Joseph J. D’Ambrosio, President
Elected to the Board in 1997, Mr. D’Ambrosio is the founder and President of Ibis Management, LLC, an investment management firm. From 1988 to 1996, he was a Managing Director of The Taylor Simpson group and previously a Vice President at Hampton Partners. Prior to that, he was a member of the Corporate Finance Department of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. He received his S.B. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also a CFA charterholder.
James Fabian, Vice President
Elected to the Board in 2002, Mr. Fabian is a partner at Nixon Peabody LLP in New York City where he is Health Services Practice Group Leader. He joined Nixon Peabody in 1994 after ten years at New York Hospital where he served as Vice President and Deputy Counsel. His broad based experience includes the handling of legal matters in substantive areas as commercial transactions, managed care, fraud and abuse, medical malpractice, liability insurance, risk management patient’s rights and governmental regulatory agencies among others. Mr. Fabian is a graduate of Oberlin College and St. John’s University School of Law.
Umber Ahmad, Treasurer
Elected to the board in January 2008, Ms. Ahmad is Principal and Co-founder of Goldenridge Capital, LLC, a New York City private investment firm where she sources and evaluates acquisition investment opportunities. Prior to founding Goldenridge Capital, LLC, Ms. Ahmad was a vice president in the Private Equity group of Goldman Sachs and Company. Previously she was an associate in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley. She received her M.S. from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She also holds a M.S. in Public Health from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Biogenetics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Rachel Heisler, Secretary
Elected to the Board in September 1999, Ms. Heisler is President of the Tudor Healthcare Group, Inc., specializing in global nurse recruitment. She was previously a Vice President at Citigroup, with 15 years experience in retail industry corporate finance and trade finance. She has family experience with eye donation: her son became a living eye donor following a traumatic accident. Ms. Heisler graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University and received her MBA from the William E. Simon School of Management at the University of Rochester.
Donna G. Banks
Elected to the Board in September 1998, Ms. Banks is currently a Features Editor for Reader’s Digest magazine, one of many positions she's held since 1977. In 1992, she donated her husband's corneas after he died awaiting a heart transplant. She has been active in increasing donor awareness, speaking to various organizations across the nation, including The Eye Bank Association of America, UNOS and the American Society of Minority Health and Transplant Professionals. She is a member of the Communications Committee of UNOS. In the past, she was a member of the National Donor Family Council and the public education committee of the National Kidney Foundation. She also served on the board of the Coalition on Donation. Ms. Banks received her B.S. from Goucher College.
Marilyn L. Castaldi
Elected to the Board in June 1999, Ms. Castaldi became President of the Board of Directors in June 2004. She is currently a Communications Consultant and previously served as the Interim Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs at NYU Langone Medical Center. She also previously served as Chief Communications Officer for Columbia University Medical Center. Her career in healthcare communications has spanned the academic, corporate and agency worlds. Before joining Columbia University in 2004, she served for one year as General Manager of the New York office of Hill and Knowlton Inc. For nine years before that, she developed and led the healthcare practice at Fleishman Hillard, another international public relations firm, working in the NYC and Washington, D.C. offices of the firm. She has been the recipient of many national awards for her communications work. She received her B.A. from Syracuse University and an M.B.A. from New York University's Stern School of Business.
Giovanni F. DiCenso
Elected to the Board in June 2004, Mr. DiCensois currently a Tax Manager in the Merger and Acquisition Services group at Deloitte and Touche LLP, New York. Since 1998, he has held several positions at this firm, including Senior Consultant with the International Tax Group in Philadelphia and Tax Manager with the National Transfer Pricing Team in Washington, D.C. Mr. DiCenso earned his B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, his J.D. from the Claude W. Pettit College of Law, Ohio Northern University and his LLM in International and Comparative Laws from Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. DiCenso has also co-authored several research articles related to international tax, and is fluent in Italian.
Paul Kayaian
Elected in 2010, Mr. Kayaian is President of Mosaic Enterprises, LLC and a 25-year veteran of the business of global corporate sponsorship and marketing for a wide range of properties and events. Past clients include: Madison Square Garden, the NBA, NFL, XFL and NASCAR. Mr. Kayaian is one of the founders of the NBA's International division, and was a Managing Director of the NFL's European operations. Born and raised in New York City, Mr. Kayaian holds a B.A. in marketing from St. John's University and resides in Westchester County with his family.
Peter Leav
Elected to the board in March 2008, Mr. Leav is senior vice president of NCR's Global Sales organization, responsible for driving growth of NCR’s assisted and self-service solutions across NCR’s strategic lines of business: Financial Services, Retail and Hospitality, Travel and Gaming, Entertainment and Healthcare. He previously served as Vice President and General Manager at Motorola, Inc. where he oversees the company’s interests in The Americas. When Motorola encouraged its executives to expand their philanthropic interests, Mr. Leav thought of The Eye-Bank as an organization where he could make a contribution because of his unique experience as both a cornea transplant recipient and as a world-class marketing professional. Mr. Leav has also worked for Symbol Technologies, Cisco Systems, Inc. and Tektronix, Inc and received a B.A. from Lehigh University.
Richard A. Mittenthal
Elected to the Board in 1996, Mr. Mittenthal is President of TCC Group, a management consulting firm that provides planning, evaluation, and grants management services. He joined the firm, formerly known as The Conservation Company, in 1989. He is a member of the International Network on Strategic Philanthropy, an initiative involving 58 individuals from North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. Mr. Mittenthal spent 12 years at the New York Community Trust, where from 1983 to 1989 he served as a Vice President for Program, overseeing the discretionary grant program at the largest U.S. community foundation. Active in civic and cultural affairs, he served for six years as a mayoral appointee to the New York City Commission on Cultural Affairs. He currently serves on the boards of Symphony Space and the Alliance for the Arts and served as a Trustee of Meet the Composer, The American Symphony Orchestra League and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. He is a graduate of Roosevelt University and received an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Mr. Mittenthal is a bilateral cornea recipient.
Michael Mullins
Elected to the Board in 1997, Mr. Mullins founded Comtex Information Systems in 1976. The firm is recognized as a leading organization for value-added consulting and business systems integration and is one of the top 500 VARs in North America. Prior to founding Comtex, Mr. Mullins was at Banker’s Trust and Chase Manhattan Bank. A graduate of Pace University, he is President of the St. Luke Education Fund, the Mead Point Tax District and a member of the Board of Arch Street Foundation in Greenwich, CT.
Andrea Nordquist
Elected to the Board in 1996, Ms. Nordquist has been active in local community affairs on Long Island including The Wantagh Auxiliary of Cerebral Palsy, Boy Scouts, and her parish. She is the Assistant Principal at St. Martin de Porres Marianist School. The Nordquists donated their son’s eyes to The Eye-Bank when he died in a tragic accident at the age of two. The Young Ambassador Scholarship in Memory of Christopher Nordquist was recently set up in his memory. This scholarship will be awarded each year to a high school senior who has helped to promote eye donation through a community service project or by helping to educate others about the need for eye donation.
Scott Roen
Elected to the Board in November 2007, Mr. Roen is Vice President Network Marketing at Global Merchant Services, ES, where he was recently promoted to lead new product and interactive development for the organization. Previously he was Director for American Airlines Co-brand Partnership in Global Marketing and Strategy, GCS and Senior Manager of Acquisition for Delta, Costco and emerging partnerships. Mr. Roen received a B.A. in history from Miami University and studied international economics at Dolibois European Center.
Carla Skodinski
Elected to the Board in June 1999, Ms. Skodinski is currently the Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at Van Beuren Management, Inc. Prior to joining Van Beuren, she was Director of Investments at The Rockefeller University. She spent twelve years at Goldman, Sachs and Co. in the Principal Investment Area and several years in the Latin American Investment Bank of Citibank, N.A. Ms. Skodinski is Treasurer and a board member of American Farmland Trust and Pro Mujer/Programs for Women, a non-profit micro-enterprise and training program operating in Latin America. A Certified Public Accountant, she received her A.B. from Mount Holyoke College and her M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. Ms. Skodinski is a member of the Investment Committees of the Boards of Mount Holyoke College, Skidmore College, the American Council of Learned Societies and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
Anne Alexis Coté Taylor
Ms. Taylor was elected to the Board in June 1993 and served as President from 1997 to 2004. Before retiring, she was the Vice President of Nursing at The New York Hospital (now New York-Presbyterian-Weill Cornell). She has professional affiliations with numerous organizations and associations and serves on the Boards of CIGNA Life of New York, and Silvercrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, a member of the New York-Presbyterian Health Care System. She has served on many committees and has authored and published articles in various health periodicals and was presented with New York Woman, Life of the City Award in 1991. Ms. Taylor received her Bachelors in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and received a M.P.A from New York University. She resides in New York City and Lyme, Connecticut.
Michael Zambrelli
Elected to the board in January 2008, Mr. Zambrelli is President and Creative Director of Zambrelli, LLC, a New York-based advertising agency which he founded in 1997. With an emphasis on creativity and strategic development, Zambrelli, LLC serves such clients as Chuck E. Cheese, Firmenich, New York Laundry and Sideways and the Partnership for a Drug Free America. Prior to forming his agency, Mr. Zambrelli worked with Ogilvy and Mather, Young and Rubicam and Wells, Rich and Greene with clients such as Proctor and Gamble, Sports Illustrated and General Foods. Mr. Zambrelli received his B.A. from Harvard College and a GSA from Harvard University.
Honorary Directors
Mel. M. Immergut
Elected to the Board in December 1981, Mr. Immergut is Chairman of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy LLP. He has been a partner in the Global Corporate Department of the Firm since 1980 and Chairman since 1995. Mr. Immergut has extensive experience in a wide variety of corporate transactional work, including merger and acquisition transactions, financing transactions, leveraged leasing and real estate finance. He is responsible for, among other clients, the firm’s representation of JP Morgan Partners, Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, Anheuser-Busch, Astoria Financial, Mastercard, NASCAR, Tyson Foods, Tyco and William E. Simon and Sons. Mr. Immergut received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his J.D. and M.B.A. from Columbia University. He serves as a Trustee and Past-President of the American College of Investment Counsel and was past President of The Billfish Foundation. Mr. Immergut is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He serves on the Board of the Legal Aid Society and on the Columbia Law School Board of Visitors. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
David Paton, M.D.
Elected to the Board in June 1995, Dr. Paton has been an Honorary Director since his retirement from active medical practice as an ophthalmologist and corneal surgeon in 1994. His career was in academic medicine, serving on the faculties of Johns Hopkins (The Wilmer Institute); Baylor College of Medicine (Director, the Cullen Eye Institute); Professor, Cornell University College of Medicine (Chairman, Ophthalmology at Catholic Medical Center of Brooklyn and Queens). Over the years he has served eye-banking in various countries of the Mid-East, South America and Asia. He is a past Chairman of the American Board of Ophthalmology and founded Project ORBIS, serving as its Medical Director from 1972 to 1987. He is the recipient of two honorary degrees (one from Princeton University, his alma mater), and in April 2005 received the Distinguished Alumnus Award at Johns Hopkins. In 1984, he received the Paton Award, named for his father, R. Townley Paton, M.D., from the Eye Bank Association of America. In addition, Dr. Paton was awarded the French Legion of Honor from President Mitterand and the President’s Citizen’s Medal from President Reagan, the first physician so honored.
George B. Snell
Elected to the Board in 1969, Mr. Snell was Secretary of the Board from 1969 to 2003 at which time he was named Honorary Director. Mr. Snell is a partner at McLaughlin and Stern. He was a partner of Bryan Cave and also formerly of Turk, Marsh, Kelly and Hoare and predecessor firms from 1952 to date. Mr. Snell is a board member of Otsego 2000 and Otsego Land Trust. He is legal advisor and Trustee of the Freeman Foundation. He is a graduate of Yale University and New York University Law School.