Board of Directors
Chris Abbott is a financial advisor with Merrill Lynch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America and premier leader of wealth management. He is also co-founder of Abbott Blades Wealth Management Group. In addition to his work for Read to Them, Mr. Abbott has also served as chair of the ArtsFund for Bank of America (Richmond), the board of the Alzheimer’s Association of Southeastern Virginia and board of the Heart Association of Hampton Roads. A native of Portsmouth, VA, Mr. Abbott received a BS in Finance from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. He currently resides in Richmond, Virginia with his wife and two daughters and enjoys reading, horticulture and a wide variety of sports.
Craig Blades is a VP/Financial Advisor with Bank of America, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management for over 20 years in Richmond Virginia. He helps high net-worth clients with financial planning, asset allocation, long-term wealth accumulation and income strategies. Before that, Craig taught in a middle school for four years on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. A health and science education degree allowed him to also coordinate a county-wide program for at-risk students, helping them stay in school then move on to their prospective high schools. Craig has served on several local community boards, including the United Way and Richmond Public Radio. He has raised two ‘reading’ children and firmly believes books should be an important part of every household.
Eamon Boyle
Mason Coleman
Heath Galloway regularly counsels employers on a wide variety of state and federal laws applicable to the employment relationship. Mr. Galloway’s experience includes representing and counseling clients in regards to: the National Labor Relations Act; OSHA Regulations and Compliance; Restrictive Covenants; individual and collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act; the Family and Medical Leave Act; Title VII; ERISA; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act; and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Although he hopes to help the firm's clients avoid litigation, Mr. Galloway has vigorously represented employers in state and federal court as well as in administrative proceedings.
Hopkins Guy, a Silicon Valley intellectual property and litigation partner with Orrick (1,100 lawyers with 22 offices world wide), focuses his practice on patent, trade secret and commercial contract litigation involving all areas of Web-based telecommunications, electronics and computer technologies. He also provides intellectual property counsel to technology companies from start-up to mature companies, particularly in the clean-tech and solar technologies. His intellectual property litigation experience includes all phases of discovery, prior art research, pretrial, jury and bench trial work, all phases of trial work, post-trial motions and appeals before the Federal Circuit, and he has represented clients before the International Trade Commission (ITC) in Section 337 proceedings. In 2008, the Daily Journal recognized Hop as one of California's "50 Leading Intellectual Property Litigators" in its annual survey of the best lawyers in the state (CAL). Mr. Guy was also recognized for his superb trade secret litigation work on the Cisco Systems v. Huawei Technologies Inc. case in receiving the California Lawyer magazine "California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year (Clay) Award." Mr. Guy filed what is reportedly the first infringement case brought in a United States court against a China-based technology company to obtain a worldwide trade secret preliminary injunction.
Jeff Hanzel, MD
Keith Hauser is the Senior Vice President of Problem Debt Management Property Secured for RBS Citizens, NA. In his role, Keith manages the collections and default functions for mortgage and consumer equity products for the Bank. Keith relocated to Richmond from Cleveland, OH in 2005 as part of the Citizens Bank/Charter One acquisition. Prior to relocating, he was responsible for all Consumer Loan Servicing for Charter One Bank. Keith began his career at Bank One in 1986, holding a variety of positions throughout the Bank, with an emphasis on small business lending and auto lease credit, collections, and product management. In 1995, Keith became COO and then Co-President of a venture capital – backed growth business in the Security Alarm Monitoring industry. Keith has also run a regional division for a national consulting company and the operations for a captive automobile insurance tracking company prior to joining Charter One in 2003. A native of Akron, Ohio, Keith has bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA from The Ohio State University. Keith, his wife, and three children now reside in Richmond.
Mary Hirschbiel has been the Executive Director of Read Aloud Delaware since July 1995. Prior to that she served as one of the three County Coordinators in Delaware. She created new systems to allow the program to triple in size in her first three years as the part-time coordinator. Mary has worked for Read Aloud since October 1988. Her prior work experience was in the field of fund raising for a small museum and opera festival in Charlottesville, VA. She has also run a variety of volunteer programs in Vermont, Virginia and Delaware. Her expertise is in Volunteer Administration. She is a graduate of Goddard College in Vermont where she wrote a senior study entitled, History in the Attic: The American Windsor Chair from 1750 to 1825. Mary still loves history and American material culture. Her great escapes are organizing closets and drawers, reading mysteries, and framing pictures. Mary lives in Wilmington Delaware with her husband of 32 years, Henry, who is also a nonprofit administrator and an historianCcurrently for the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation. They have one daughter, Cate, who will soon be graduating from Smith College in Medieval Studies and is looking forward to library school! (How's that for proof that environment really does influence our children!)
Sally Snyder is Coordinator of Children and Young Adult Library Services at the Nebraska Library Commission, a state agency with the mission of statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library services. She has worked at the Library Commission in various capacities for 20 years, during which time she has assisted with children’s programs and book reviews. Sally has served on the Board of Read Aloud Nebraska since March 2003. She holds a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Library Science (MA) from the University of Missouri – Columbia. Sally taught children with physical handicaps at J.P. Lord School in Omaha from 1974-1976. She then moved to Estes Park, Colorado, and worked for nearly eight years at the Estes Park Public Library, the last three years as Children's Librarian. She returned to Nebraska in fall of 1984. Sally is one of four main programmers for a weekly half-hour show, BookTalk, on low-wattage local radio station KZUM. She selects the topic and locates a guest speaker for one show a month. The catch phrase for BookTalk is, “a show for people who like to read and like to talk about what they read.” Discussion of the selected book includes reading excerpts on the air. Her interests outside work include spending time with her husband, Dennis, and their cat, Spats, going to the movies, storytelling and reading.
Kirk E. Spitzer retired as President & CEO of Alfa Laval Inc. on September 1, 2005. Kirk had overall responsibility for the USA operations, reporting to the President and CEO of the worldwide Alfa Laval Group based in Lund, Sweden. Alfa Laval is a global company with sales in excess of $4.0 Billion and 10,000 employees, and is a publicly held company listed on the Swedish Stockholm Exchange. Kirk joined Alfa Laval in 1983 as General Manager of Alfa Laval’s Thermal Division in Fort Lee, New Jersey. He was appointed President when the company decentralized and formed Business Areas beginning in 1987. In March 2000, he was appointed President and CEO of Alfa Laval, Inc, and assumed total responsibility for all USA Operations. Kirk is a 1967 graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University with a degree in Industrial Engineering, and received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army. He spent two years on active duty, including one year in Vietnam, serving as a 1st Lt. in the 4th Infantry Division, and was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service. Kirk is married to Leila, his wife of 41 years, and has 2 grown children, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, a granddaughter, and a grandson. His oldest son is deceased. Kirk serves on the Committee of 100 for the School of Engineering for Virginia Tech, and received the Distinguished Service Award from Virginia Tech’s School of Engineering for 2007.
Bruce Swartz has B.S. and M.Ed. degrees from the College of William and Mary. Bruce has owned and managed S-H-S INTERNATIONAL of Richmond, Inc, a full-service staffing firm, for over 30 years. He is also active in management of a commercial real estate portfolio. He is an avid string bass player, both classical and bluegrass, and is a member of the Richmond Philharmonic Orchestra. Bruce and his wife have three sons and believe that education and particularly good reading skills are important to success in business and in life.
Kristin von Klein has worked for non-profit organizations participating in grant-writing, administration of State and Federal grants, and Legislative efforts. She has experience in State government including the Virginia Economic Development Partnership - International Trade and Export Development and the Department of Environmental Quality. She has also been a management representative for VCU/MCV employee grievance hearings. Ms. Von Klein holds a J.D. from the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond and attended Cambridge University Summer Program for International Law and Law of the European Union.