William McChesney has broad experience in
banking at JPMorgan Chase and the not-for-profit sector as Director of the New Jersey
Field Office for The Trust for Public Land and Director of Development for Regional
Plan Association. A year-round resident of Quogue, Bill advocates land/historic
preservation, balanced growth, and education serving on the boards of Group for
the East End and The Quogue Association while fund-raising for Princeton University.
Bill is a graduate of Princeton University and the Columbia Graduate School of Business.
Harris A. Barer is a lawyer and real estate
investor with offices in New York City. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors
of the National Alopecia Areata Foundation (NAAF) an international organization
aimed at finding a cure or acceptable treatment for alopecia areata and a member
of the Board of Directors and Secretary of Homes for the Homeless (HFH), a national
non-profit organization focused on providing solutions for homeless families. He
is a graduate of Colgate University (magna cum laude) and Yale Law School. He is
married to Helen, who is a novelist, and they reside in Water Mill and New York
City.
W. Marco Birch is a Partner of Moore Capital
Management LLC and a Senior Portfolio Manager, focusing primarily on investing in
non G-7 countries. Marco is most passionate and committed to conservation, particularly
on the East End of Long Island. He believes that we have reached a critical juncture
in regard to conservation of dwindling resources, and that what we do now will determine
what remains for the future. Marco has also been supportive of Boys Harbor, Fresh
Air Fund, St. David's School, Southampton Fresh Air Home, Peconic Land Trust, Shelter
Island Community Preservation Fund, Mashomack Preserve, Peconic Baykeeper, NRDC
and the Land Trust Alliance. He is a graduate of Princeton University.
Mark A. Burchill is currently an owner and
CEO of Resort Sports Network (RSN), a national television network that airs in high
end resort towns. He was a cofounder of 24/7 Media, a global Internet marketing
company that was publically listed on Nasdaq and had over 1,000 employees. He began
his career at Young & Rubicam Advertising and Petry Media. Mark has a BA from Hobart
College and a MBA from UCLA.
Andrew Goldstein is a securities attorney
practicing in New York City. In addition to his activities on behalf of the Group,
Mr. Goldstein serves on the Boards of the East Hampton Village Preservation Society
and The East Hampton Health Care Foundation. Mr. Goldstein currently serves as the
Chairman of the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals.
Mark Hissey is the Managing Principal of Hissey
Golf consultants and Vice President of Duck Pond Corp. As Vice President of Duck
Pond Corp., Mark managed the complete design, permitting and construction of Sebonack
Golf Club, with its the highly-acclaimed and environmentally-responsible Jack Nicklaus
and Tom Doak design. Mark is a graduate of Harvard University and recently acted
as Vice-Chairman of his 25th reunion, and had a highly successful 15-year career
in consumer finance, specializing in asset liquidation. His publicly-held company
was acquired by Bank of America, where he served as Senior Vice President and managed
a staff of more than 200 employees nationwide.
Gregory Hoogkamp is a Managing Director
of Goldman Sachs & Co. in their Private Wealth Management Business. He currently
lives in New York City and Quogue with his wife and two boys. In addition to his
involvement with the Group for the East End, he is a Trustee of his alma Mata, Hamilton
College. Greg also received an MBA from Harvard University.
Peter Schellbach is the Managing Director
and Head of Credit Trading at Macquarie Capital. He was a reporter for The Southampton
Press and a graduate of Princeton University. He lives in Quogue and New York City.
John Shea is one of the founding partners in
the law firm of Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo, LLP, a general
practice firm on Long Island with a 55 person staff of attorneys, paralegals and
legal secretaries. Prior to establishing his firm, he served as Counsel to the White
House Council on Environmental Quality and earlier as an Assistant Attorney General
for the State of New York in the Environmental Protection Bureau. He has frequently
written and lectured on environmental law and been involved in environmental issues
both professionally and on a volunteer basis for over 35 years. He received his
undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and his law degree from Fordham
University . Mr. Shea is a full-time resident of East Hampton.
John C. Waddell is Vice Chairman of the board
of directors of Arrow Electronics, Inc. and the retired former Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of the company. Arrow, headquartered in Melville, Long Island,
is a major global distributor of electronic components and computer products. Waddell
is a graduate of Yale College and the Harvard Business School. He resides in Montauk
and New York City.
Mary Walker is a veteran fundraiser, activist
and philanthropist for Group for the East End, as well as several animal welfare
charities. She currently serves as a Trustee of the Village of Dering Harbor and
has devoted much of her life to preserving the rural character of Shelter Island.
She served on the first board of The Nature Conservancy’s Mashomack Preserve. She
lives in Dering Harbor and New York City with her husband Ken.
Steve Biasetti served as Group for the East
End's Environmental Analyst from 1989 to 2005, and is currently its Director of
Environmental Education. Steve is involved in all aspects of GEE's classroom, field
and adult education programs. He earned a B.A. in Biology from College of the Holy
Cross (Worcester, MA) and an M.E.M. in Forest Resource Ecology from Duke University
(Durham, NC). His interests include wildlife-watching, outdoor recreation, sports,
and North American travel. Since 1996, Steve has coordinated the Fauna-thon, a day-long
wildlife search to raise funds for the Group.
Judy Christrup graduated Phi Beta Kappa from
Ohio Wesleyan University and began her career in Environmental Communications as
the Associate Editor of Greenpeace magazine in Washington, D.C. (1986 to 1991).
After moving to the East End, she became Director of Communications for Group for
the East End in 1995, Director of Development and Communications in 2002, and Director
of Development in 2010. Her interests include grassroots environmental movements,
conservation ethics, outdoor recreation, nature photography, American history, and
military history. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Military History from Norwich
University.
Robert S. DeLuca has served as President
and CEO of Group for the East End since 1992. He holds a B.S. in Environmental Science
from Fordham University and an M.S. in Environmental Science from the State University
of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Prior to joining the
Group, Bob worked as both a Biologist and Senior Environmental Analyst with the
Suffolk County Office of Ecology and has taught environmental advocacy and policy
as an adjunct professor for Long Island University for over 15 years.
Kate Fullam joined the Group's staff in 2004
as Special Assistant to the President and now serves as the Director of Community
Outreach. She prides herself in being the "jack of all trades," having mastered
projects from the production of newsletters to coordinating kayaking events, osprey
nesting platform repairs, and volunteer activities. Kate holds a B.S. in Marine
Science from Long Island University (Southampton, NY) and a Master of Nonprofit
Administration degree from North Park University (Chicago, IL). Her nature-related
interests include kayaking, biking and (most recently) stand-up paddle boarding.
Kristina Lange is the Office and Data Systems
Manager at Group for the East End. Before joining the Group she was Director of
Marketing & Communications at the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons for 10 years.
She worked for Smith Barney and Lord Abbett & Co. in Manhattan and after 11 years
started a new career in not-for-profit marketing and fundraising at God’s Love We
Deliver. A nature enthusiast, she has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and
trekked the Annapurna mountains in Nepal. She lives on Shelter Island, where she
began spending summers in 1973. She holds a B.S. in business management from Ithaca
College.
Jennifer Hartnagel graduated with a B.A.
in Geography from James Madison University in 2004. In an effort to pursue her passion
for environmental issues she earned a M.S. degree in Environmental Science with
a concentration in Environmental Communication and Participatory Processes from
the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry
in Syracuse, New York. Jenn began working as an Environmental Advocate in January
of 2007.
Eleanor Roper was born and raised in North
Carolina and graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Upon her
graduation, she began her career in New York with Conde' Nast publications, working
on both the editorial and business staff for Vogue, House & Garden and Vanity Fair
Magazines. She pursued a post degree in fine-art photography and furthered her career
with the Meredith, Hearst, Southern Progress and Conde' Nast corporations as a free-lance
stylist, art director and contributing editor. As a philanthropist and activist,
she has traveled to third world countries (Bolivia, Kenya and South Africa) on behalf
of AIDS orphans, women and children, and has organized local and international support
for education, health care, and self-sustaining initiatives for many years. Her
passion for the natural world and conviction of conservation and social justice
have been her most recent inspiration to join The Group For The East End.
Jeremy Samuelson came to the East End in
1993 to attend Southampton College, where he earned a B.A. in Cultural Ecology.
Before becoming a member of the Group for the East End staff, he covered ecological
issues for The New York Times and The East Hampton Star. He has also worked in the
East Hampton Town Planning Department, as a spokesman for the Suffolk County Police
Department, and as a pound trap fisherman, among other very odd jobs.
Jennifer Skilbred is a Sag Harbor native
who earned her B.S. in Earth and Environmental Science from Lehigh University, where
she concentrated on aquatic ecology. After a brief internship at the Peconic Baykeeper,
she earned an M.E.M. in Coastal Environmental Management from Duke University. While
at Duke, she interned at Woods Hole (where she studied coastal management plans
for the Yellow Sea) and taught environmental education in Durham schools. Before
coming to the Group, she worked on an inter-organizational project at World Wildlife
Fund to improve marine-protected areas worldwide.
Aaron Virgin comes to the Group from the Audubon
Society, where he worked in several National, state and local capacities. Most recently
he was Director of the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary, Oyster Bay. Aaron has also
worked as an environmental educator for the State of New York. He holds a B.A. in
Environmental Science from Plattsburgh State University, where he attended the prestigious
Miner Institute and a M.P.S. in Wildlife Ecology & Management from the College of
Environmental Science & Forestry, Syracuse. An accomplished ecotourism guide, some
of his trips included Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Libya, Mali, The Gambia and Hawai‘i.
Anita C. Wright earned her B.A. from Tufts
University and her M.S. in Environmental Education from Antioch New England Graduate
School. In the fall of 1998, she joined Group for the East End as an Environmental
Educator. Prior to working at the Group, she spent 5 years as an Outdoor Educator
and Assistant Program Director for Boston University Sargent Center in New Hampshire
where she taught environmental education and led high ropes courses, rock climbing
and wilderness trips.