Category: Speaker Announcements (Page 12 of 30)

David Genovese, who leads Baywater Properties, a privately held commercial real estate company serving Fairfield and Westchester Counties, will provide us with an update on the progress of the Corbin District Project, a major undertaking involving the development of a series of new buildings, shops, residential facilities and public community spaces in the heart of Darien that will forever transform and enliven the character of our Town.

David founded Baywater Properties in 2001, following a 12-year career in real estate investment banking in New York and London. Prior to founding Baywater, David served as co-head of Real Estate Investment Banking for Credit Suisse First Boston. Previously, David served as a managing director in Bankers Trust Company’s Real Estate Investment Banking Group.

Through the course of his career in investment banking, David was responsible for a variety of transactions valued in excess of $15.0 billion, including mergers and acquisitions, equity offerings, bond offerings, securitized financings, bank loans, and principal investments.

David is an honors graduate of Colby College and The London School of Economics and Political Science. David also received an MBA from The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania. David is currently a member of the board of directors of The Human Services Council of Norwalk, the Darien Athletic Foundation and The Real Estate Finance Association of Connecticut. David has served as a member of the board of overseers of Colby College, and as a board member of the Darien Technology and Community Foundation, the Darien YMCA, the Darien Historical Society, and Darien Revitalization, Inc. In 2007, David was named as one of the “40 under 40” business leaders in Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Video Presentation 

Arranged by Tom Igoe

DMA member and past president Sunil Saksena will speak to our group on the presidential election of 1876. That election was marred by claims of fraud, voter intimidation, arbitrarily changed vote counts and multiple sets of “certified” electoral college votes. It was followed by 4 months of chaotic negotiations and backroom compromises involving Congressional committees, Supreme Court Justices and campaign representatives. Finally, just 2 days before Inauguration Day, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner by 1 electoral vote over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, who won the popular vote by a huge margin.

Sunil was born in Lucknow, India in 1944. He graduated high school from La Martiniere College, Lucknow and received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.

He worked at Union Carbide India before proceeding to University of California at Berkeley for graduate work. He received both a masters degree in engineering as well as an MBA from Berkeley. He worked as a Mechanical Engineer at American Can Company in San Francisco where his claim to fame is that he designed the machine that puts the can cover on the beer can making it safe for you beer drinkers to imbibe. For the majority of his career, Sunil was in finance: first, as an international banker with Bankers Trust Company serving in Mumbai, Singapore and New York and then, as an investment advisor with Fidelity Investments from which he retired in 2004.

He and his wife Deepika have lived in Darien since 1985. They have two sons, one a doctor and the other a lawyer.

Arranged by Tom Igoe

Video Presentation 

Vanessa Maczko is a Partner in Wiggin and Dana’s Private Client Services Department in the Greenwich, CT office. She will brief our group on important recent developments in federal and Connecticut trusts and estates laws that affect estate planning, wills and trusts, distribution of assets to beneficiaries and charitable giving.

Vanessa advises individuals and families on multi-generational transfers of assets, such as closely-held business interests, marketable securities, art collections, real estate, tangible personal property and insurance policies. Her practice focuses on estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax planning. For lifetime planning, Vanessa drafts and analyzes inter vivos trust agreements, such as insurance trusts, grantor trusts and dynasty trusts. She advises clients on the funding of trusts, whether through direct or formula gifting or leveraged sales, as well as on the administration and taxation of trusts. Vanessa prepares and reviews gift tax returns in connection with the transfer of assets and represents clients in gift tax audits with the Internal Revenue Service. In addition, she advises clients on the structuring of new investments and the restructuring of existing businesses with a focus on transitioning wealth and control to the next generation in a tax efficient manner that maintains continuity.

Vanessa also assists with the preparation of testamentary documents and estate administration, including the probating of wills, the marshalling of assets, the filing of state and federal estate tax returns, the sale of estate assets and the distribution of assets among estate beneficiaries.

Vanessa advises clients on charitable giving by forming and administering private foundations, setting up donor advised funds, papering pledges and drafting charitable lead and charitable remainder trusts.

Vanessa received her LL.M. from New York University, her J.D. from Harvard Law School, and her B.A. from the University of Michigan. Vanessa started her career with the Trusts and Estates group at Weil, Gotshal and Manges LLP and then transitioned to the Private Client Services group at Proskauer Rose LLP. Vanessa lives with her husband and two children in Greenwich.

Vanessa L. Maczko

(she/her/hers)
Direct: 203.363.7667 | vmaczko@wiggin.com
www.wiggin.com

Video Presentation 

Arranged by Tom Igoe

John Lindback will speak with our group on the topic of elections administration, voter registration and the possibilities of voter fraud. John first entered the field of elections administration in 1995 and has made it his personal goal for the past 27 years to make voter registration and voting work better for both voters and election officials.

John served from 2014 to 2017 as the Executive Director of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), the consortium of states using state-of-the-art technology to improve the accuracy of their voter registration rolls and improve access to voter registration for U.S. citizens. Prior to joining ERIC, he served as a Senior Officer for Election Initiatives at the Pew Charitable Trusts, providing key leadership on Pew’s portfolio of work in election administration, including a Pew project that assisted with the creation of ERIC.

Prior to joining Pew, Lindback worked for 14 years in state elections administration. He served for eight years as Director of Elections in the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office.  During his tenure with the Oregon Secretary of State he was elected president in 2008 of the National Association of State Elections Directors.  He was also elected to serve on the executive board of the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission’s Standards Advisory Board. Prior to his work in Oregon, John worked as chief of staff to the lieutenant governor of Alaska for six years, which included administrative oversight of the Alaska Division of Elections.

In addition, he served on a National Academy of Sciences panel that studied state voter registration databases. John volunteered as an advisor to Design for Democracy, an organization that assisted elections officials with designing voter-friendly ballots and other elections materials. He has also served as a volunteer international elections observer for the U.S. State Department. He observed elections in Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kyrgyzstan, and the Republic of Georgia.

Lindback holds a B.A. degree in journalism (1976) from the University of Arizona.

Video Presentation 

Arranged by Ric Grefe

DMA member Flemming Heilmann will discuss his recently released translation of Halfdan Lefevre’s book entitled The Men in Denmark’s Freedom Council. This seminal work, first published in Danish in 1945, is the story of Denmark’s resistance leaders, their underground movement during Nazi occupation and how they coordinated the nation’s freedom fighters to mount military confrontation of the enemy. Their 11-member Freedom Council went on to form a government-in-waiting in anticipation of liberation to run the country pending restoration of democratic elections. Each member’s family background and career are vividly depicted. Lefevre, from the start of World War II, had documented the genesis and evolution of the resistance movement and its struggle against Nazi occupation since April 1940. He was the recording scribe for the underground Freedom Council and author of illegal leaflets and news communiques distributed by the resistance. His scholarly account offers details of the German invasion, the government’s quick surrender, and then the emergence of the resistance movement, which led to the establishment of the crucial Freedom Council. Flemming has carefully translated this book into English so a broader audience can appreciate the sacrifices these brave men made for their country.

Fleming was born in Malaysia to Danish parents and studied at Cambridge University, where he graduated with degrees in economics and law. He has since held executive and CEO positions in the manufacturing sector focused on the consumer goods packaging industry, mainly public companies listed on the Johannesburg, Toronto and New York stock exchanges, and has most recently been associated with investment in and management of buy-outs of distressed businesses, with multiple directorships in public and private companies in South Africa, Western Europe, Canada and the United States.

In 2017 Flemming published Odyssey Uncharted, a memoir of World War II childhood and education on four continents, set in mid-20th century history, and in 2019 published his second book, The Unacceptable Face, charting a career on three continents under apartheid, extreme socialism and disparate iterations of capitalism.  His translation of Halfdan Lefevre’s The Men in Denmark’s Freedom Council was published in February 2022 by Telemachus Press.

Arranged by Tom Igoe

Bobbi Phelps Chapman will speak to us on her latest book, Darien Waters, which describes historical facts and dramatic details of the ‘40s, ‘50s and early ‘60s. In her narrative of growing up in Darien, she writes of wealth, secrets, schemes, and intrigue in our beautiful waterside town.

Bobbi graduated from Darien High School in 1961. She attended Pine Manor College and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. Bobbi became an international flight attendant in 1965, working flights to the Orient, Europe, and into Vietnam during the height of the war. On a vacation by herself, she became the only tourist (along with 560 business, media, and political men) locked up in the Cairo Hilton during the Israel/Egypt conflict in 1967, the Six-Day War. Stories of her airline adventures and experiences are detailed in Behind the Smile during the Glamour Years of Aviation.

Bobbi started the Angler’s Calendar and Catalog Company in 1975. Her company won Exporter of the Year in 1993 from the State of Idaho (small business category). With the publication of Flyfishing Always, she became an Arnold Gingrich writer recipient from Fly Fishers International. Sky Ranch, her book about living on a remote potato farm in Idaho, won a five-star award from Literary Titans and a first-place gold medal from Feathered Quill Book Reviews.

Besides her many awards, Bobbi was a 20-year member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and a nine-year Idaho board member for The Nature Conservancy.

When Bobbi retired and married Larry Chapman (Darien Class of 1959), she continued to write. They moved to Tennessee and the Authors Guild of Tennessee twice voted her president. Her website is www.booksbybobbi.com.

Arranged by Tom Igoe and Charles Salmans

Video Presentation 

Jonathan Olmsted will speak to us about the life and work of Frederick Law Olmsted (1822 – 1903). This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the man known as the “Father of American Landscape Architecture.”  He and his family firm were arguably the most influential landscape architects in the United States with over 500 commissions that included 100 public parks, 200 private estates, and 40 campuses for colleges and secondary schools.  These include Central Park in New York (1857), the Buffalo Park System (1868), the Boston Park System (1870), the United States Capitol (1874), the Chicago World’s Fair (1893) and the Biltmore Estate (1895) in Asheville, North Carolina.

Jonathan was born in Boston, educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Stanford University.  Frederick and Jonathan are cousins, both descended from James Olmsted who voyaged to America from England in 1632 and was one of the Founders of Hartford, Connecticut in 1636. Jonathan and his wife Janet lived in New York, London and San Francisco before moving to Darien 45 years ago.

Video Presentation 

Arranged by Ed Barksdale

Ted Aldrich is the author of “The Partnership: George Marshall, Henry Stimson, and the Extraordinary collaboration that Won World War II.” On September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland to launch World War II, Gen. George Marshall was sworn in as chief of staff of the U.S. Army. Ten months later, Roosevelt appointed the prominent elder statesmen Henry Stimson secretary of war. For the next five years, from adjoining offices where the door between them was always left open, Marshall and Stimson headed the army machine that ground down the Axis. Their effort, one of the greatest feats of management in the history of the world, was also one of the most consequential collaborations of the twentieth century. The Partnership tells the story of how they worked together to win World War II and reshape not only the United States, but the world.

Ted is a Rowayton native and son-in-law of DMA member Pete Scull. He majored in economics and political science at Colgate University and received an MBA in finance from Boston College. He has a career in international finance, primarily in commodities, and has held senior positions at UBS, Fortis, and Mizuho Bank and is now with Auramet Trading, one of the world’s largest physical precious metals merchants. He has long had an interest in history, leading to his decision to write a book about these two key figures in World War II.

Arranged by Pete Scull

The Partnership: George Marshall, Henry Stimson, and the Extraordinary Collaboration that Won World War II

On September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland to launch World War II, Gen. George Marshall was sworn in as chief of staff of the U.S. Army. Ten months later, Roosevelt appointed the prominent elder statesmen Henry Stimson secretary of war. For the next five years, from adjoining offices where the door between them was always left open, Marshall and Stimson headed the army machine that ground down the Axis. Their effort, one of the greatest feats of management in the history of the world, was also one of the most consequential collaborations of the twentieth century.  The Partnership tells the story of how they worked together to win World War II and reshape not only the United States, but the world.

The general and the secretary traveled very different paths to power. Educated at Phillips Academy, Yale, and Harvard Law, Henry Stimson joined the Wall Street law firm of Elihu Root, a future secretary of war and state himself.  He went on to serve as U.S. Attorney for his friend President Theodore Roosevelt, secretary of war under Taft, governor-general of the Philippines, and secretary of state under Hoover. A 73-year-old wise man and internationalist Republican with an excellent track record, Stimson ticked the boxes for another Roosevelt, who was in the middle of his third reelection campaign at the time. Thirteen years younger, George Marshall graduated from the Virginia Military Institute, then began a very slow, climb up the army ranks despite having a nearly flawless service record (during World War I he performed brilliant staff work for General Pershing). After a string of postings, Marshall ended up in Washington in the 1930s and impressed FDR with his honesty, securing his appointment as chief of staff.

Marshall and Stimson combined with a dazzling synergy to lead the American military effort in World War II, in roles that blended business, politics, diplomacy, and bureaucracy in addition to warfighting. They transformed an outdated, poorly equipped army into a well-equipped modern fighting force of millions. They identified soldiers and civilians, from Eisenhower, Bradley and McNair to McCloy, Lovett, Patterson, and Bundy, who were best suited for high command or sparking the industrial machine that shocked the world. They helped develop the worldwide strategy and logistical feats for battles from North Africa to D-Day. They collaborated with Allies like Churchill, Stalin, and the U.S. Navy.  The two men made decisions, from the atomic bombs to the recovery of Europe, that would echo for decades. There were mistakes and disagreements, but the partnership of Marshall and Stimson was, all in all, a bravura performance, a master class in leadership and teamwork.

In the tradition of group biographies like the classic The Wise Men, The Partnership shines a spotlight on two giants, telling the fascinating stories of each man, the dramatic story of their collaboration, and the epic story of the United States in World War II.

Video Presentation

Micki McElya is a professor of history at the University of Connecticut. In 2017, her book, “The Politics of Mourning: Death and Honor in Arlington National Cemetery,” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. It is a luminous investigation of how policies and practices at Arlington have mirrored the nation’s fierce battles over race, politics, honor, and loyalty. Prof. McElya graduated Bryn Mar College in 1994 and received a PhD from New York University in 2003. Before joining the faculty at UConn, she was an assistant professor of American Studies at the University of Alabama. She is currently working on a book entitled, “No More Miss America! How Protesting the 1968 Pageant Changed a Nation.”

Video Presentation 

Dr. Daniel Ksepka, Curator of Science at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, will speak about the “March of the Fossil Penguins.” He will detail the fossil record of these birds and fieldwork he has done in Peru and New Zealand. Prior to joining the Bruce Museum in 2014, Dr. Ksepka for nine years was on the staff of the Field Museum in Chicago and, prior to that, was with the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. He was a fellow with NESCent, a research center on the Duke University campus. He received a B.S. degree from Rutgars and a PhD from Columbia University. Dr. Ksepka will also present slides showing the expansion of the new Bruce Museum which is scheduled to open in about a year.

Arranged by Charles Salmans

Video Presentation 

Jim Lucey joined the U.S. Secret Service in 1970 and retired after 28 years as the Special Agent in Charge of the Office of Protective Research. During his career, Jim provided protection for U.S. presidents, vice presidents, presidential candidates, and visiting Heads of State. In his last assignment, he reviewed and coordinated all intelligence investigations on groups and individuals who posed a threat against any persons and places protected by the Secret Service.

After retirement, Jim served as Chief of Protection Services at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. As Chief he was responsible for the overall protection and security of the Gallery’s collections, facilities, and properties that are visited by several million annual visitors, as well as protection for approximately 1,000 employees including 330 security staff. He retired a second time in 2016.

A native of New York City, Jim holds a B.S. in business from Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Arranged by Bob McGroarty

Video Presentation 

Carla Gambescia is an award-winning author, travel journalist, lecturer, and avid photographer with a special focus on Italy. She spoke to the DMA several years ago about her then-new book entitled, “La Dolce Vita University: An unconventional guide to Italian Culture from A to Z.” We’ve invited Carla back for an encore so she can share with us her latest thoughts about Italian culture.

Carla’s passion for Italy began early, with her mother’s love of the Renaissance masters and her father’s discourses on Italian geniuses of every calling. In the ensuing decades, she’s written about and toured every region of Italy on foot or by bicycle. Carla was a former partner in the Ciao Bella Gelato Company, conceived and co-led the Giro del Gelato bicycle tour which won Outside Magazine’s “Best Trip in Western Europe,” and, for a decade, owned and operated Via Vanti! Restaurant & Gelateria in Mount Kisco, New York. Via Vanti! received a “Very Good” from The New York Times and many plaudits for its innovative Italian cuisine, its delicio gelato (named “Best Gelato Shop in New York”), and for its culinary and cultural special events.

Carla’s success as an entrepreneur, cultural educator, and engaging storyteller reflects not only her knowledge, but also her passionate and joyful spirit.

Video Presentation begins at 08:07

Arranged by Charles Salmans