 Board
of Directors
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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 Children’s 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 CPA’s 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 Stanford’s Net Impact chapter, a network of MBA’s 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. Kathy’s 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 Center’s 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 Runner’s World magazine and being the Director of the Mayor’s 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 Women’s Sports Foundation. She has also served as President of the Division of Girls and Women’s 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 Center’s 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 agency’s 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. Jeff’s 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. Sue’s 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. Mary’s 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. Linie’s board experience includes the Parent Education Network, Edgewood Center for Children and Families, Planned Parenthood of San Francisco, San Francisco Education Fund, Children’s 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 Children’s 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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