Jim Phillips was born in Boston (1947) and grew up in Manchester, MA. He graduated from St. Paul’s School in 1966 where he played hockey and lacrosse. In 1970, he received a B.S. degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Business School.
Jim began his business career in 1971 with JPMorgan as a real estate lending officer, and next, joined Russell Reynolds Associates becoming Global Head of their Real Estate Practice. In 1995, he co-founded the Highland Search Group and built their investment management practice. Highland was acquired in 1999 by Monster Worldwide where Jim continued to manage the real estate/investment management practices. Finally, in 2002, he co-founded Jamesbeck Global Partners, a boutique specialized in investment management executive search.
Jim retired in 2008. He and his wife, Marta, live in Darien and have two grown children. He is a member of the Tokeneke Club, Silvermine Golf Club, Great Harbor Yacht Club and a former Board member of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust. He enjoys sailing, skiing, tennis, investing and reading history.
Bob Hughes was born in Philadelphia, Pa. in 1944 and grew up in Lancaster, Pa. He graduated from Manheim Township High School in 1963 where he was on the swimming and golf teams. In 1967, he received a degree in general social science from Villanova University and was a member of the Lambda Kappa Delta fraternity. In 1971, he received a D.D.S. Degree from Georgetown University School of Dentistry. He then opened a dental practice in Stamford, Conn. and recently retired. Bob and his wife Alison live in Darien and have two children and five grandchildren. He is a member of the Country Club of Darien, the Darien Boat Club, the Darien YMCA, the American Dental Association, The Connecticut State Dental Association and the Stamford Dental Association. Bob enjoys skiing, golf, boating, fishing, biking and travel.
Bert von Stuelpnagel was born in Freiburg, Germany, on March 6, 1950 and graduated from Bad Toelz High School in 1969. After military service and training in banking he worked in the financial industry during his entire career, including 35 years at the New York Branch of BayernLB, a German public sector bank. He retired in 2015 from his last position at that bank as Executive Vice President U.S. Capital Markets. He holds a Master in Political Sciences from State University of Bavaria and an M.B.A. in Finance from Pace University. Bert has lived in Darien with his wife Lisa since 1984. They have three children, two of which graduated from Darien High School. Bert is currently serving on the Darien RTM and its Finance and Budget Committee, on the Darien RTC as its treasurer and on the Andrew Shaw Memorial Trust, also as treasurer.
Cliff Van Voorhees was born in New York City in 1945 and grew up in Farmington, Conn. He graduated from the Pomfert School, Pomfert, Conn., where he played soccer, squash and tennis and was the yearbook Business Manager. He received a B.A. degree in French in 1968 from Rutgers College and played squash and tennis and was a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity. At Columbia Graduate School of Business, he received an M.B.A. degree in 1970. Cliff began his career at the Interracial Council for Business Opportunity, Harlem, N.Y., as a Minority Business Consultant. In 1974 he joined Bankers Trust Company, working in New York City, Nigeria and London and in 1987 joined Barclays Bank. He then worked as an electronic Bond Broker for Instinet Fixed Income and later served as Chief Operations Officer of the Hyde Leadership Charter School, Bronx, N.Y. He currently is head of C.I. Van Voorhees & Company, providing consulting to nonprofit organizations. He and his wife Kathryn live in Darien and have four children and two grandchildren. He enjoys travel, music, arts and sports and is a member of the Squadron A Association and the Tokeneke Club.
James Spanos was born in 1950 in Manchester, N.H., and graduated in 1968 from Manchester High School Central, where he worked on the school newspaper and was on the track team. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1972 with a B.S. in civil engineering and was a member of the Tau Beta Pi Society. In 1974, he received an M.B.A. from Dartmouth College Amos Tuck School of Business. His business career started in 1974 with Citibank, where he worked in commercial lending in New York City and Athens, Greece. He joined UBS in 2000 in wealth management, retiring in 2010. James and his wife Penny have two children and one grandchild. He is a member of the Emeriti Board of the University of New Hampshire Foundation and the American Hellenic People’s Association. He is an active member of the Tau Beta Pi Society national engineering honor society. He enjoys gardening and coin collecting
Chris Snyder was born in 1942 in New Brunswick, N.J., and graduated in 1960 from Plainfield High School, N.J., where he was a member of the Radio Club. He attended Lehigh University and received a B.S. degree in business in 1964, an M.S. degree in economics in 1966, and a Ph.D. in economics and statistics in 1969. He then served in the U. S. Air Force as a captain on the staff of the Secretary of Defense in the Pentagon. Chris began his business career in 1972 as a Vice President with Chase Manhattan Bank and in 1976 became Group Vice President with Data Resources, a division of Standard & Poor’s. In 1985 he founded the Loan Pricing Corporation that later was sold to Reuters and went on to build the first Loan Syndication Research Group at J.P. Morgan. In 2000 he co-founded Private Client Resources and in 2012 started Peer Vantage, where he helps households compare their portfolio performance with their peers. He and his wife Anne live in New Canaan and have two children and six grandchildren. He is a member of the New Canaan Rotary and The Country Club of Darien.
Dick Packer was born in 1934 in Philadelphia, Pa. He grew up in Newtown, Pa., and graduated from the George School in 1952. He received a B.S. degree in hotel management in 1956 from Penn State University, where he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and several honor societies. He went on to serve as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force for three years. At Penn State Dick is remembered for his outstanding achievements on the soccer team. He established three scoring records, two of which still stand today. He was named to the All-American Soccer Team two years in a row and was the only college player on the 1956 U.S. Olympic Team. He carried the Olympic Torch during the 1996 Games in Atlanta, Ga. Dick went on to play professionally with the Philadelphia Urik Truckers for two years. He also played on the U.S. Armed Forces Team in Germany. In 1978 he founded the PackerGogolak Soccer Camps for boys and girls ages 3-12 that continues to this day. Dick began his career in the hotel/travel industry in 1959 as a hotel representative with Robert F. Warner. In 1966, he joined Travel Consultants, Inc. and later became a Senior Vice President with Group Travel Unlimited Inc. He currently is semi-retired as Regional Vice President with Martiz Travel, Inc. and continues to enjoy working with corporations that reward their sales forces with trips to resort destinations. He and Joan Brusven live in Rowayton. They each have two children and two grandchildren. Dick enjoys tennis, paddle tennis, photography and wood working.
John Marr was born in Batavia, N.Y. in 1946 and received a B.A. degree in economics from Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., in 1968. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1969 and trained in military intelligence as a Japanese linguist at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif. He was assigned to Okinawa and was responsible for overseeing members of the Okinawan labor unions who worked on B-52s that flew bombing missions into North Vietnam. Upon leaving the military, he completed an M.B.A. degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in finance. John joined Citibank in 1972 in New York City in the Real Estate Industries Division and later transferred to the Municipal Bond Department, where he underwrote mortgage-backed securities. In 1980 he joined Paine Webber as a Municipal Investment Banker. In 1985 he purchased Paine Webber’s mortgage banking subsidiary with several partners. He sold his interest in that company to work in a number of private banking companies doing project finance. He currently is a Managing Director for Greystone, a private investment bank headquartered in New York City. John and his wife Karen live in Darien and have two children and five grandchildren. He is a member of the Noroton Presbyterian Church, The Country Club of Darien and a board member of Friends of Forman Christian College, Lahore, Pakistan. His interests include driving German cars on race tracks in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. He also enjoys photography and has self-published several books of pictures from the Middle East and Asia.
Joe Kennedy was born in 1943 in Springfield, Mass., and graduated from Cathedral High School in 1962. He received a B.S. degree in accounting from New York University in 1972 and an M.S. in taxation and finance from Long Island University in 1979. He began his business career in 1970 in tax accounting with Arthur Young & Company. He went on to work for Citibank and later Nestlé’s in tax accounting. He retired
Ed Wilson was born in 1945 in Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated in 1964 from John Adams High School in Brooklyn, where he was a member of the Business, Drama and Public Speaking clubs. He received an A.B. degree in Spanish from Benedictine College, a global language teaching certificate from Yale University, an M.A. in Gifted Talented Education from the University of Connecticut and a C.A.S. degree in school psychology from Fairfield University. He also studied Spanish at the University of Valencia in Spain. His career in education includes Spanish teacher in New Haven, Conn.; bilingual psychologist in New York City; and education director in Norwalk, Conn. He currently is a consulting bilingual psychologist in the Bridgeport and Darien school systems. He and his wife Mary Jayne live in Darien and have two adult children and four grandchildren. He is a member of Piedmont Associates, Darien Boat Club, National Association of School Psychologists, Educational Union Association, Phi Delta Kappa, State Line Muscle Car Club, Darien YMCA, Greenwich Art Society, Greenwich Arts Council and United Federation of Teachers. Ed’s interests include boating, travel, oil painting, model railroading, world languages and his grandchildren.