Matthew Storin (President)
Matt Storin served as editor of The Boston Globe from 1993 to 2001. Earlier, he was editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, executive editor of the (NY) Daily News, editor of Maine Times and national editor of U.S. News & World Report. His reporting career, which began in his hometown at the Springfield (Mass.) Daily News, included stints in Washington for the Griffin-Larrabee News Bureau and later the Globe, for whom he covered Congress, the White House, and later Asia. Based in Tokyo, he covered the late stages of the wars in Cambodia and Vietnam. After retiring from the Globe, he served as associate vice president for communications at his alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, where he also was concurrent professor of journalism. He retired from Notre Dame in 2014 and lives in Camden.
Don Abbott (Treasurer)
Don Abbott has been coming to Camden in the summers since childhood. He has a degree from Kenyon College in chemistry and earned his MBA from Wharton. He has had a career working with international corporations on the financial side and he and his wife, Penny lived in Brazil, Spain and Mexico over the course of his career. They have two married sons who live on the northwest coast.
Don and Penny moved to Camden full time for retirement. Don served on the town development committee for several years as well as being treasurer on the YMCA board. He is an active fly fisher and served as Chair of the Maine State Trout Unlimited organization. And in the summer there is boating on Penobscot Bay.
Wayne Hobson (Secretary)
Wayne Hobson is a retired academic who moved to Rockland from southern California in 2005 and has been a year-round Maine resident since his full retirement in 2010. He has been active in the Rockland Shakespeare Society and currently serves as its president. He served his entire academic career in the American Studies Department at California State University, Fullerton, which he joined after earning his PhD from Stanford University in American History, with a secondary field in African History. During his thirty-seven years at Cal State Fullerton he taught both undergraduate and graduate-level courses. His research and writing interests shifted over the years. Much of his research and writing was on aspects of the history of American legal culture, with a particular interest in celebrated criminal trials. That interest ultimately evolved into the broader study of public memory. Wayne was very active in the California American Studies Association, serving a term as its president as well as many years as that organization’s secretary-treasurer. He also served six years as chair of his academic department, four years as the director of the university’s honors program, and one year as the university’s director of academic advisement.
John D. Doughty
John Doughty is currently Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for R. M. Davis, Inc. in Portland, Maine. John leads the firm’s research effort and is Chair of the Investment Committee. In addition, he focuses on the Energy sector of the economy in his research and presents regularly on global economic and market trends to business partners in the community. Prior to joining R. M. Davis, Inc., John was a Vice President of Equity Research at Credit Suisse First Boston in New York. Before joining Credit Suisse, John was a Vice President of Fixed Income Research at Bear Stearns in New York. John also was a Senior Financial Analyst for Bath Iron Works, after completing the company’s two year Management Development Internship program. John earned his B.A. (cum laude) in History and Government and Legal Studies from Bowdoin College and his MBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. John also completed graduate course work in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago. He is a member of the Economic Club of New York, the CFA Institute, the Maine CFA Society, the Boston Security Analysts Society, the National Association of Petroleum Investment Analysts, and the Foreign Policy Association. John has served on numerous community boards. Presently, he serves on the Pine Tree Council’s Investment Committee, the Maine Historical Society’s Board of Trustees, the World Affairs Council of Maine’s Board of Directors, and the Camden Conference’s Board of Directors.
Peter Fitzgerald
Peter Fitzgerald retired from full time law teaching in 2016, and was pleased to return to Maine after being “away” since graduating from high school. As a specialist in domestic and international commercial law and policy, with an additional interest in animal law, Peter co-authored a series of text books on international economic law and published numerous articles addressing international business transactions and trade relations. Educated and licensed both in the U.S. and in the U.K., Peter served as a visiting academic advisor to the Law Commission of England & Wales, was a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University’s Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, a MacCormick Fellow at the University of Edinburgh School of Law, and a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar to the United Kingdom. Prior to entering academia Peter spent 15 years in-house with the IBM legal department where he served as counsel to the IBM Export Regulation Office in Washington D.C., along with a variety of other assignments at IBM’s corporate headquarters in New York, its European headquarters in Paris, France, and at regional sales and manufacturing locations in Maryland and Georgia. He also served as a member of the U.S. Naval Reserve Intelligence Program with assignments in Washington D.C., London, and Brussels. Along with his wife, Peter remains active with various Golden Retriever breed rescue groups.
Leslie Fillnow
Leslie Fillnow’s career has taken her all over the world, including Latin America, Europe, Asia, and India. After graduating from Elmira College with a degree in Chemistry and Mathematics she worked as a research and development engineer and received five patents in the area of lighting phosphor chemistry. She rose to be a marketing manager, a manufacturing superintendent and a plant manager with the Sylvania Company, including the Osram Sylvania Plant in Waldoboro. Leslie then earned a Master in Business Administration from SUNY in Binghamton NY and for the reminder of her career worked in business management holding leadership positions in many areas of lighting, including LED and specialty lighting for medical, aviation and entertainment applications. Leslie’s outstanding service to the Midcoast community includes being president of the Penobscot School, where she also studies and teaches Italian, a board member of Meals on Wheels and a member of the Camden Garden Club, Camden Rotary and the Camden Conference Development Committee. Leslie and her husband, Bob, have been long time attendees of the Camden Conference and enjoy traveling internationally and visiting their children in the US. Their goal is to see all of Maine with their chocolate lab.
Charlie Graham
Charlie Graham is a retired international banker and consultant who, during his twenty-nine year career, traveled widely in Europe, Middle East, Canada and North Africa, writing on international business topics for publications in Chicago and Maine. He has also been active in business service organizations, as a member of the Maine International Trade Center, Board member of the Rockport/Camden/ Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce, and as a regular columnist on international business for the Maine Business Monthly newspapers. He has served on the boards of several non-profits, including the Mid-American Arab Chamber of Commerce (Chicago), the Camden-Rockport-Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce, the Camden Congregational Church, and the Penobscot School of Rockland, where he was Board Chair. Charlie speaks several foreign languages, including French, German and Italian and Spanish. Raised in Marblehead, Massachusetts, Graham has degrees from Bowdoin College and the Thunderbird Business School, and served in the US Army Security Agency in Germany from 1961-1962. He is married to Dorothea Guthrie, has three grown children from a prior marriage, seven grandchildren, and lives in Camden.
James Hengerer
Jim Hengerer grew up in Albany, NY. After medical school, he served in U.S. Navy for nine years while training in Ear, Nose and Throat. He practiced in Lynchburg, VA for 35 years and retired to Rockland four years ago with his wife, Judy. They have spent summers in Maine on Echo Lake for many years. Jim also serves on the United Midcoast Charities Board of Directors and is a member of UMC’s Development Committee and Grants Committee.
Peter Imber (Education Chair)
Peter Imber moved to Maine in 2010 with his Rockland born wife, Jo Dondis, after a 28-year career in network television news. For most of that time he was a producer for ABC News and worked for its broadcasts, including World News Tonight, Nightline and Good Morning America. His work was nominated for National News Emmys four times, winning once. He has also received a DuPont-Columbia Award and a National Press Club Award. Peter grew up in Pennsylvania, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1969 and lived in Israel during the 1970s where he was a member of a kibbutz and served in the Israel Defense Forces. After returning to the U.S. he received an M.F.A. from U.C.L.A. in Motion Picture/Television Production. He has taught several classes at Belfast Senior College and is teaching another at the Camden Library this spring. He has been a volunteer with the Camden Conference and served as chair of Community Events, vice president, president and is now chair of the Education Committee.
Elaine Keyes
Elaine Keyes spent ten years as a high school teacher and administrator, followed by 30 in the investment management industry. After her B.A. from the College of Wooster in Philosophy and German and a B.Ed. from Queen’s University, she and her husband George moved to Utrecht in The Netherlands where they stayed for eleven years. In The Netherlands Elaine taught at the International School Beverweerd, a small bilingual Dutch and English boarding school. During that time she became Academic Head of the International Section and brought the school into the International Baccalaureate program as the 42nd school to join and the first in The Netherlands. She continued to teach both subsidiary and higher level I.B. Contemporary World History. Returning to the U.S., she received her M.B.A. in Finance at the University of Minnesota. Most of her investment business positions at various firms were back office related, often dealing with complex securities and pricing issues. Since retiring and moving permanently to Maine in 2008, she has volunteered at Chewonki Foundation in Wiscasset and taken French courses at the Penobscot School. Her husband, George, is an Art Historian, an interest they share. Elaine’s recent enthusiasm is about Chinese export porcelain before 1750 and how it got where it is now. They are both involved with the Bowdoin College Art Museum. Although they traveled widely during their years in Europe, they continue to love to travel. Museums, beautiful cities, and nature are their destinations. At home they both enjoy the beauty around them here in Maine.
Eric Lebson
Eric Lebson has a career that includes both private sector consulting for corporate clients and national security policymaking. He led the Pakistan team within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, served as a Director at the National Security Council, and was in charge of the Strategic Risk Assessment team as an exchange officer within the Australian Department of Defence. Outside of government, Eric conducts corporate investigations and business intelligence projects for private sector clients, serving on the advisory board of TD International, LLC, an industry leading company that he co-founded in 1999. He also built a successful business intelligence practice within a crisis communications firm. Eric manages business operations for Evergreen Philanthropic Solutions, a Maine-based consulting firm that helps clients achieve philanthropic outcomes. He is personally committed to supporting hostage families and advises families and governments on a volunteer basis. After about 30 years in Washington, DC, Eric and his wife, Diane, moved to Camden in 2018 but they have been in love with Maine for a whole lot longer.
Karin Look
Karin Look is a retired national security professional. Following education at Sweet Briar College, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and UVA Law School, Karin held positions at the Central Intelligence Agency, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and Department of State. During her career, she wrote and negotiated treaties controlling nuclear weapons, led the removal of nuclear and chemical materials from Libya, led consultations with NATO on conventional forces, and led for the State Department renewed U.S. thinking about controlling biological weapons. Since arriving in Maine in 2012, Karin and her husband, George, have immersed themselves in the restoration of their 1813 federal house and barn and created extensive herb and vegetable gardens. They embrace the use of natural methods, emphasize native plants and are ever-conscious of the needs of bees and butterflies. While in Maine they have supported Maine Preservation and local land trusts, team-taught classes at the Belfast Senior College, presented at Pecha Kucha, started a lunch-time discussion group on global issues, and adopted two cats. In addition to her work on the Program Committee, Karin serves on the Board of Trustees of the Belfast Senior College, the Town of Montville’s Planning Board, and the Mid-Coast Forum on Foreign Relations’ Speakers Committee.
Emily Lusher (Marketing Committee Chair)
Emily Lusher has worked in marketing and market research for over 35 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. After leaving the corporate world, she was director of marketing for Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH as well as for a local arts center and function hall. Upon “retiring” to Maine, she ran the Camden Windjammer Festival for five years, provided marketing assistance to many Camden area nonprofits and is active in Rockport town activities. Emily has a BA and MA from Harvard University and an MBA from Boston University.
Merlin Miller
Merlin Miller grew up in Illinois, attended Purdue University (BS & MS in Engineering Sciences) and Northeastern University (MS & PhD in Physics). He and his wife, Carlotta, moved to the Boston Area in 1962 where he worked for AC Electronics division of General Motors, the Avco Everett Research Laboratory and Physical Sciences Inc., and taught physics at Northeastern University. A resident of Topsfield MA for 48 years, Merlin was a member of the Elementary School Committee, Finance Committee, and Board of Selectmen. Merlin and Carlotta have been visiting Maine for about 40 years and bought their home in Rockland in 1993.
Jane Nyce (Community Events Chair)
Jane Nyce retired to Cushing, ME in the summer of 2014. She was co-President of the Board in 2015 for Village to Village Network, a national non-profit supporting community programs to keep seniors safe in their homes and connected in their communities. Additionally, she is working with Methodist Conference Home in Knox County, ME to establish a village model program for Knox County. She was the founding Executive Director for Staying Put in New Canaan in Connecticut, one of the early “village” models, now in its ninth year of operation. She came to the program when it was in development in the summer of 2007 for her last internship in a Masters of Health Advocacy at Sarah Lawrence College. Before that, her professional work for over twenty years was in consumer insights and market research. She worked for Kraft Foods, Tropicana and Information Resources, a national research firm for clients such as P&G, Unilever, Quaker, Coca Cola, etc. Her educational background includes an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Smith College and work in the doctoral program in Psychology at Cornell University.
Sandra Ruch
Sandra Ruch is the film program manager for International Cinema US, where she organizes documentary film programs for US embassies and colleges and universities around the world. She is also president of CinElixir Consulting, which provides consulting services to documentary filmmakers. Previously, Ruch was executive director of the International Documentary Association, and a film programmer and consultant for the U.S. Department of State in its Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, bringing US documentary films and filmmakers to embassies, schools, and arts organizations in 17 countries. Ruch has had extensive marketing experience in senior management positions in the entertainment industry. As Director of Cultural Programs at Mobil Oil she supervised the promotion and publicity of Mobil sponsored PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery. She served as Marketing President for New Line Cinema and Synergy Pictures heading up campaigns for the films Evita and Glen Garry Glen Ross,and for Fox TV’s Movie of the Week, among many others. Ruch serves on juries and expert panels at international film festivals and conferences, and she serves on several boards, including the Maine Alliance for Arts in Education (MAAE), The Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA),and Waterfall Arts.
Charlotte Singleton (Program Chair)
Charlotte Singleton has worked as a director of nonprofit organizations at home and abroad for more than 30 years. She has been a member of the Camden Conference Program Committee since 2013. For 11 years, she served as executive director of the World Affairs Council of Oregon, the largest international affairs organization in the Pacific Northwest. She also has served as a board member and president of the National Council of World Affairs Organizations in Washington, D.C. Most recently, Singleton served as Executive Director of the Mount Desert Island Historical Society. Singleton and her husband, Seth, who teaches international relations at the University of Maine, have lived and worked abroad in many countries, including Ecuador and Vietnam. Seth and Charlotte Singleton live in Mount Desert.
Ward Wickwire (Technology Chair)
Ward Wickwire is currently Managing Director of AICA, a global alliance of investment banking firms with a total of 40 members located in developed and emerging markets around the world. The members specialize in executing cross border transactions focusing on mergers, acquisitions and capital raisings. Prior to moving to Maine as a full time resident in 2012, Ward spent 20 years as Managing Director of a middle market investment company advising clients on mergers, acquisitions, licensing agreements and other strategic initiatives. Previously, he was Director of Corporate Development for a subsidiary of Inland Steel Company based in Chicago, Illinois. During his years in the Midwest, he served as a Director/Board Member of two private companies and led negotiations to sell each to public companies. In Maine, he continues to hold leadership positions in a variety of community, social and recreational organizations including churches, alumni organizations, foreign affairs groups and sports organizations. Ward holds a BSME from Yale University and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
