Leadership

Mark D. Linehan has served on the Board of Direct Relief for the past 10+ years. His past roles include heading up the building of Direct Relief’s current corporate offices and distribution warehouse, chairing the Compensation and HR committee, Vice Chair for two years and as the Chair of the Board for the past three years.

Mr. Linehan is the founder and has been the CEO of Wynmark Company, a west coast focused real estate development and investment company for the past 30 years. Prior to founding Wynmark Company, he was a Senior Vice President with the Trammell Crow Company. He previously worked for the Kenneth Leventhal & Co., a Los Angeles based public accounting firm, which is now part of Ernst and Young. Mr. Linehan is a Certified Public Accountant.

Mr. Linehan currently serves on two NYSE public companies and is a former minority partner in the Oakland Athletics baseball team. He graduated from the UC at Santa Barbara with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Economics.

Mark and his wife, Kimberly have five children: Michael, Chris, Brenna, John and Erin along with five grandchildren and thoroughly enjoy splitting their time between Santa Barbara and Montana.

Throughout his career, Harry McMahon has provided financial advice, strategic solutions, and transaction execution for corporations and institutions worldwide. He has served in many leadership roles, including: Executive Vice Chairman of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Vice Chairman and Co- Head of Global Corporate Finance of Merrill Lynch, and he ran Investment Banking for the firm’s Western Region for 25 years. His broad base of experience has included leading deal teams on more than 400 projects involving Mergers and Acquisitions or Corporate Finance advisory work.

McMahon serves currently on the Board of Parsons Corporation, a global engineering and federal services concern; He also serves as a trustee at Claremont McKenna College (where he served as Board Chair for eight years).

He holds a BA and an Honorary Doctorate from Claremont McKenna College and an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School. He and his wife Jacquie have four children.

Annalisa Pizzarello leads the Results Delivery Office (RDO) responsible for Amgen’s Operating Rhythm and continuous improvement efforts across the company. The RDO drives Amgen’s prioritized, end-to-end, cross functional efforts to simplify our processes and improve Amgen’s overall business performance with respect to speed, quality, and effectiveness. The RDO is also responsible for Amgen’s transformation capabilities, including change management and value capture. Annalisa is also responsible for Amgen’s business integrations. Prior to leading the RDO, Annalisa lead Amgen’s Commercialization process and R&D Compliance and Quality organizations, responsible for Amgen’s drug development and portfolio management process as well as ensuring compliance for all R&D activities.

Before joining Amgen in 2008, Annalisa lead quality and compliance groups in manufacturing and pharmacovigilance at Wyeth. Earlier in her career, she worked as an associate chief counsel at FDA and a pharmaceutical, device, and biotech attorney at the Washington DC law firm of Arnold & Porter.

Annalisa has a JD from the University of Chicago Law School and a master’s degree in bioethics/philosophy and bachelor’s degree in philosophy and Russian Studies from Brown University.

Tom Sturgess farms premium sheep and beef in New Zealand at scale.

He is Chairman of Blue Star Print (New Zealand’s largest printer), the Tiri Group (a NZ based manufacturing group), as well as NXP (a leading NZ business supplies enterprise).

Tom is an experienced advisor and investor, having held U.S. public company leadership roles as Chairman, CEO and President for United Stationers and Redman Industries.

He was co-founding general partner of Wingate Partners, a $450 million private equity fund and has served on numerous PE and VC Boards and Investment Committees.

He has a proven track record of identifying and capitalizing growth opportunities, fostering business expansion, innovation, responsible business practices and sustainable growth.

His other non-profit involvements center on climate change, the environment and social justice.

He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Laurie Siegel is an active independent board director, business advisor and volunteer. As the former Chief Human Resource Officer at Tyco International, Ms Siegel was involved in significant business transformation as a member of the executive leadership team charged with restoring the company’s reputation, governance and financial strength. She also served in numerous leadership positions at Honeywell. Laurie serves on the boards of Lumen, Factset and CECO, and chairs the compensation committees at each of these companies. She is also a board member at KCLU and Understood for All.

Laurie brings a focus on culture, leadership and talent to our board discussions, in addition to her experience with global operations, technology, and non- profit management.

Laurie has a bachelors degree from the University of Michigan, a Masters in Urban Studies earned jointly from the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard School of Design, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Mark Schwartz is Co-Founder of KSHFO LLC, an investment company focused on technology and real estate investments. Prior to KSHFO, Mark was Chairman and CEO of SMC, a giftware and home decor product distribution company. Before SMC, Mark was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs. He received his MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

Mark has served on the board of Direct Relief since 2012, including as Board Chair from 2018-20. He took a one year sabbatical before rejoining the board in 2023. He is a member of the Chief Executive Organization and served as Chairman of the Beverly Hills Chapter of the Young President’s Organization.

Emma Carrasco is the senior vice president of corporate affairs for the NBCUniversal News Group. In this role she advises on key strategies to help transform the News Group from a legacy television network into the leading multiplatform news organization in the world. NBCU News Group reaches 7 out of 10 adults and more than 132 million people each month across broadcast, cable, digital and streaming.

Before joining NBCUniversal News Group, Emma served as Global Engagement Officer for National Geographic Society where she played a critical role in liaising with key stakeholders around the world, including foreign delegations and dignitaries, corporations, funders, and global program partners.

She was previously Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Audience Development NPR, responsible for all aspects of marketing, branding, communications, events, consumer products, audience services and non-news programming (cultural and music programming, podcasts) to diversify and build audience share.

Emma has also held leadership roles at República/Havas, Nortel Networks, McDonald’s, Univision and Fleishman-Hillard.

Emma also serves on the Board of Regents of her alma mater, Loyola Marymount University, and on the Advisory Council of Concordia. She was born and raised in Santa Barbara and currently lives in New York City.

Adam Cooper served as Chief Legal Officer of Citadel LLC for over 18 years. He was responsible for its legal, compliance, transaction management, and regulatory affairs functions globally.

While at Citadel, Adam served on the Boards of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Futures Association, the Managed Funds Association (where he served as Chair for two terms). He was also appointed to a number of Federal agency and Federal Reserve Bank committees and working groups.

Adam serves on the Advisory Board of Ridgeview Digital, and previously was Chair of the Advisory Board of Driehaus Capital Management.

Adam has been on the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law Board for many years, and was its Chair from 2018 to 2020. He also sits on the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Foundation Board of Directors and was a long serving Director on the Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Foundation Board and member of the Investment Committee of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Adam started his career at the law firm of Katten Muchin Rosenman, where he practiced for 12 years before leaving as a Partner.

Dr. Mary Dwyer was formerly the 24-year president/CEO of IES Abroad which operates over 80 programs in 22 global locations. She previously was a faculty member in the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the campus Executive Vice Chancellor for Research.

She produced significant organizational growth (920% while market growth was 235%), established international education standards, developed cross-sectoral partnerships, and launched 4 acquisitions and 2 new business lines. She has worked in 30 countries as a CEO, consultant and medical educator.

Having sat on 12 non-profit boards of which she chaired 3, she served on the Bipartisan Abraham Lincoln U.S. Presidential and Congressional Commission. She is the recipient of numerous international leadership awards. Mary holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis and an M.Ed. from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a BA from Mundelein College. She was awarded an honorary Civil Law degree from The University of the South.

Heitham Hassoun, MD, Chief Executive, Cedars-Sinai International. Dr. Hassoun leads international patient services, global strategy and operations. Prior to Cedars-Sinai, Heitham served as global medical director at Johns Hopkins Medicine and associate professor in the Department of Surgery at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Heitham is a professor of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai and maintains a clinical practice in vascular and endovascular surgery while continuing to educate and research in topics related to global healthcare. He was recently awarded the 2024 International Healthcare Leadership Award by NCHL recognizing his contribution to global healthcare and visionary leadership.

Henrietta H. Fore is the former Executive Director of UNICEF in the United Nations, where she led global efforts to advance the rights and well-being of children. She previously served as Administrator of USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, overseeing all U.S. development and humanitarian aid.

Ms. Fore has held senior leadership roles across government, business, and nonprofit sectors, including Director of the U.S. Mint in the Department of Treasury. Ms. Fore has served on many public and private corporate and non-profit boards. With over 40 years of experience, she is widely recognized for her work in global development, education, health, and public-private partnerships.

Jay McGonigle is the former Chairman and CEO of the Corporate Executive Board Company (NYSE: CEB, later sold to Gartner NYSE: IT). Prior to joining CEB, Mr. McGonigle was a consultant at McKinsey & Company in New York serving clients in the US, Europe and Australia.

Mr. McGonigle currently serves as the Lead Independent Director at FactSet Research Systems (NYSE: FDS), where he chairs the Nominating and Governance Committee, and on the board of Doctrine, a French legal-tech company. He has taught business at Georgetown, ESADE, and UCSB, and served on advisory boards for Princeton University, the Obama Administration and several PE Firms.

Mr. McGonigle holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a BA from the Woodrow Wilson School (now SPIA) at Princeton University.

Marla Salmon is Professor of Global Health and Nursing, University of Washington. Her career focuses on building the capacity of the health workforce in the US and abroad. Her work has informed and shaped related policy, governance, innovation and financing, most recently focusing on women’s health enterprise development. Previous positions include US Government Chief Nursing Officer; Advisor to WHO and its Regional Offices, the Commonwealth Health Ministers Secretariat for Nursing and Midwifery, the World Bank Group; foundations, regional member-state bodies, and individual country governments and groups. Relevant governing board service includes Grifols, SA, Grifols, Inc, IESAbroad, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Salmon holds a doctorate in public health from Johns Hopkins University, honorary doctorates in public service and nursing, and degrees in political science and nursing. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, from which she recently received its highest honor, designation as a Living Legend.

Perry Siatis is Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at AbbVie, where he serves on the executive leadership team and leads the global legal organization, the office of ethics and compliance, and the government affairs organization. With 25 years of legal experience, Perry began his career by practicing commercial and intellectual property (IP) litigation at DLA Piper LLP before joining Abbott where he focused on IP strategy. He has held various leadership roles at AbbVie, including Vice President (VP) of Biologic Strategic Development and Legal Regulatory, (SVP) Senior Vice President of Legal Transactions and R&D/Alliance Management, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, and Deputy General Counsel.

Perry has a JD from BYU Law School and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from George Mason University.

Tom Strickland is a board member at Direct Relief where he serves on the Audit Risk and Compliance Committee and the External Engagement Committee. He is a recently retired partner at the global law firm, WilmerHale, where he specialized in crisis management, investigations, corporate governance, SEC enforcement and complex regulatory matters.

Before joining WilmerHale he held a number of positions in the public and private sectors, including serving as Chief Legal Officer for UnitedHealth Group, U.S Attorney for the District of Colorado, Chief of Staff for the Secretary of the Interior, Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks for the U.S. Department of Interior and Chief Policy Advisor for Colorado Governor Richard Lamm. He has served on numerous not-for-profit boards, including the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Great Outdoors Colorado. He also served as the Chairman of the Colorado Transportation Commission where he oversaw Colorado’s state transportation system.

Dr. Elizabeth Toro is a Gynecology consultant at the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics and a volunteer physician at the Savie Health Free Clinic in Lompoc, where she provides essential women’s health services to underserved communities. Previously, she was the Gynecologist at the University of California Santa Barbara Student Health Services developing comprehensive reproductive health protocols for the students. Her commitment to global public health is exemplified through her leadership as the Medical Director of Africa Schools of Kenya overseeing the Health Wagon, which delivers critical healthcare to remote Maasai communities. With over 25 years of OB/GYN experience, Dr. Toro began her humanitarian career volunteering with the United Nations Border Relief Operations in Cambodian Refugee camps. A Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, she has trained healthcare professionals in Haiti and Latin America. Currently, Dr. Toro serves on Direct Relief’s Board of Directors and chairs its Advisory Medical Council.