SECWAC is a not-for-profit corporation registered in the State of Connecticut. The officers and directors serve without compensation.
SECWAC members are a diverse group of regional residents, current and former leaders of business, academia, government, media, civic organizations.
Committee members are encouraged to nominate for membership friends and colleagues who share an interest in discussing and educating themselves and others on world affairs.
By maintaining a reputation for impartiality, the Council facilitates serious and civil discussion on issues that bear directly on America's vital global interests.
For questions about SECWAC, please contact our Secretary, Martha Gibson.
To read the 2012 to 2013 Annual Report, please click here.
Board of Directors for the 2013 - 2014 membership year:
OFFICERS
Chairman: Rowland Ballek
Secretary: Martha L. Gibson
Treasurer: William C. Chatman
Executive Director: Paul Nugent
DIRECTORS
Term ending 2014
Rowland Ballek, Chairman Emeritus, Essex Savings Bank
Brian Carey, President, Carlin Contracting Co., Inc.
Martha L. Gibson, Ph. D., Political Economist and Financial Advisor at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management
Alexander J. Robertson, Jr., Retired International Business Executive
Term ending 2015
Deborah R. Butler, Retired teacher
Richard D. Dixon, Attorney at Law
Term ending 2016
William C. Chatman, Attorney at Law, Ex-Officio
Henry Clifford, Retired investment banker and executive search firm officer
Chester Kitchings, Jr., Retired President, Coca-Cola of Southeastern New England
Christopher Roosevelt, Attorney and Conservationist
Sandra Rueb, Community volunteer and retired real estate sales in Cleveland
William Scharfenstein, Worldwide Information Technology consultant
Milton J. Walters, Founder and principal of Tri-Rivers Capital and Director of several public companies
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Paul Nugent, Associate Research Fellow, Pfizer
BOARD OF DIRECTORS - BIOS
Rowland Ballek
Rowland is a lifelong resident of Lyme, where he has been active in business and community affairs. He is Chairman Emeritus of Essex Savings Bank having retired as Chairman of the Bank and Essex Financial Services in 2008. He is President of the MacCurdy Salisbury Educational Foundation, a member of Lyme Library Board of Incorporators and Chairman of the Lyme Republican Town Committee. He also served for 17 years as a member and then Chairman of the Lyme Planning and Zoning Commission and for 25 years as a member and then Chairman of the State of Connecticut Properties Review Board. he is a 1959 graduate of the University of Connecticut.
Deborah R. Butler
Deborah Butler grew up in Manhattan and graduated form the Brearley School and Barnard College where she
majored in history. She received her Master’s Degree from Bank Street College of Education. During her career as an educator, she taught at the Brearley School and the Chapin School in New York City. She has summered in Old Black Point in Niantic for her entire life, moving there full time in 2003 so her husband, Jonathan, could start a new architectural practice. Deborah has an avid interest in history and both she and her husband sing in the choir at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme.
Brian J. Carey
A graduate of the University of Connecticut, Brian Carey has spent his business life with the Carlin Contracting
Co. in Waterford, CT., one the top 200 environmental construction firms in the USA per Engineering News Record. Brian has been President and Owner of Carlin since 1994, having worked his way up through the Company, and has been responsible for a seven-fold increase in revenues during his tenure. He is also President of the Board of Summer Music at Harkness, President of the Board of the Williams School in New London, Chair of the Investment Committee and Board member of the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut and a Board member at Musical Masterworks. He is married, with two grown children, and lives in Waterford.
William C. Chatman
William Chatman received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Drexel University and went on to spend over
forty years with Foster Wheeler Corporation, mostly in Europe where he served as Vice President of Foster Wheeler International in France and then became Chairman and Chief Executive of Foster Wheeler Limited in England. They designed and constructed oil refining, petrochemical, chemical and pharmaceutical plants in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Canada and South America. He retired in 1996 and with his wife Helen, relocated to Essex, CT. His interests include travel, bridge, and choral singing. He is a former member of the London Philharmonic Choir, the Royal Choral Society and currently sings with the New Haven Chorale.
Henry Clifford
A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, Henry enlisted in the Marine Corps and served as an Infantry Platoon Leader in Korea. He then joined the investment banking firm of White, Weld & Co. and held various positions in institutional sales and corporate finance. Twenty-six years later he joined the executive search firm of Boyden Associates and later was involved in small scale venture capital and money management ventures. Henry was Mayor, President of the Morristown Forum, and briefly Vice Chairman of the New Jersey State Republican Finance Committee, and was Chairman of the Planning Board in East Hampton, NY. He is the co-founder and Chairman of the Committee for Peace in Israel and Palestine, and works closely with the Council for the National Interest.
Richard D. Dixon
Attorney Richard Dixon, of Old Mystic, with offices in Mystic, has practiced law in the New London County region since 1984. He is also admitted to practice before the Federal District Court. He is currently a Director of
the Estate and Tax Planning Council of Eastern Connecticut (ETPCEC). He is a former Groton Town Councilor and RTM member and serves on various civic and governmental committees and boards, including Seabird Enterprises, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing education, training and employment opportunities to students and adults with intellectual and other developmental disabilities.
Martha L. Gibson, Ph.D.
Dr. Gibson was a founding member of the SECCFR Board of Directors. She is a political economist by training,
former tenured professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Connecticut, and Research Director at the UConn Center for Survey Research.She is the author of numerous academic articles on foreign policy and two books: Weapons of Influence and Conflict Amid Consensus in American Foreign Policy. For the past decade, Martha has applied her expertise in economic analysis to private wealth management, first at AXA Equitable Retirement Benefits Group, and most recently at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management.
Chester Kitchings, Jr.
Chet Kitchings is the Foundation Manager of the Chester Kitchings Family Foundation and was President of
Coca-Cola of Southeastern New England, Inc. for 30 years from 1976 to 2006. He also served two Vietnam tours as a Communications Officer in the United States Navy. Chet received his B.A. from Colgate University and a J.D. from University of Virginia School of Law. He is a current member of the Finance Committee, as well as former Trustee and Treasurer, of the Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, and a Trustee and Vice Chairman of the Mystic Seaport. Chet has previously served as a Trustee at Connecticut College and Chairman of the Essex Board of Finance and the Essex Elementary Board of Education.
Paul Nugent
Paul Nugent is an Associate Research Fellow in Toxicology at Pfizer Global Research and Development where
he has worked for the past eight years. He received his BSc and PhD degrees in Zoology/Biochemistry from University College Dublin, Ireland. He is a member of the Society of Toxicology and Secretary/Treasurer of its Northeast Chapter. He is also a member of the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations and a previous member of the Louisville Chapter of the Committee on Foreign Relations.
Alexander Robertson, Jr.
Alec Robertson is a graduate of Williams College, served with the Army Security Agency in Japan, spent his
entire business career in the can manufacturing industry, working for Continental Can, Metal Box in England and in South Africa, and the Ball Corporation in Colorado. He retired after 20 years as President of the Robertson Group, a manufacturer’s representative company, representing several can making equipment companies worldwide.
Christopher Roosevelt
Christopher Roosevelt is a practicing attorney and a former Federal prosecutor in New York, and a life-long conservationist. He currently serves as Counsel to the law firm of Banks Shapiro Gettinger and Waldinger, LLP, in Mount Kisco, New York. In 1989, he received (and continues to hold) a Presidential appointment as a Commissioner of the Roosevelt Campobello International Park on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada. He has served, alternately (every two years) with his Canadian counterpart, as the Chairman or Vice Chairman of the Park’s governing Commission for the past decade. Chris has been or is an officer, director or trustee of a number of scientific, conservation and non-profit organizations, a magazine publisher, a member of the advisory board to the Graduate School of Oceanography of the University of Rhode Island, and was recently elected to the Board of Musical Masterworks.
Sandra Yarrow Rueb
Sandra Rueb grew up in New York City and attended The Chapin School. She earned a B.A. in theology and philosophy from The Catholic University of America and a M.Ed. in Human Resource Development from George Washington University. Her family spent summers and weekends in Lyme starting in 1950. Her father was active in international affairs and was a founder of Radio Free Europe. In 2011, when Bill retired, the Ruebs moved to Old Lyme full time. Over the years, Sandra has organized community seminars on various topics both as a professional and as a volunteer. More recently, she sold residential real estate in Cleveland where they lived for 26 years. She is now a volunteer class room assistant at The Drop-In Learning Center in New London and serves on their board.
William P. Scharfenstein
William Scharfenstein is a 14 year resident of Essex, having grown up in Connecticut and living on both west and east coasts along with his wife Doreen. Bill has been an IT professional for 46 years holding key executive positions in the fields of Insurance, Manufacturing Automation, Financial Services, and Consulting in the US, Singapore, Taiwan, India, and Germany. For the past 7 years Bill has served as chairman of the Building & Grounds ministry of St. John’s Church in Essex. Bill continues to work as a full-time consultant and spends quality time with his daughter and 2 grandchildren. Bill’s current passion is traveling the world with wife Doreen, who is a retired Travel Consultant. Bill is a 1970 graduate of the University of Connecticut.
Milton J. Walters
A graduate of Hamilton College, and a former Trustee, Milton Walters is the founder and principal of Tri-River Capital with more than forty years of investment banking experience with A G Becker and its successor Warburg Paribas Becker, Smith Barney, and Prudential Securities. Milt is a member of the Economics Club of New York, the National Association of Corporate Directors, the University Club of New York, was the former President of his Co-op apartment building, and is a Professional Member of the NACVA. He is on the Board of Directors of Frederick’s of Hollywood, Sabra Healthcare REIT, Sun Healthcare Group, Petroleum & Finance Capital, and Lyme Land Conservation Trust.
