Board of Directors

Dr. Jane Aronson - Founder

Board member since 1997

Dr. Aronson is a board certified general pediatrician and infectious diseases specialist.  She has been a practicing adoption medicine specialist for over 25 years. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of Columbia University, and also the Director of International Pediatric Health Services (IPH), which she opened in 2000. Since founding WWO in 1997, Dr. Aronson has visited orphanages in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Latin America. Dr. Aronson and her partner, Diana, have three children: Hilary (adopted domestically), Desalegn (adopted from Ethiopia) and Ben (adopted from Vietnam). See full bio.

 

 

Martin Storm - Board Co-Chair

Board member since Nov 2012
Board Co-Chair since Apr 2013

Martin Storm is Chairman, President & CEO of BMM International, one of the world’s leading gambling product certification labs for regulated and legal gambling markets. Through its family holdings, the Storm family is the major shareholder of the BMM group of companies worldwide. Before joining BMM in 2002, Mr. Storm co-founded and listed Channel E Ltd on the Australian Stock Exchange and was a member of the Board of Directors. He also provided business risk management services for TAB Limited, and general management and business development roles for technology companies ICL/Fujitsu, Oracle and Informix. Mr Storm is married to Sandra and has three children Jacob, Skala and Juliet. He travels extensively from his base in Melbourne, Australia.

 

Christopher Yanney - Board Co-Chair

Board member since Dec 2010
Board Co-Chair since Apr 2013

Christopher Yanney is the founder and portfolio manager of CKC Capital in New York City. He has worked in the financial industry since 1997, including serving as Managing Director and High Yield Trading at Citigroup, Head of High Yield Trading at Morgan Stanley, Head of High Yield Trading at Barclays, a Portfolio Manager in Emerging Markets at Delaware Investments, and a Senior High Yield Trader at Goldman Sachs. He received his degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a BS in Management Science and a minor in Political Science. He is married to Elsie Yanney, and they reside in Philadelphia, PA, with their three children, Vance, Christopher Jr., and Xavier.

 

 

Andrew D. Allen

Board member since Jan 2011

Andrew is a Senior Vice President, Wealth Management Advisor at Merrill Lynch. He is a Co-Founder of The Harbor Group, a Wealth Management Team at Merrill Lynch that was named to Barron’s Top 1,000 Advisors list in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Andrew began his career at Merrill Lynch in 1994. Andrew formerly worked as a Legal Assistant at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP. Andrew grew up in Far Hills, New Jersey where he attended Far Hills Country Day School. He then went on to Berkshire School in Sheffield, MA. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Rollins College and earned the designation of Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CPRC®) awarded by the College for Financial Planning. Andrew currently serves as a director on the boards of two charitable foundations. He is also on the Board of Trustees at Berkshire School in Sheffield, MA and Second Stage Theatre in New York, NY.

 

Anthony Benten

Board member since Jul 2006

Tony Benten became Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller of The New York Times Company in January 2007. Mr. Benten had previously served as Vice President and Treasurer of The New York Times since November 2003, after becoming Treasurer in November 2001. He served as Assistant Treasurer since September 1997, and as Director of Treasury since January 1997. Prior to that, he held various positions at The New York Times including: Manager of Finance and Pension Investment, 1993-1996; Supervisor of Financial Analysis and Pensions, Treasury Department, 1992-1993; Senior Financial Analyst, Forest Products Group, 1991-1992, and Financial Analyst, Treasury Department, 1989-1991. Before joining The New York Times Company, Mr. Benten was an Accountant at Deloitte & Touche LLP from 1987-1989. Mr. Benten received a BS degree in finance from Louisiana State University in 1985 and earned an MBA degree from Rice University in 1987, with concentrations in accounting and finance. Tony has been a member of the WWO board since 2006, and also chairs the Finance Committee. He lives in Manhattan with his wife Judith, daughter Emma, and son Liam.

Matthew Blesso

Board member since Jun 2009

Matthew A. Blesso is Founder & CEO of Blesso Properties Corp., a New York City-based progressive real estate development company he established in 1999. Prior to the start of the company, Matthew worked in banking for BHF Capital Corp and Societe Generale. Since its founding, Blesso Properties developments have garnered numerous design awards and broken multiple pricing records. Matthew earned a BA in Economics from the University of Rochester (cum laude) and obtained his Master of Science in Real Estate Development from New York University, where he occasionally lectures. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Citizens Housing and Planning Council, Dixon Place, the Fourth Arts Block and the Institute for Urban Design.

 

 

Nicholas Brophy

Board member since Jan 2011

Nicholas Brophy runs North American Rates Trading at Citigroup.  He is a Managing Director and oversees trading for US Governments, agencies, mortgage pass throughs, and interest rate derivatives.  In this role, Nick is responsible for managing 80 people and one of the more prominent groups in the US fixed income department. Nick joined Citigroup in June 2009 from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.  Prior to his brief stint at the New York Fed, Nick spent most of his career at Merrill Lynch.  Over the course of his tenure at Merrill (1996-2008) his responsibilities evolved from interest rate derivatives trading to management.  He was named head of options trading in 2002, and became a Managing Director in 2003, at the age of 31.  In 2006, Nick was named head of derivatives trading and later in 2006, he was promoted to be co-head of rates trading. Nick received his BA in Economics from Princeton University in 1994, where he played on the varsity football team.  He lives with his wife and three children (two of whom were adopted from Ethiopia) in the West Village of New York City, and he enjoys trips to the Jersey shore, fishing, traveling, and riding his Harley Davidson.

Samantha Cleland 

Samantha currently works as a Director of the Orokawa Foundation, a private family office established to help children and communities in need globally. She worked as a sales trader in the Foreign Exchange desk at HSBC bank for 10 years, primarily covering clients in the hedge fund and sovereign wealth spaces. She recently relocated to Los Angeles, where she is helping Worldwide Orphans expand their presence. Samantha attended the Bryn Mawr School for girls in Baltimore, MD and graduated from Goucer College with her BA in International Relations and French. She has been involved with the Leukemia Society of America and the Robin Hood Foundation.

 

Meg Bode D'Ariano

Board member since Nov 2005

Meg Bode D'Ariano is President of Bode & Associates, a public relations boutique that caters to the financial services industry. Meg focuses on  public relations, direct marketing, Web site development, advertising and event planning. For the last 15 years, she has been involved nearly exclusively in the hedge fund industry, mainly through work with Managed Funds Association. At home, in Manhasset, NY, Meg lives with her husband, Carmine, and their two daughters, Lily and Grace, both of whom were born in China and adopted as babies.

 

.

Marcia E. C. Favale

Board member since April 2011

Marcia Favale has nearly two decades of finance experience and her own consulting company, M. Favale-Tarter, LLC, and most recently advises on the Kazakh bank restructurings, among other deals. Ms. Favale is also a Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, responsible for matters related to the financial sector and debt restructuring. Before her independent advisory roles, Marcia was a portfolio manager and senior member of the Advent Capital investment team and a senior portfolio manager at Brevan Howard. At UBS, Marcia was a Managing Director, Head of CEEMEA and LATAM corporate bond research in UBS’s global credit fixed-income research group. She was also a member of UBS's Credit Committee and Emerging Market Steering Committee. In 2006 she was ranked #1- Emerging Markets Corporate Bond/Credit Analyst by Institutional Investor Magazine. 
Before joining UBS, Marcia was at Merrill Lynch and started her finance career at Banker’s Trust in Japan M&A. Marcia is a member of the Advisory Board for Environmental Technology Solutions, LLC (ETS), which is an engineering, research, and services company that develops and commercializes innovative technologies to benefit society and the environment. Marcia is a graduate of New York University and has a Post Graduate Degree in Financial Strategy from University of Oxford (Said Business School) and is currently a member of St. Cross College (Oxford).  Ms Favale has an Excecutive-MBA from the University of Oxford.  She is in a committed relationship and has a daughter from Kazakhstan.

Lori B. Finkel

Board Chair Jan 2012 - Mar 2013
Board member since Apr 2008

Lori B. Finkel resides in New York with her husband, Andrew Cogan, and three children, Jedidiah, Caleb and Aliyah. In addition to raising her children full-time, Lori is active in several fundraising, philanthropic and school-related endeavors. Lori was an investment banker whose principal clients included the private equity community. Lori facilitated the financing of acquisitions through capital raising in the private and public debt markets, took her clients’ portfolio companies public, and advised on divestitures, spin-offs, and add-on acquisitions. Lori graduated from Brown University in 1984 with an AB in Art History and Economics and is currently pursuing a Masters  of Global Public Health at Mt. Sinai.

 

 

Sharon McDonnell Hubregsen

Sharon McDonnell Hubregsen spent many years as a recruiting specialist in the financial and public relations industries, working as a senior recruiter at Ketchum Public Relations, a recruiting consultant at ESPN Magazine and Vice President of Teeman, Perley, Inc. In 2011 Sharon received a Master’s of Science in Social Work from Columbia University School of Social Work, with a concentration in Advanced Clinical Practice: Health, Mental Health and Disabilities and is a licensed Master of Social Work in the State of New York. She holds a BA in Economics from St. Michael's College. She lives in New York City with her husband Andy and daughters Portia and Lulu, where she is an active volunteer in her children's school. .

Janet M. Kagan

Board member since Jan 2006
Board Chair from April 2006 to December 2011

Janet Maisel Kagan has over ten years experience in the financial services industry, having held various positions in the marketing and credit divisions of Société Générale, Deutsche Bank and Chemical Bank (now part of JP Morgan Chase). Her most recent position was as a Director of the Financial Institutions Group at Société Générale, where she was responsible for marketing the bank’s commercial and investment banking products and services to its financial institutions client base. Ms. Kagan has an MBA in Finance from NYU’s Stern Graduate School of Business, an MA in Clinical Psychology from the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. She is married to Howard Kagan; they have three children, Maxwell, Everett and Olivia.

Mary Knobler

Board member since Nov 2005

Mary Knobler serves as the head US high yield and distressed bond trader and assists in Oaktree’s other trading activities. Prior to joining Oaktree in 1995, she worked at Lehman Brothers, where she was a high yield bond salesperson. Her previous experience includes four years at Kidder Peabody in high yield bond sales, and four years at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. in the syndicate and private placement groups. Ms. Knobler is a graduate of California State University at Northridge, with a BS degree in Psychology. And she is also an adoptive mother of an Ethiopian child.

 

Amy L. Nauiokas

Board member since Nov 2012

Amy Nauoikas launched her entrepreneurial career in 2008 with the formation of My Dash Unlimited, with business spanning the entertainment, media, financial, technology, real estate and equestrian industries.  She is Founder of Archer Gray Productions, an independent Theater, Film and TV production company. Her Broadway projects include Dead Accounts, the multiple Tony Award winner ONCE, and Seminar.  Amy's film productions include Greetings from Tim Buckley and The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete.  She is an active venture capitalist who Co-Founded Nauiokas Park LLC, which was acquired in 2010 by the Anthemis Group. Previously, Amy was Managing Director and CEO of Barclays Stockbrokers, and a founding Management Committee member of Barclays Wealth.  She joined Barclays Group in 2004, as Head of Electronic Sales & Trading at Barclays Capital.  Before joining Barclays, Amy was Senior Managing Director and Partner at Cantor Fitzgerald, where she was part of the management team that put Cantor's brokerage business online.  Amy proved critical to the company's rebuild after the September 11th attacks destroyed Cantor's headquarters in the World Trade Center when, in addition to running Global Marketing, Business Development and Investor Relations, she directed Human Resources for the firm. Amy received her master's in International Business from Columbia University, and graduated from Dickinson College in 1994 with bachelor's in International Studies.  She is a member of the Dickinson College Board of Trustees. Amy is strongly commited to children's health and wellness philanthropic endeavors on both a local and global scale. She enjoys living in New York with her husband Harry Harrison, and their children, Graydon and Archie. 

 

Learn more WWO Staff in the US
Learn more International Staff