director. As a licensed
Marriage, Family and Child Therapist, she has experience ranging from
hands-on work with severely emotionally disturbed children to the
creation and supervision of programs to protect vulnerable populations.
Other projects she has overseen include Youth Advocates, Inc. at Huckleberry
House II in San Francisco and the Intensive Treatment Foster Care
at Seneca Center in San Leandro. Robin has been involved with the
Circus Center since 1998 when her son Colin began taking beginning
acrobat classes. Colin now performs with San Francisco Circus and
hopes to continue his career in the Circus Arts.
Ken Levinson Vice-President
Ken has 25 years of experience serving on various not-for-profit boards,
including Gallaudet University, the Center for Nonprofit Management
of Southern California, No Limits Theater Group and several private
schools and national educational organizations. He joined the Circus
Center Board after taking clowning classes. Ken is a CPA, formerly
with Price Waterhouse and is now a partner in Kornetsky & Associates.
His career also included a five year stint as Executive Director of
the Childrens Hearing Institute in New York City where he was
in charge of fundraising for a segment of Manhattan Eye Ear and Throat
Hospital. Ken currently serves as the Chair of the National Development
(Fundraising) Council for the Alexander Graham Bell Association in
Washington, DC. His dedicated service to the community has resulted
in being the recipient of the California Society of CPAs Public
Service Award and the Lakeside School Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Maggie McArthur - Treasurer
Maggie is a management consultant with the international consulting
firm, Bain & Company, focusing on strategic issues such as growth
strategy, operational and profit improvement, and reorganization.
She brings to the table a breadth of business and financial skills.
Maggie recently received an MBA and Certificate in
Nonprofit Management from Stanford Graduate School of Business. At
Stanford, she continued to expand her passion for volunteerism and
nonprofit management. Maggie was a leader of Stanfords Net Impact
chapter, a network of MBAs committed to the not-for-profit sector,
and the Chief Financial Officer for I Have a Dream, a youth mentoring
program in East Palo Alto. Maggie was a gymnast for 10 years and started
flying trapeze at Circus Center in 2002. She was asked to help with
the Finance Committee and eventually to join the board after trips
to Africa volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, working in the Australian
offices of Bain, and returning to school for her MBA.
Kathy Pfeiffer - Secretary
Kathy stepped into the Secretary role after serving as Board President
during the 2005-2006 fiscal year. A retired Human Resources consultant
with over 25 years of experience, she has been involved in almost
every aspect of HR policy and implementation for various companies
and organizations, including consulting for banks in Istanbul, Turkey,
and Bangkok, Thailand. Kathys experience includes twenty years
at Bank of America in the Chicago, New York and San Francisco offices.
Starting with B of A after receiving her MBA, she rose to become Vice
President of Business Engineering Services working on change management
efforts for the CEO. Her non-profit work includes setting up the HR
function at the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation. Prior to serving
as President of the Circus Center Board, Kathy was Chair of the Development
Committee and the Centers first major fundraising event, an
extremely successful wine auction and evening. Being totally committed
to helping the Circus Center raise money, she has held fundraising
parties at her home for friends and other supporters.
Carol Campbell
Carol comes to the Circus Center with varied experiences in the world
of sports and athletic performance. Her career started out as the
Co-Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of Philadelphia and moved
into the area of sports, including being in charge of marketing efforts
for Runners World magazine and being the Director of the Mayors
Council on Physical Fitness and Sports for San Francisco. Carol had
a 15-year stint as the head coach of the University of Indiana gymnastics
team and also coached and taught gymnastics at Farmingdale University
and several high schools. She was responsible for several sporting
events, including five State Regional Gymnastics Championships, and
running and tennis events. Carol has also been very involved in Community
work with the Suicide Prevention Hotline, Marin Public Schools Curriculum
Committee and the Womens Sports Foundation. She has also served
as President of the Division of Girls and Womens Sports for
the State of New Mexico and the Mill Valley Co-op Preschool.
Jeff DuBois
Jeff was recruited for the Board in order to help the Circus Centers
new transition to the future with his unique Strategic Planning and
organizational skills. Jeff is currently the Organizational Development
Director for Edgewood Center for Children and Families. While there,
in collaboration with the executive management team and the Board
of Directors, he was responsible for the development and implementation
of the agencys Strategic Plan. Trained in
Participatory Decision Making (PDM), Jeff has had extensive experience
using the PDM model with a variety of not-for-profit organizations
and groups. He also has a strong background in accreditation, having
organized and managed the successful reaccreditation of the entire
agency by the Council on Accreditation. Jeffs volunteerism includes
group facilitation for the Overseas Development Network and project
coordination for AmeriCorps*VISTA.
Seth Golub
Seth is an expert in the devil sticks, having published a book with
Klutz, demonstrated and taught at juggling festivals and trade shows,
and invented related apparati, including the Devil's Triangle. After
years of recreational juggling and off-road unicycling, his involvement
with the Circus Center began with Chinese acrobatic classes in 2001,
in which he still trains. In 2006, he visited Laos on a 300 mile unicycle
tour, stories and photos of which can be found on his web site. Seth
is a software engineer who specializes in machine learning and has
worked for small and large software companies for over 20 years. Seth
also runs a non-profit music review board, which has published over
750 independent reviews of professional and amateur cappella albums
from around the world since he co-founded the organization in 1993.
Seth continues to build upon his many talents and is currently working
on enhancing his skills as a circus photographer.
Sue Johnston
Sue has extensive business experience in the Internet and computer
industry, having worked her way up at Sun Microsystems from a supplier
engineer to her current position as Vice President of Worldwide Operations
for the Volume Systems division of Sun. Sue received an MBA from Stanford
University. Her prior work experience includes account management
and technical roles at E2open, Cummins Engine Company and Bain &
Company. Sues connection with the Center started with flying
trapeze classes as a recreational student in 1997. She has put her
training on hold to focus on her independent role as a
board member, bringing her financial and strategic skills to the mix.
She was instrumental in securing a foundation grant that enabled the
Circus Center to re-start the Circus Apprentice Program (CAP). Circus
Center has a special place in her heart that goes beyond being a board
director, as the Center is where she met her husband, EJ, who continues
to train.
Jean Mitchell
Jean is currently the Director of Paralegal Studies at California
State University, East Bay. Before she became a lawyer, she was an
occupational therapist at Bellevue Hospital in New York and St. Marys
Hospital and the Institute of Aging, in San Francisco. While in Law
School, Jean clerked for Judge D. Lowell Jensen of the United States
District Court, Northern District of California. After receiving her
law degree from the University Of San Francisco School Of Law, she
became a bankruptcy attorney for Rosenblum, Parish and Isaacs in San
Francisco. She then went on to the Law offices of Stephan Williams
in Walnut Creek where she worked as a contract attorney for three
years. Jean also has significant nonprofit board experience, having
served on the Board of Trustees for Prospect Sierra School and for
the International Institute of the East Bay.
Caroline (Linie) Orrick
Linie was President of the Circus Center Board during the 2004-2005
fiscal year and now chairs the Development Committee. Linies
board experience includes the Parent Education Network, Edgewood Center
for Children and Families, Planned Parenthood of San Francisco, San
Francisco Education Fund, Childrens Theater Association as well
as involvement in other Bay Area organizations. An avid and committed
parent of three daughters, she was involved at the Katherine Delmar
Burke School for 14 years, serving as President of the Parent Association
and liaison to the Board of Directors, Co-Chair of their Annual Fund,
and as a chair and member for numerous committees. Linie began her
teaching career in world history at an east coast boarding school
in 1976 and ended it in 1984 at Marin Country Day School. A performer
at heart, she has performed since 1992 with the Childrens Theater
Association. As a graduate of the Circus Center Clown Conservatory
in 2004 and second year program, she performed for the Judy Finelli
Fund Raising event and the New Pickles Holiday show, High Water
Radio. Linie has been very active in soliciting new and renewed
donors, bringing on new Board members, and organizing fundraising
events.
Doyle Ott
Doyle is a long time circus performer, director, teacher, scholar
and administrator. Currently, he is the Artistic Director of Children's
Theatre at Children's Fairyland in Oakland, California and teaches
theatre at Sonoma State University. A graduate of the Clown Conservatory,
Doyle has performed in numerous theater productions and clown and
circus shows including Make A Circus, the San Francisco Shakespeare
Festival and Lunatique Fantastique. He has also taught classes for
both children and adults, in a wide range of subjects including puppetry,
clowning, acting, movement, creative drama, storytelling, improvisation,
mask making, juggling, aerial arts and others. Doyle has presented
his research on youth circus training internationally at academic
conventions and youth circus festivals. His directorial experience
includes children and adult theater and circus shows, for such organizations
as the New Conservatory Theater, the Crucible, Splash Circus Theatre,
and others
Wendy Parkman
Wendy re-joined the Circus Center Board after a hiatus of almost 10
years. Her career as a performer and teacher of circus arts goes back
to the beginning of the circus renaissance in San Francisco in the
mid 1970's, when the Pickle Family Circus and Make-A-Circus began.
She performed with the Pickle Family Circus as a juggler, acrobat
and aerialist from 1979-1983, and as an aerialist with the Flying
Karamozov's production of The Comedy of Errors, at the Goodman Theatre
(1983), the Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles (1984), Lincoln Center
(1987), and in Joanna Haigood's Zaccho Dance Theatre at Theater Artaud
in 2002. With Judy Finelli she was one of the founding members of
the Pickle Family Circus School in 1984. She was an integral part
of the transition to the San Francisco School of Circus Arts teaching
recreational classes and serving on the board from 1994-1998. She
has been teaching circus arts and theatre at the Urban School of San
Francisco since 1989, as well as being a guest teacher at various
schools in the Bay Area, the Young Conservatory of ACT and Cal Shakes.
Jean Bernard Querree
Jean-Bernard is an entrepreneur and has been responsible for the successful
entry of over 50 American high-tech companies in Europe in the past
10 years. Among others, he has been instrumental in the European expansion
of companies such as eBay, Netscreen, Tell Me, Webex, Amazon, Entopia,
Nuance, Motive Communication, Visto, Business Wire, E*Trade, First
Data, Websense. He led the California Tech Showcase initiative, building
on his experience and ability to identify US companies with high potential,
work with them on their European strategy and help them in the phase
of implementation. In 2003, Jean-Bernard was nominated President of
the Conseillers du Commerce Exterieur de la France for the West Coast
region of the US. He has also been a board member of the French American
Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco for 5 years. An accomplished
athlete, he used to be a member of the French national ski team.
Steve Wilbur
Steve got involved with the Circus Center when asked to lend his professional
knowledge in helping with programs involving at-risk youth. A Licensed
Marriage Family Therapist, he is a consultant on assessment related
to self-esteem and other mental health issues. Steve has consulted
with the San Francisco Foster Care Mental Health Program, Alameda
County Health Care Services Agency (Our Kids Program), the San Francisco
Unified School District (School Health Programs) and many others.
Steve has also dabbled as an Organizational Consultant at the Center
of Excellence at Blue Shield. He is involved in other nonprofit endeavors
such as Bay Area Wilderness Training where he chairs the Scholarship
Committee and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society where he served as a triathlon
coach for Team in Training.Stanford
Graduate School of Business Board Fellows
As part of their graduate MBA studies, two individuals were selected
to serve as Board Fellows with responsibility for specific projects
related to governance of the Circus Center.
Nishita Gupte
Nishita entered Stanford Graduate School of Business after two years
with Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe, LLP, a private equity firm
where she was a member of a team managing over $16 billion of private
equity and mezzanine capital in the healthcare and business services
industries. She played a key role in the determination of a $100 million
equity investment to support an operator of urgent care clinics. Prior
to that, she was with Goldman Sachs & Co as an investment analyst.
Nishita also volunteered as an English tutor and career skills coach
at the International Center.
Marta Ibanez Nobell
Marta came from Spain to the United States to attend Stanford Graduate
School of Business after three years with REPSOL YPF, a Spanish energy
company with revenues of $8.4 billion and 37,000 employees. At REPSOL,
she was a Metallurgical Maintenance Manager where she fast tracked
from an engineering position to manager in only three years. As a
manager, she managed up to 200 employees with an almost $50 million
budget. Marta was a board member of a property management firm in
Spain and is fluent in five languages.
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