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Mark Nunan was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1953. At an early age, he moved to Homewood and then Hoover, Alabama. In 1971, he graduated from Indian Springs High School, where he was editor of the school newspaper and literary magazine, member of the Student Judiciary group and played in the soccer team. Mark graduated from the University of Alabama in 1976. He continued his education at Stanford University, where he was awarded a master’s in 1979 and a Ph.D. in 1983. During that same period, he was a George Lurcy Fellow at L’École normale supérieure and at the University of Paris-Sorbonne in Paris as part of his Ph.D. program. He was a member of Pi Kappa Phi academic honor society and participated in medical research in one of the largest blood pressure and cardiovascular disease research studies in the United States.

Mark started his career with COS, Inc. in 1982 in Palo Alto, Calif., and then transferred to Paris and New York City in 1980, where he retired as a senior vice president in 2018. COS is a private firm that provides business and economic development services, assisting companies and governments in researching, developing and implementing new business expansion opportunities, mainly in North America and Europe. Mark and his partner Isabelle live in Darien and have one son and a daughter-in-law and two grandsons living in Europe. He belongs to the Stanford Alumni Association, A-Ulm: Association des Anciens Élèves de L’École normale supérieure, and Phi Kappa Phi. His leisure activities include reading, investing, walking, hiking, travel, music and spectator sports – specifically, soccer and college football.

Following his detailed and informative talk earlier this year on Robert Moses, Mark will be speaking about another major influence in the history of the city of New York, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.

Arranged by Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s summary of the talk:

Mark Nunan described in his meticulous and thoroughly-researched presentation the incredible life and achievements of Fiorello La Guardia. Born in New York City in 1882, La Guardia was a second generation Italian American who was later brought up in Arizona where his father served in the US army. He went back to Trieste with his father in 1898, and worked for the US Consulate in Croatia before returning to New York in 1906, where he became an interpreter at Ellis Island, putting to good use his language skills – he was fluent in German, Italian, Croatian and French. He attended NYU Law School, graduated in 1910, and was admitted to the New York bar the same year.

Following an initial career as a labor lawyer, La Guardia was persuaded to run for Congress and succeeded at the second attempt in 1916. He voted against prohibition, and for the establishment of the military air service. This unbelievably talented man then volunteered to join that service, becoming a major and commanding officer of the American Combat Division in Italy, and followed up by working with the Italians to improve their aircraft manufacturing industry, for which he was recognized and honored by King Victor Emmanuel.

After his time in Italy, La Guardia went for a second act in national politics, becoming a congressman again in 1922, and remaining in Washington until 1933. His major achievements there involved setting up much of the New Deal legislation with the FDR administration, key anti-injunction legislation to provide more even treatment of labor by government, and the successful repeal of prohibition.

His third act involved becoming the 99th mayor of New York. He failed in 1929, but was nominated in preference to Robert Moses as a candidate by the Republicans and the Fusion parties in 1933, and won the election. By the time he took office, his collaboration with FDR’s enablers, Hopkins and Ickes, had snagged for New York 20% of the country’s new jobs created by the Civil Works Administration. La Guardia installed a talented group of commissioners and set about reform projects, including the establishment of the first public housing developments, and pursued the criminal mob with vigor.

One of his popular successes was to win the artichoke war, breaking the mob’s monopoly of the supply and distribution of the vegetable, and enabling retail prices to be slashed by 30 to 40%! He won 72 out of 73 indictments brought against the mob.

Working closely with FDR, he ensured money flowed to support New York infrastructure projects, and developed both La Guardia and Idlewild (now JFK) airports. He won a third term as mayor in 1941, and was also nominated by Roosevelt to head the Office of Civil Defense for the country, splitting his time between New York and Washington.

La Guardia did not run for a fourth term, had a brief stint at the United Nations in 1946 as a director general, and died in 1947. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx (a site that was visited this week by the Happy Wanderers).

Mark’s presentation slides chronicle the innumerable accomplishments of this talented, indefatigable and caring man, and they can be found at https://dariendma.org/wp-content/uploads/FINAL-La-Guardia-DMA-Nunan.pdf, and the videotape of the session can be accessed at https://youtu.be/lcmP27mHZGA

Michael J. Critelli grew up in Rochester, New York. He graduated from Bishop Kearney High School in 1966 and the University of Wisconsin with a B.A. in political science and communications in 1970, then graduated from Harvard Law School with a J.D. cum laude in 1974.

Prior to joining Pitney Bowes as a Counsel in 1979, Mike was an associate at two Chicago law firms. At Pitney Bowes, he became the Company’s General Counsel in 1988 and added responsibility for its human resources functions in 1990, functions he jointly led until 1993. Mike became the Company’s CEO in 1996 during a period in which the Company and the mailing industry underwent transformational change. Under him, Pitney Bowes was named one of America’s most ethical companies, and was ranked as one of America’s most innovative companies and in the top 200 of patents issued. During his tenure Pitney Bowes exited its office systems and external finance businesses and completed over 80 acquisitions to build strength in software, services and international operations. Through a combination of acquisitions and organic investments, the Company diversified into adjacent “mail stream” market spaces.

Mike was directly engaged in the development, release and marketing of Relia-Vote, Pitney Bowes’ voting-by-mail offering, and advocated its use with election officials in many states. He was awarded one patent on a feature that detected ballot fraud. He also acquired and helped develop a Company business that scanned and recognized handwritten documents and envelopes at high speed.

Between 2001 and 2005, Mike co-led the Mailing Industry Task Force, along with Deputy Postmaster General John Nolan, to enable the U.S. Postal Service to work with the private sector on a variety of initiatives, and was heavily used as an industry spokesperson during the 2001 anthrax bioterrorism incidents. He also chaired the Mailing Industry CEO Council, which was an advocate for comprehensive postal reform, an effort resulting in the passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006.

Mike retired from his position as Executive Chairman of Pitney Bowes in 2008. He currently is the CEO and co-founder of MoveFlux Corporation, and is a member of the advisory boards of RAND Health, the TH Chan Harvard School of Public Health, and Wellville, a non-profit focused on getting innovative population health initiatives deployed in five communities. He has been a member of the Board of Eaton Corporation, a leading global power management company, since 1998.

Mike joined the DMA in 2019, and with his wide experience and knowledge of the mailing industry it is appropriate that he will address and discuss one of the major issues being faced in this election season – voting by mail.

Lori Swetlin currently holds a tenured Sales Executive and Consulting position at Bluecrest Inc., formerly the Document Messaging Technologies Division of Pitney Bowes. She will join Mike in discussing some of the newer technology tools she has successfully deployed with cutting-edge election administrators and her work with the  Postal Service on products of particular value for voting-by-mail.

She currently leads BlueCrest nationally in implementing “soup to nuts” processing and tracking of mail pieces and is an expert in vote-by-mail solutions.  During the current Covid-19 pandemic, Lori has been helping municipalities and states implement vote-by-mail systems; acquire necessary equipment and software;  and manage the dynamic political, social, environmental, health, cultural and regulatory environment.

Lori earned her degree from Bowling Green State University.  She resides outside of Akron Ohio with her husband Tom. In her free-time, Lori enjoys traveling, gardening, lake activities, reading and any time with family.

Arranged by Gary Banks and Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s summary of the talk:

Mike Critelli and Lori Swetlin addressed the currently hot topic of voting by mail. What started as a means of enabling Union soldiers to cast a vote in 1864 has grown to the point where the coronavirus pandemic is driving many voters away from voting in person and to considering this alternative. The situation across the United States is complex because access to absentee voting varies by state, with five states having converted 100% to postal voting, some allowing choice, and others insisting on voters affirming why they are unable to vote in person.

Additionally, the rules and processes for managing the election vary by state: in Connecticut, the Secretary of the State sets most of the rules. There are a number of stakeholders involved in the process, including the US Postal Service, stationery manufacturers, equipment vendors and state and local election officials. Key components of the process require establishing voter identification and residential qualification, advising voters of the rules to follow, printing and mailing of ballots, tracking the ballot mailing and returns, verification of signatures, and tabulating the votes. Tracking has been raised as a major concern and the “Intelligent Mail Barcode” has been developed to provide the ability to trace the ballot envelopes at each stage of the mailing pathway. Once signatures have been verified by election officials, counting of the votes is carried out and an end-to-end audit trail is established that complies with the states’ laws and regulations for validating votes.

It all sounds fraught with a potential multitude of problems, but Mike asserted that the systems in place work extremely effectively, if not always with 100% efficiency. For instance, the USPS is presently hampered by the reduction in the number of commercial flights which are the main conduit for transporting mail over 1000 miles, and by a shortage of truck drivers who are responsible for delivering mail on journeys under 1000 miles. His major concern is ballot harvesting, which involves third parties, such as volunteers, state party loyalists, or contract workers outside the Postal Service distributing and/or collecting ballots. He believes ballot harvesting should be banned because:

• Ballots can be lost in the collection and return process
• Some voters can be coerced into supporting the ballot harvester’s preferred candidate
• Harvesting, especially if the harvester directs the voter not to sign the ballot, lends itself to fraud.

For the question and answer session, Mike and Lori were joined by Denise Merrill, Connecticut Secretary of the State, and Susan Gray, a Darien Registrar of Voters, and we are most grateful to them for providing more detailed information specific to Connecticut and Darien.

Mike slides: Voting by Mail Presentation

Video of presentation

Vote by Mail Part 1

Vote by Mail Part 2

Hugh Seaton is the General Manager at the Glimpse Group, a virtual reality and augmented reality company based in New York, NY, and a lifelong technology marketer. Prior to Glimpse, Hugh founded and grew Aquinas Learning, an e-learning software company that leveraged virtual reality and artificial intelligence, which he sold to Glimpse in 2019.  Before Aquinas, Hugh – a fluent Mandarin speaker – spent 5 years in Shanghai, was a senior marketing executive with BBDO running Pepsi’s advertising, and founded his first company, specializing in social media. He has also held various senior positions at Sony Electronics, AOL Time Warner, DraftFCB and Havas.

Hugh holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, has been an adjunct professor at NYU, and is the author of the Construction Technology Handbook (Wiley, 2020).

Arranged by Douglas Campbell and Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s summary of the talk:

Hugh Seaton cast some light for us on the arcane subject of artificial intelligence – intelligence demonstrated by machines and applied to a variety of situations to augment human activities. Hugh stressed that the highly advanced computers cannot think like humans and that the tasks AI machines perform are based on the use of vast amounts of data acted upon by algorithms, so it comes down to mathematics. That said, he identified the advances made in AI in recognizing and classifying data, determining patterns, producing designs, managing language functions and carrying out tasks via robotics. Performance of the activities carried out by AI improves as the machines are fed more data, either by experience or from an outside agent. Hugh cited Siri and Alexa as uses of AI that have been improved through experience. Human designers focused on enhancing the applications’ abilities by concentrating on accomplishing fewer tasks more successfully, rather than by a broader brush approach that resulted in a poorer response following the instruction to the machine. He pointed out the difficulties in designing self-driving autos, where significant progress has been made, but not enough to allow the general use of these vehicles on the open road at present: predicting an introduction date is hard since making further progress toward the autonomous auto is exponentially more difficult.

Hugh described the AI experience in the construction industry in maintaining a record of work accomplished throughout the process to assist in planning subsequent building stages, rapidly finding specification documents, and defining realistic schedules. He described a practical example of using AI in the development of machines that can manage the tying together of rebar used for reinforcing concrete, resulting not only in performing the tasks efficiently but also alleviating the problem of labor shortages to carry out this specialized function.

Link to the video of his talk: https://youtu.be/7q0FePlJQqI

Art Gottlieb is a local historian on subjects from political and military history who has frequently given talks to the DMA over the past few years. He was formerly a professional curator of naval history and the Technical Director of Exhibits at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in NYC. In these roles, Art worked regularly with veterans of all services towards the creation of exhibits accurately illustrating the history of 20th century warfare.

From 1989 through 1997, Art coordinated with all branches of the armed services and National Guard towards the preservation of historic ships, aircraft and armor from around the world, and has facilitated the recovery of scores of artifacts from warships slated for demolition from reserve fleets.

For the past fifteen years Art has refocused his professional efforts towards reaching out and addressing the growing needs of aging veterans and their families.  He maintains a private practice as a Counselor and Certified Senior Advisor in Norwalk, CT, and offers pro-bono counseling services to soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Art served as an Auxiliary Officer of the United States Coast Guard for 17 years and for 4 years was Commander of Flotilla 7-2, 1^st District (Southern Region), Sector Long Island Sound North.

His last talk to the DMA in February was about US Pacific fleet submarines, and this week he will be relating the epic story of the desperate six-year struggle between allied forces and the German navy to control the sea-lanes between America and the British Isles – a battle that, had it been lost, would have profoundly changed the course of World War II.

Arranged by Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s summary of his talk:

Art Gottlieb made his 16th appearance before a DMA audience. The subject was the role played by U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II, a battle that lasted the entire length of the war from September, 1939, until May, 1945. The talk highlighted the contrast between the relatively low-tech environment of the submarine and the increasingly effective use of high-tech countermeasures against the deadly raiders. We learnt that the U-boat of that era was essentially a surface attack vessel that could escape detection by its ability to quickly submerge and maneuver under water; that life on board was an endurance test of various stages of wet discomfort; and, that optically-advanced binoculars frequently helped make up for a lack of radar to find and identify targets.

The conquest of France in mid-1940 opened the door for Admiral Karl Dönitz to operate his growing U-boat fleet from five bases with direct access to the Atlantic. As their attacks became increasingly effective, the need for more and better protection for convoys of goods to the UK and USSR became essential. This was achieved through lend-lease arrangements authorized in 1940 which gave the UK use of 50 previously mothballed US destroyers, and the introduction of destroyer escorts once the USA entered the conflict in 1941. Additionally, the use of huff-duff, the quaint name for high-frequency direction finding technology, coupled with the decryption of the Enigma-coded German radio communications with the submarines significantly aided in locating the U-boat wolf packs. The introduction of longer-range air support, improved depth charges, and the hedgehog weapon with its array of mortars added even more effectiveness to the countermeasures, and by late 1943 the battle had turned in favor of the Allies.

The statistics Art provided about the Battle of the Atlantic are sobering:

• 2900 ships were destroyed, totaling 12 million tons of Allied shipping

• 141 escort vessels were sunk

• Almost 800 U-boats were destroyed

• 28,000 U-boat crew members died

• At 75% this was the highest casualty rate of the German armed services.

Video link to Art’s presentation:  https://youtu.be/Mwh61wlXAnQ

Robert Whitby grew up in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah, and holds an economics degree from Yale College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has had a diverse business career spanning some 40 years, primarily in the investment banking and management consulting sectors, working in senior executive positions at Arthur Anderson, Ernst & Young, Booz Allen Hamilton, Citicorp and Thyssen-Bornemisza Group. He has lived and worked in the United States and several countries in Western Europe.

Robert is a past Board Member of the Inner Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich and The Explorers Club. He has served as Board Chairman of The Mountain Institute (TMI), a world-wide NGO established to preserve mountain habitats and to help mountain people achieve sustainable mountain livelihoods. He has led TMI Board expeditions to visit their project sites in Peru/Bolivia and Nepal/Tibet/Bhutan.

Robert is currently a director of several not-for-profit organizations and an active leader of Community Partners, a service auxiliary of Harvard Business School alumni. Through Community Partners, he has led substantial pro bono consulting engagements for the Explorers Club, the Hispanic Federation of New York, the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Catholic Charities of Connecticut, and Armstrong Chamber Concerts. He has lived in Greenwich since 1981.

A world-wide mountain-climber, Robert set out in his 50s to climb the highest peak on each continent, a feat known as “The 7 Summits.” He successfully climbed six of the seven, but failed on an Everest climb in 1994 and required medical evacuation. Robert will talk about each of his Seven Summits climbing adventures.

Arranged by Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s summary of his talk:

Robert Whitby exemplified the calm, stoical, persevering character you need to be to climb any mountain, and the toughness, experience and boldness you need to attempt climbing the seven major peaks in each continent in the world. Robert’s upbringing in Utah led him to start climbing mountains at the age of ten, beginning in the Rockies and moving on to the Grand Tetons, the Alps, Mount Washington and Mount Katahdin in Maine as preparation for setting out to meet the challenge of scaling the seven key peaks in the mountaineering lexicon.

Commencing with climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and ending at Mount Kosciuszko in Australia, his story is fascinating to hear, not only for the description of the details of each ascent, but the intriguing relationship he developed with Rob Hall, a professional guide who encouraged and inspired Robert in the scariest climb of the seven, Mount Aconcagua in South America. Hall was leading another expedition at the time Robert was attempting Everest, when Hall’s wife, Jan Arnold, a doctor, helped keep Robert alive after he contracted salmonella poisoning on the mountain. Sadly, Hall himself succumbed on Everest a few years later after staying overnight to tend to one of his client climbers near the summit. The event is described in Jon Krakauer’s book, “Into Thin Air.” Robert and a friend attended the memorial service for Hall in New Zealand, and as a tribute climbed the peak in Australia at the end of that visit.

Robert’s advice to those wishing to emulate his feats are to take the dangers of altitude seriously by undergoing intensive endurance training – and never to underestimate the importance of an ice axe!

Here are his slides:  _SIX ½ SUMMITS Darien Men_’sAssoc.

Here is the link to his talk: https://youtu.be/boX9wpmm3Ac

DMA member Jim Cameron has spent over 40 years in broadcast journalism. While at NBC News, he received a George Foster Peabody Award. In conjunction with INC. Magazine, he also wrote and hosted the syndicated radio series, Minding Your Business. For 12 years Jim ran JFORUM, the pioneering online service for journalists and communications professionals worldwide, on CompuServe.

In 1982 Jim transferred his journalism experience into a new career:  training people to deliver their messages effectively to the media and the public. His media-training clients have included hundreds of CEOs, scientists and authors. He has trained every kind of spokesperson imaginable—from athletes to marketing experts, from celebrities to farmers. His trainees have appeared on 60 Minutes, 20/20, The Today Show, CNN, CNBC and hundreds of radio stations. They’ve been quoted in the pages of The Wall Street Journal, trade journals and lifestyle magazines. Additionally, his clients have testified before Congress, made presentations to financial analysts and given speeches at major symposia. He has dealt with environmental crises, food tampering scares, insurance reform, employee healthcare, and workplace safety issues.

Jim taught broadcast journalism in Tunisia and the Philippines under the auspices of the U. S. State Department. Born and reared in Toronto, he speaks English and French. He graduated cum laude from Lehigh University with a BA in sociology in 1972.

A resident of Darien, Jim is founder of the Commuter Action Group, using social media to advocate for mass transit in Connecticut.  He is also an elected member of the Representative Town Meeting and program director of the town’s government access channel, Darien TV79.

Jim currently writes a weekly column, “Getting There,” for the eight daily and 14 weekly newspapers published by Hearst CT Media across Connecticut. In 2020 Jim published OFF THE RECORD: Confessions of a Media Consultant, sharing true stories about training the famous and the infamous.

Jim Cameron will be updating us on the future of transportation in Connecticut in the wake of the Covid-19 virus.

Arranged by Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s summary of his talk:

Jim Cameron, media consultant and DMA member, covered the transportation situation in Connecticut with a well-researched set of data and considerable enthusiasm for his subject. Jim took his audience back to the good old days when the New Canaan branch line sported its own private railcar for the select few on the commute to New York, but brought us down to earth and back to reality with statistics on the current ridership situation on MetroNorth, which was last counted as 218,000, compared with 3.1 million in March this year – a drop of 93%.

The MTA is projecting a deficit of $16 billion by 2024, and in 2020 alone the fare shortfall from reduced ridership will be approximately $4.2 billion. Currently, there seems to be no way out of the dire financial situation given the movement of commuters out to the suburbs, increased use of the roads, and a lack of urgency on the part of legislators to take action to remedy the situation either now or in the longer term. There is little appetite in an election year to raise gas taxes 60% back to 1997 levels, or to reinstate tolls in an effort to refund the State’s Special Transportation Fund; also, exacerbating the position, Federal spending on infrastructure is woefully low and unlikely to increase in the short-term. Overall, a sorry situation for which Jim sees no relief in sight.

Here is a link to a recording of his talk:  https://youtu.be/veanWAofvUY