Joe Aaron – Chair, Legacy Development Committee

Joe Aaron began his professional career as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1971. His responsibilities included foreign counterintelligence with a specialty in Middle Eastern affairs.   He acted as a liaison with foreign governments that maintain consular offices in San Francisco.  From 1978 to 1981 he served as the spokesman for the FBI's San Francisco office (it's fourth largest). In 1982, he left the FBI, and entered the securities business, specializing in money management.  He was a Vice President of Investments at Dean Witter from 1982-1984; Vice President of Investments at Wingfield Companies from 1984-1986. He founded May, Stone & Caddis in 1986 and its successor firm Wood, Hat & Silver, LLC. in 1998, which operates hedge funds.   He holds a Bachelor of Arts from West Georgia College, which he claims is the eleventh best college in Georgia.  He is a graduate of the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, where he studied the Egyptian dialect of Arabic.  Joe is a member of the Guardsmen of San Francisco, a philanthropic organization dedicated to sending needy children to summer camp. Joe and his wife Beth have been married since 1971.  They moved to the valley in 2005 and still can't believe their great, good fortune to have chosen Sonoma for their home.  They have a Black Labrador named Grace, who also loves it here.

Zanne Clark Photography

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Peggy Bair – Partner Support Committee, Strategic Planning Committee

Peggy has been a resident of Sonoma Valley since 1969. She taught elementary school from 1959 – 1969. Moving to Sonoma she became Program Director at Sonoma State Hospital from 1969-1979. The Bairs helped found one of the first private elementary schools in the valley. In 1979 she became a real estate broker and helped start the company known as Nova Properties. During this time she served on as a Board member and President of the Community Foundation Sonoma County, President of the Board of the Multiple Listing Service and committee member of the building funds of Vintage House, Field of Dreams and the new Boys & Girls Club. She is currently active as a Broker Associate with Sotheby’s International Realty, a mentor to a high school student and a member of various committees with the Sonoma Valley Hospital. Peggy is a graduate of the University of Denver (BA) and Stanford University (MA). She and Russ are celebrating 52 years of marriage, have two grown children and one grandchild.

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Karen Collins – Co-Chair, Nonprofit Services Initiative; Nominating Committee

Karen has been a part time resident of Sonoma since 1985 and a full time resident since 1997.  She has a B.A. from Whitworth University, an M.A. from The George Washington University, a teaching credential from San Francisco State and is a graduate of the Public Affairs Institute of Washington, D.C.    She was Regional Director of Government Relations for Container Corporation of America, Corporate Director of Public Affairs for Del Monte and Deputy Director of the California State Parks.  She also chaired the Bay Area Public Affairs Council.  In 1997 Karen formed her own company, Going Places!, Inc., specializing in walking, hiking and trekking trips for women. She has chaired the California State Trails Commission, the Sonoma County Parks Commission, Sonoma Salute to the Arts, the Sonoma Overlook Trail Task Force and the Women's Health Center Advisory Board.  In 2008 she received the "Pulse Award," for her work in women's health.  She has served on the Boards of the Sonoma Valley Hospital Foundation, Sonoma Community Center, Sonoma Plaza Foundation, Yosemite National Institutes, Headlands Institute, Sonoma Ecology Center, City of Sonoma Environmental Advisory Commission, and the Sonoma Valley Citizens Advisory Commission.  She is currently chairing the Rowell Legacy Committee and is a member of the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council and the Sonoma County Parks Commission.

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Harriet Derwingson – Past-President; Strategic Planing Committee; Todd Trust Committee; Nominating Committee; Board Member Community Foundation Sonoma County

Harriet and her husband Randy have been residents of Sonoma Valley since 1998.  Her professional background is in the areas of public affairs, government relations, strategic planning and marketing.  She retired from AT&T as Area VP External Affairs, based in Sacramento, and is a graduate of the Univ. of South Carolina and the Univ. of San Francisco.  Harriet was a founding board member of the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art from 1998-2006, and was Board President in 2004-05.  She served on the board of the Napa Valley College Foundation, and the Women’s Health Center Advisory Board for Sonoma Valley Hospital.  She is currently a board member of Community Foundation Sonoma County, and is a Master Gardener and part of a team responsible for the installation of the new demonstration garden at the Sonoma Community Center.  In other communities she has served on numerous boards and advisory councils of cultural, human services, education, civic and business organizations.

Whitney has been a resident of Sonoma Valley since 1991. He is retired.  From 1962 to 1975 he worked for the Diamond Shamrock Corp., from 1976 to 1989 was founder and President, National Health Watch, a health care consulting firm, and from 1990 to 1996 was founder and President, The Harmony Group, a fundraising consulting group. From 1980 to 2006 he was a Member, Board of Directors and Chair Investment Committee, Invacare Corp., a $1.5 billion home health care equipment provider. He is a Board member Boys & Girls Club Valley of the Moon, Special Olympics Sonoma Valley and past Board member & member Rotary Club of Sonoma Valley.  In other communities he has served on boards of education, civic and youth-serving organizations. Whitney is a graduate of Dartmouth College, is married and has three married sons and seven grandchildren.

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Thomas A Haeuser – Board Secretary; Board Treasurer;  SVF Professional Advisor

Tom has been a resident of Sonoma Valley since 1974. He is a lawyer and is a Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law.  He is currently on the board of Sonoma City Opera and is a member of the Professional Advisory Group of Community Foundation Sonoma County.  He is an advisor/volunteer for FISH, Vintage House Senior Center, and Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau. He has been on the boards of the following:  Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce; Sonoma Community Center; United Way of Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake; Sonoma State Historic Park Association; Sonoma Valley Library Advisory Board; City of Sonoma Parks and Recreation Commission; and General Vallejo Memorial Association.

Susan Hoeffel - Chair, Advisor Committee

Susan was born in Texas and came to the San Francisco Bay Area as a child. After earning a BA degree and secondary teaching credential from the University of California at Berkeley, she began her professional career teaching at a junior high school in Oakland. In 1980 she entered the financial services industry and grew to hold executive-level marketing and communications positions, at Equitec Financial Group in Oakland CA and at The Bank of California. In 1992 Susan joined the San Francisco office of SEI Investments Co., a leading national public financial and technology services firm, where she is currently Senior Vice President and Senior Relationship Manager working with the investment arms of large banks. She is a Certified Financial Planner and is currently a Registered Representative and Registered Principal with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Locally, she is a member of the Sonoma Valley Rotary Club.

Susan and her husband Jan have lived in Sonoma since 2004. They have four sons and five grandchildren. They are members of the Sonoma Valley Film Society and the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art and are active supporters of the Mentoring Alliance and Sonoma Valley Boys and Girls Club.  They are also partners in Deerfield Ranch Winery in Kenwood.

Manuel R. Merjil - Member, Todd Trust Committee

Manuel will be familiar to many from his work at The Sonoma Index-Tribune, where he has held a variety of positions, including SONOMA Magazine’s first Executive Editor.  Manuel attended the University of Texas at El Paso where he majored in Public Relations and Advertising and has more than 28 years experience in sales and client services-related areas.  An active member of the Sonoma Valley community, he has been a mentor with the Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance for nine years and served on the Roundtable Committee of the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. He is a founding member of Sonoma GayDar, the Sonoma County Mariachi Festival, and has been a member of the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art’s Advisory Council. 

Manuel lives in Glen Ellen with his partner Paul, surrounded by a vast array of pets – Max, their eight-year-old cat, as well as finches, doves, parakeets and many koi and goldfish.  Manuel, a native of México, enriches Sonoma with his bilingual and bicultural background.

Photo Courtesy of Rebecca Gosselin Photography

Steve Pease – Nominating Committee; Strategic Planning Committee, Youth Initiative Council

Steve has been a resident of Sonoma since 1988. His career focused on turning around troubled companie    s and venture capital investing. He served as CEO of seven public and private companies as well as his own venture capital partnership and he has served on more than 30 public and private boards of directors.  He is Chairman of The U.S. Russia Investment Fund, Co-Chairman of The U.S. Russia Foundation for Economic Advancement and the Rule of Law, and a director of the U.S. Russia Center for Entrepreneurship – all three were initially funded by a $330 million U.S. Government (USAID) grant in 1995. He was Co-Chair of the Sonoma Valley Healthcare Coalition focused on preserving the Sonoma hospital, led the efforts to save the Sebastiani Theater, was a founding director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Program at Sonoma State University and was a director of the Common Bond Foundation. He is also the author of The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement. A graduate of the University of Washington and Harvard Business School, Steve and his wife, Joyce, have three children and six grandchildren.

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Martha Rosenblatt – Chair, Nominating Committee

Martha has been a resident of Sonoma Valley since 1989. She has been on the board of La Luz for 4 years andserved as president in 2009-2010.  She also served for six years on the Sonoma Valley Art Museum Board and as its President in 2005-06 and as a Community Advisor to the Women’s Health and Welfare Task Force of the Sonoma Valley Hospital.  While living in Salt Lake City she served on the Board of Planned Parenthood and was President for three years. In addition, she chaired the President’s Task Force for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, served on its Nominating Committee and on the Board of Directors of the Guadalupe Center for Early Education. Martha is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.

Joshua Rymer – Vice President; Chair, Marketing and Communications Committee; Strategic Planning Committee

Joshua and his partner Tim Frazer have lived in the Sonoma Valley since 1998, initially as weekenders, but have been full-time residents since 2005. Joshua began his professional career working for Pacific Bell (now-AT&T) in Marketing and Business Planning.  Joshua then became a Vice President and Partner with the Boston Consulting Group; working in New York, London and San Francisco.  Joshua handled recruiting for the firm and advised companies in the financial services, consumer products and high technology industries.  He headed the firm's West Coast Financial Services Practice and Co-Authored an early book on how the Internet would transform the Financial Services Industry ("The Information Superhighway and Retail Banking").  Joshua went on to become a Senior Vice President at Charles Schwab & Co. working in both the Retail and Institutional Brokerage businesses.  Most recently, Joshua has been President and Chief Executive Officer for Terradatum, Inc., a Real Estate Software firm headquartered in Sonoma.  Relevantly, Joshua has been involved with several non-profit organizations both in Sonoma and San Francisco, including the Miriam and Peter Haas Foundation and the Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance (where he is a mentor).  Joshua holds both a BA and BS from the University of Pennsylvania and The Wharton School.  He earned an MBA degree from Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

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Scott Smith – Strategic Planning Committee

Scott Smith is the Founder and Managing Partner of Viant Group and a Managing Director of Viant Capital.  Scott has over twenty years of experience in investment banking, venture capital and executive management working primarily with technology, media and healthcare companies.  Prior to Viant, Scott was Managing Director at Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) where he was responsible for establishing the Silicon Valley office and was the co-head of the technology group.  Before CSFB, Scott spent fifteen years with Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro as a Partner where he was responsible for founding the firm's Silicon Valley venture capital office in Menlo Park.  He divides his time between San Francisco and Sonoma.  He currently serves on the World Council of the World Wildlife Fund and Friends House, a Quaker-inspired retirement community in Santa Rosa.

Barbara Young – President; Chair, Strategic Planning Committee; Nominating Committee; Youth Initiative Council

Barbara has lived in the Bay Area since 1972. She recently retired as Superintendent of the Sonoma Valley Unified School District. Prior to that Barbara served as Superintendent of the Mill Valley School District where she had also been an Assistant Superintendent, Director of Curriculum & Instruction and Special Education and as a Principal. She is currently working as a coach for Pivot Learning Partners, a consultant for Cross & Joftus, a firm supporting schools, foundations and non profit organizations, an Advisor for BAYSCI (Exploratorium projects in elementary science education), and an associate with Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, Ltd. (an executive search firm). She is a member of the following boards: Visual Understanding in Education and The Redwoods (a retirement center). Barbara attended UCLA and UC Riverside.

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