Category: Members (Page 11 of 27)

Born: Seattle, WA 1955

David was born in Hartford in 1952 and was raised in the farming community of South Glastonbury, Connecticut.  He holds degrees from Bates College, the University of Colorado and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.  He retired in 2018 after a 40 year banking career in NYC, Zurich and Geneva.  His principal business focus was commercial real estate finance.

David and his wife of 42 years, Pamela, raised their 3 children K-12 in Darien.  Their children currently reside in NYC and Houston and they have 3 grand children.

He enjoys golf, skiing, bowling, hiking and traveling.

Lee Morrison grew up in Brooklyn, NY.  As a teenager he developed a passion for sailing, a sport which he mastered on the waters off Coney Island and still participates in today.

Almost immediately after returning from the 76’ Olympic Trials (competing in the Finn sailboat class), he met his future wife, Susan.  Five years later they got married, bought a house on West Avenue in Darien, and joined the Noroton Yacht Club.  Lee remains active at Noroton including a stint as Commodore in 2015.

He attended New York City public schools and earned a degree in Computer Science from Brooklyn College.  As a software developer Lee eventually got involved with a start-up that created the first applications capturing supermarket point-of-sale data for marketing and analysis.  Following the sale of Retail Marketing Systems in 2000, Lee finished his career working for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), retiring in 2021.  Susan was an educator finishing her career in 2020 teaching in the Middlesex Middle School IDEA program.

Susan and Lee raised twins, Alex and Kristen, graduating Darien High School in 2009.  Alex attended College of Charleston and is currently the Assistant Manager at Roton Point Club.  Kristen graduated from Tufts and is a Storyboard Artist in Burbank CA.

Doug Bernacchi was born in 1959 in LaPorte, IN, and one of 4 children, He grew up on his family’s produce farm where he worked from a young age.  He attended a private Catholic grade school, served daily as an altar boy, played all the offered sports through 9th grade, and in high school focused on snow skiing at a local ski hill.  Over the years, Doug taught more than 1000 first day skiers as a ski instructor at Swiss Valley in Jones, MI, and once beat Stein Ericson in a Giant Slalom Race at Deer Valley, UT.

He attended Regis College in Denver, CO, and was a scholarship college ski team member.  With straight A grades, he transferred to the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. where his wife-to-be, Susan, worked for the Congressman from South Bend.  He matriculated to Notre Dame attending the London program.  An MBA, he entered banking in New York City with Chase Manhattan while Susan worked at WABC-7.  Left Manhattan for Chicago and law school, and leased a seat at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to trade Eurodollar futures as a member, which he did for decades, teaching new member orientation, and practicing law.  He was certified as a specialist by the American Board of Certification in Bankruptcy Law.

They raised their 4 children, a girl and 3 boys — including twins, in Long Beach, Indiana, Sandy, UT, and Granger, IN.  Doug also coached travel baseball, youth soccer, and basketball teams, and made time to teach skiing, enjoy many family ski trips, travel sport trips, college visits/parent days, and other family vacations.

Since retiring in 2017, the Bernacchis have moved a few times to stay close to their thriving adult children in Chicago, IL, Indianapolis, IN, Charlottesville, VA, in Raleigh, NC, and now in Darien, CT, where they have their first granddaughter to enjoy.  Doug’s aged, yet very active and healthy, parents still reside in LaPorte, IN.

I was born in Barrington, R.I. on April 24, 1942. I am married to Jan Raymond and have two sons and for grandchildren. Left Barrington to attend Wilbraham Academy my sophomore, junior and senior years. Received a BA from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and completed two years of graduate work at Pittsburg University and NYU.

Worked for four Mayors of the City of New York ; Lindsey, Beame, Koch and Dinkins. Several of the positions worth noting were Commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services and Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Housing, Preservation and Development. In addition, I was Managing Director of the New York City Ballet for six years and and President of the Citigroup Foundation for six years.

I am retired and am enjoying volunteer work for Open Doors in Norwalk, sailing, skiing, and model boat building.

Frederick Host Given was born in Minneapolis, MN in May of 1955 and was raised in Simsbury, CT.  At Simsbury High, Fred was active in football, softball, wrestling and ran track.  He graduated from the University of Connecticut at Storrs in May of 1977.  At UCONN he achieved degrees in Mathematics and Statistics with a minor in Finance. Fred continued his education at Rensselaer Polytechnic University and obtained an MS in Computer Science.  Fred met and married his sweetheart from UCONN, Lorry.  Lorry has been a well-loved middle school teacher at Roton Middle school in Norwalk for 42 years and retired in 2020.  

Fred started his engineering career at Pratt and Whitney Aircraft (UTC) in East Hartford.  P&WA recognized Fred’s ambition and offered Fred an early software position during his Junior year at UCONN.  In July of 1977 Fred started in depth training of jet engines and soon realized that he wanted to design and develop sub-systems involving hardware and software for leading edge projects using new technologies.  In 1980, he transferred to Norden Systems in Norwalk which was involved with government programs and proposals.  At Norden, Fred worked primarily on air to ground radars.  Most notably Fred developed the Built in Test Subsystem for the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) for the United States Air Force and used first in the Iraq/Kuwait war 1991 and is still used today near Ukraine.  Fred is a problem solver and as such he led teams to resolve various technical development challenges.   Fred left the company in 2012 when Northrop Grumman bought Norden Systems from UTC and moved product development to Baltimore.  Sikorsky then offered Fred a position to work on the Presidential Helicopter.  Fred retired in 2018.

Fred loves the outdoors, and in retirement he has taken every opportunity to enjoy it.  He is an avid gardener of vegetables and specimen foliage and enjoys working in the yard.  He is a fisherman and birder whenever possible.  He gets exercise staying fit, especially in the gym and enjoys ocean sports, hiking, walking and skiing.  In his spare time he enjoys solving puzzles including sudoku and crosswords.

Michael Liu was born in 1966 in Beijing, China. He attended his early primary schooling in Hong Kong before immigrating to the United States with his family at the age of 10.  Michael graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia in 1985 and subsequently received a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania in 1989.  After working a few years on Wall Street, he obtained an MBA in finance from Columbia University in 1996.

Michael began his early career as vice president on the foreign exchange sales and trading desk at JP Morgan.  Michael and his wife, Lin Shaw, moved to Darien from their 900 square foot apartment in Brooklyn after their twins, Nicholas and Sydney, were born in 2003.  Michael started that same year at Discovery Capital Management, a global macro hedge fund, located in South Norwalk.  He traded the Asian and European markets in the early years and subsequently retired as Head Trader from Discovery after working there for almost 20 years.

Michael enjoys traveling and spending quality time with his family.  He also enjoys reading, hiking, biking, and kayaking.

I grew up in Scottsdale Arizona, a small western town at the time.  Boy Scouts and tennis were my favorite activities. I attended Arizona State University, but after my sophomore year, on a lark, I traveled to Venezuela to teach tennis.  What I expected would be a 6-month adventure turned into a 3 ½ year life changing event; At the age of 21 I was the head tennis pro of the Caracas Country Club.

I left Venezuela to complete my undergraduate studies at Columbia College in New York.  Upon graduating with a degree in Philosophy, my most marketable quality was being a gringo who spoke Spanish, with a demonstrated record of assimilation in the Latino world.  That became my entre into the Latin American group of Manufacturers Hanover Trust where I spent 9 years, including postings in Peru and Venezuela.

In 1991 I left the bank and joined the New York office of Petroleos de Venezuela, as their financial representative. With the election of Hugo Chavez in 1999 my career at PDVSA came to an end. As that chapter was ending, the Brazilian oil company Petrobras was looking for someone of my background. I spent the next 18 years with Petrobras in their NY office, including eight years as the global head of investor relations. I left Petrobras in 2017 and ended my professional career in 2020 as the Executive Director of the Brazilian American Chamber of Commerce in New York.

In short, I spent 40 years associated with finance in Latin America, largely national oil companies, all because of an impulsive decision in 1975 to teach tennis in Venezuela. Since retiring I have dedicated most of my time to enjoying a life with few commitments and no commute. I golf frequently in the summer, and ski in the winter.  I spend considerable time maintaining a family house in Thetford Vermont, where my Russian great grandparents settled after fleeing the Bolsheviks across Siberia in 1919.

I have been a Darien resident since 1991.  Next to supporting my wife Susan in her many community activities, I consider my most meaningful contribution to be the first scoutmaster of Darien Boy Scout Troop 35, succeeded by my good friend and fellow DMA member, Pat Gentile.  I have three children, the two oldest live in Denver and enjoy the outdoor life of the Rockies. Little chance of them returning to the tame Northeast.  I have a 21-year-old daughter who will be graduating from Barnard College in December and will begin career in finance in New York in January.

John and his wife, Lilia, are snowbirds, living in Miami Beach in the winter and on Holly Pond, Stamford, in the summer.   They have four children living in Barcelona, Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Stamford respectively, and four grandchildren with a fifth on the way.

John was born just outside Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.  He graduated from Trinity Hall College, Cambridge University, with an MA in Natural Sciences, and joined Consolidated Gold Fields plc in the City of London as a management trainee.  In 1978, he was seconded as a financial analyst to CGF’s steel distribution subsidiary, Azcon, which was headquartered in New York.  After 18 months, he transferred to the US permanently, obtained a green card and joined The BOC Group in Montvale, NJ as Planning Manager.  He moved to Wilton in 1987 after being recruited by a GE Capital-backed private equity group and later to Darien.  His final career move came in 1995 when he joined and subsequently ran a boutique investment bank, Cambridge International Partners, in New York City advising on the purchase and sale of asset managers and Registered Investment Advisors.  He retired in 2019, happy to give up the commute.

John is an enthusiastic, if amateur, golfer and sailor.  He is also Vice Chairman of The Facial Pain Association whose mission is to provide support, education and advocacy for those with neuropathic facial pain.