The Camden Conference is run by a very active volunteer Board of Directors, many of whom have had foreign service and international business experience.

David Babski has worked in publishing technology since the mid-seventies, starting with the early forms of computerized typesetting and continuing on to grapple with the multi-headed electronic beast that we have today. His degree is in History of Religion (BA, Duke University); afterwards, a more remunerative field of work was needed, and that early involvement with computers proved fortunate. He has worked for various publishing enterprises over the years, including 5 years as publications manager for a charitable trust that oversees Buddhist monasteries in the UK (the one time when academic degree met professional life) and 9 years as chief technology officer for Energy Intelligence, a publisher of international energy-related newsletters and books. Still working, but without the stresses of management responsibilities, he lives in Camden with his wife, Sarah Miller.

Bland Banwell grew up in Washington DC and, in her words, “married into the world of the British, living in Kampala Uganda before and after independence and in Calcutta, India, as well as being in and out of England for close to forty-five years. All of these experiences have nourished a lifelong interest in international affairs.” Bland, has worked for over 35 years in area of fiber arts with the intent “to bring beauty and a touch of the unusual or unexpected to the things we use every day” She has designed and run art programs for the elderly. Currently, she sits on the Expansion Arts Committee of the Maine Community Foundation.

Bruce J. Cole is President of McNabb Marketing Resources, Inc., a Camden-based communications and marketing company. McNabb organizes technology exhibitions and conferences in North America, Europe and Asia, and operates in a number of markets including wind power, energy from biomass and waste, hydrogen and fuel cell technology, small modular reactors, offshore oil and gas, commercial maritime and recreational boating. Bruce has 38 years of experience in publishing, and in the organization and management of conferences and trade expositions. He has worked extensively with the U.S. Department of Commerce, helping U.S. corporations break into new markets worldwide and boost exports. He has led teams that have launched a number of new products in both the publishing and conference/trade show fields in both the U.S. and Europe. Bruce is past President of Diversified Communications’ (now Diversified Business Communications) publishing and trade show division. He has been the lead communications consultant for the National Marine Electronics Association since 1997. Bruce grew up in Western Oregon and has B.S. and B.A. degrees from Oregon State University and a M.A. in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of Minnesota. Past positions held by Bruce include President of the First Congregational Church (Camden), President of the Camden Rotary Club and Chairman of the Rotary Youth Exchange Program for RI District 7790 that includes Quebec and Maine. In this latter position he was instrumental in sending dozens of Maine secondary students abroad for a 10-month youth exchange experience, and for bringing into Maine dozens of students from all over the world. Bruce and his business partner and wife, Ann Gire Cole, have three grown children and one grandson.

Frederic W. Coulon is a retired Director of Risk Management, Cash Administration & Treasury Services for a business conglomerate comprised of multiple subsidiaries specializing in aerospace & industrial product mfg., food & drug distribution & related retail sales operations. He has held multiple assignments in the property & casualty insurance & marine defense industries. He earned a Bachelor’s in Business Administration and a Master’s in Business Administration, with Honors, from Boston University. In addition to being a U.S. Navy Veteran, he has served as a member of the Planning Board for the Town of Rockport, ME., as a Habitat for Humanity Affiliate Director of Land Acquisition and as a Family Selection Committee Member.

John Davidson has spent over 35 years in the investment management industry holding positions as CEO, Chief Investment Officer, Chief Economist, and Portfolio Manager. His most recent position was with PartnerRe, a global reinsurer, where he served as Chief Investment Officer, Director of Partner Reinsurance Company of the US, and a member of the Senior Operating Management of PartnerRe Ltd. In 2008 he retired as President of PartnerRe Asset Management Corporation and moved to Camden, Maine where he writes the weekly Economic Comments and serves on a number of Boards. He is an Independent Trustee for AdvisorOne Funds. He is also Treasurer of the Maine Conference of the United Church of Christ (UCC) and a Trustee of the First Congregational Church in Camden, Maine. John is a retired Navy Captain, having served three years on active duty, including a year on the rivers in Vietnam, and 24 years in the Navy Reserves. He earned an MBA in Finance and an MA in Mathematics from Boston College, as well as a BA, cum laude, in Economics from Amherst College. He holds the professional designation of Chartered Financial Analyst.

Will Galloway is the Director of the Watershed School in Rockland, Maine where he also teaches U.S., Chinese and European History. Prior to working at Watershed, he was a founding partner in the mediation firm of Charbonneau & Galloway, providing a wide range of conflict management services to individuals, businesses and non-profit organizations. Will studied British History at the University of St. Andrews in 1986, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1988, served in the Peace Corps in Thailand from 1988-1990 and earned a M.A.T. from Colgate University in 1992. In addition, Will was a teaching fellow at the secondary level through the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University from 2005-2007.

Brewster Grace recently retired as director of the Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva and as its representative for the World Trade Organization and the International Labor Organization. Prior to joining the Quaker UN Office, he served as Quaker representative in Southeast Asia and then in the Middle East. He has also worked as a correspondent for American Universities Field Staff in Southeast Asia and Geneva where he reported, respectively, on Southeast Asian politics following the Vietnam war and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. He is a graduate of Colorado College with a B.A. in Political Science and Colombia University with M.A.s in Public Law and Government and East Asian Studies.

Jeffrey Howland attended the University of Maine in Orono where he graduated in 1995 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering Technology. During his time at the university he worked as a field engineer in an energy assessment program sponsored by the U.S Department of Energy. He has since held various technology management roles, primarily within the financial sector. Jeffrey is a member of the Camden Conference Technology Committee, where he serves as the Chairman. He currently curates MEperspective, a public affairs blog he created in 2011, and lives with his wife and two young children in Camden.

G. Paul Holman is Visiting Associate Professor of International Affairs at the University of Maine. He received his Ph.D. in History from Georgetown University in 1973 and his AB from Harvard. His principal teaching and research interests concern international security and the formulation of U.S. national security strategy. Paul’s courses include Global Politics, International Terrorism, and Eastern Europe Since the End of Communism. His many articles on national security have appeared in Naval War College Review, Strategic Review, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Brown Journal of World Affairs, Argentinean Naval War College Review, Air Force Magazine, and U.S. Marine Corps Gazette.

Emily Lusher has worked in marketing and market research for over 30 years for corporations, small businesses and nonprofits. Much of her recent market research has been in the area of conferences and events such as trade shows including an extensive stint at IBM corporate marketing helping to evaluate and create priorities for the 2000 events they do each year. Other research has been in the areas of consumer products, high technology and travel and tourism. Currently, she is managing director for market research for Seismic Marketing based in NY. Emily was director of marketing for Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH as well as for a local arts center and function hall. Locally, she has provided marketing assistance to many Camden area nonprofits. Emily has a BA and MA from Harvard University and an MBA from Boston University.

Sarah Miller edits the publication World Gas Intelligence, mainly from the home in Camden she shares with her husband, David Babski, and is editor-at-large of the Energy Intelligence Group. She is a co-convener of the Camden Philosophical Society and helps moderate the Camden Conference’s annual Energy Symposium. She moved to New York to edit Petroleum Intelligence Weekly in 1990, after reporting for McGraw-Hill World News in Brussels, Washington and London.

Jane Monhart is a former member of the Senior Executive Service at the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE). Her experience is in the areas of contract management and management of large scientific facilities in support of national and international research programs. She currently provides on a consulting basis advice to clients who are doing business with the federal government or are bidding for a government contract. Her last position at DOE was to serve as the senior government official and Contracting Officer at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a basic research physics laboratory located in Batavia, IL. Prior to this, she worked for DOE at the Argonne and Brookhaven National Laboratories in Illinois and in New York and at DOE Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In Washington, she led the development and implementation of new performance-based contracting approaches for the operation of DOE-owned laboratories and other major facilities across the country. She has a B.A. and M.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois. Volunteer activities have included serving as Chair of the Argonne Credit Union Board of Directors in Illinois and serving on the Executive Committee of the Washington Chapter of the National Contract Management Association. She is currently serves as Treasurer of the Camden Rotary Club and assists the Megunticook Watershed Association with boat inspections.

Ralph Moore retired in 2007 after 11 years’ service as Rector of St. Peters Episcopal Church in Rockland. He holds a B.A. in English from Stanford University, an M. Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York and a D. Min. from Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For thirteen years, he directed the Protestant Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He and his wife served five years in Episcopal Church projects in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, where their son was born. He is currently a teacher and trustee of the Watershed School in Rockland.

Pat Mundy retired to Spruce Head, Maine after forty-three years as a marketing consultant teaching corporate executives how to develop short and long term strategic business and marketing plans. He currently teaches American History at the Maine State Prison in Warren sponsored by the University of Maine and serves on the Board of the Mid-Coast Forum on Foreign Relations.

Maureen O’Keefe moved to Maine with her family in 2004 after twenty-five years overseas where she served in a myriad of capacities, including as the National Tennis coach in Jordan, teacher of English as a Second Language for the British Council in Oman, middle school teacher in Peru, college English teacher in Sri Lanka, and member of several U.S Embassy charity boards.

Louis Sell served as Executive Director of the American University in Kosovo Foundation (AUKF) from 2003 to 2007, helping establish the American University in Kosovo, which opened its doors in October 2003. A retired Foreign Service Officer, Louis Sell worked for 28 years with the U.S. Department of State, including eight years each in Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union and Russia. He served as US representative to the Joint Consultative Group in Vienna, as Director of the Office of Russian and Eurasian Analysis, and as Executive Secretary of the US delegation to the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks. From 1995 – 1996 he served as political deputy to Carl Bildt, the first High Representative for Bosnian Peace Implementation. In that capacity he attended the Dayton Peace Conference and participated in the first year of implementation of the Dayton accords. In 2000 he served as Kosovo Director of the International Crisis Group. He speaks Serbo-Croatian, Russian, and French. He has a B. A. from Franklin and Marshall College (1969) and an M. A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Affairs. Mr. Sell’s political biography of Slobodan Milosevic, Slobodan Milosevic and the Destruction of Yugoslavia, was published by Duke University Press in 2002. He is currently at work on a book on the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. He serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Maine at Farmington and lives with his family in a 200-year-old house on a Christmas tree farm in Whitefield, Maine.

Seth Singleton is Libra Professor of International Relations at the University of Maine. He received his B.A. at Harvard, in Russian History and Literature, and his Ph.D. at Yale, in Political Science. He won the American Political Science Association prize for best dissertation in international relations and has held grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Council on Soviet and East European Research, the Fulbright program, and the Open Society Institute. He has lived and worked at universities in Tanzania, Russia, Ecuador, and Vietnam, and consulted in China, Mongolia, and Bolivia. Along with teaching, he has been faculty research associate at Harvard and academic dean in universities in the US and overseas, most recently Associate Provost in charge of curriculum and faculty at the new Tan Tao University in Vietnam. Seth and Charlotte Singleton live in Mount Desert.

Robert Tracy, a Maine native with twenty-three years of operational and management experience in commercial, industrial and retail markets is a recognized leader with great insight and knowledge of the energy industry. Robert began his successful career in the early 1980’s and found his niche in the energy industry after nearly a decade in the agricultural industry. He started at Maverick Inc., a large independent petroleum dealer owning a chain of convenience stores in the Western part of the country. He returned home to Maine in 1996, joining Irving Oil, one of Canada’s largest employers in the energy services sector. During his tenure, Robert played a strategic role helping the company realize its growth objectives in the U. S. market. Since joining R. H. Foster in 2002, Robert’s sharp eye for spotting future consumer needs along with his desire to find new and better ways to serve his customers has served the company well. As Executive Vice President, Robert has led the company through various transitions including the development of a proprietary food program — FRESHIES®, the addition of many new convenience stores and several new heating oil company acquisitions, as well as opening a new energy services office in Ellsworth. Robert holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Southern Utah University and a Master of Business Administration from Utah State University. In addition, Robert currently holds several certifications in energy efficiency and environmental procedure. Robert has also had a strong interest in foreign policy especially how the energy industry may influence world economies standard of living and stability.

Michael Wygant grew up in New Jersey and attended Dartmouth, graduating in 1958. After a brief stint in the Army he was commissioned into the US Foreign Service the following year. During his 32 year career with the State Department Mike had overseas postings in Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia), Togo, the USSR, South Vietnam, The Gambia, Australia, and the Micronesian islands of the Pacific. In 1987 he was appointed by President Reagan to be the first chief of mission to the newly independent Federated States of Micronesia. Following retirement from State in 1990, he and his wife Lee moved to Scarborough from which base he assumed a second diplomatic career serving in leadership roles with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe at various posts in Eastern Europe and the former USSR. Mike has long been active in the World Affairs Council of Maine, serving as Board member and Program Chairman. Also a long time attendee (and one time participant) at Camden Conferences, he had been on the Advisory Council for some years prior to joining the Camden Conference Board.