In addition to Artistic Director Melody Brooks and Catharine Guiher (Secretary) the following comprise our current Board:

STEPHEN FOREHT (Chair) of Foreht Last Landau & Katz LLP.

CAROL HELLER (Vice-Chair) joined ARGI in 2007 as Senior Vice President - Sales and Marketing.   Ms. Heller has more than 20 years of extensive relationship-based selling and business development experience spanning multiple high technology segments. As a top-producing management executive achieving high double digit sales growth, Ms. Heller has an outstanding record of creating and implementing effective sales and marketing strategies in challenging market environments. She specializes in developing personal relationships with senior management at client organizations; and is highly skilled at contract negotiations with complex accounts. 

Prior to joining ARGI, Ms. Heller was Vice President of Sales, Eastern Region at Getty Images, Inc. where she reorganized the sales force to emphasize proactive outside selling focusing on the publishing industry. From 2000 to 2003 at Comcast Corporation as the Vice President for Broadband Network Solutions, Ms. Heller had sales, marketing and operational P&L responsibility.  While at Comcast, Ms. Heller negotiated several strategic partnerships and achieved double digit revenue growth by expanding the direct sales and wholesale distribution channels. From 1995-2000 at AT&T, Ms. Heller was the Vice President – General Manager for Growth Market Sales and consistently delivered high revenue growth during a period when multiple new competitors were entering the market.  Throughout her work experience, Ms. Heller has demonstrated that she is a dynamic sales and marketing executive able to lead others to achieve and exceed objectives.

Across several industry sectors Ms. Heller has proven her ability to effectively lead teams, utilizing strong analytic, communication and implementation skills and to meet and exceed targeted sales and marketing objectives.  Ms. Heller earned her B.A. from Brandeis University, an M.A. from Columbia University and her M.B.A. from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

MICHELE PANZERI (Treasurer) is young professional approaching the non for profit world for the first time. He has been working in the past few years in the finance industry and he is currently affiliated with one of the biggest US banks. Michele is originally from Italy and moved to New York in 2006 after graduating from Tennessee Technological University where he obtained a bachelor degree in Finance. He was also granted a sport scholarship for four years to play tennis and represent the school in numerous tournaments and matches. He was in fact a highly decorated college tennis player and participated in NCAA championships in a various occasions. Michele represents a good fit for the organization, bringing together enthusiasm, skills and a genuine interest for the art and theatre performance.

ELLEN RICHARD In 2005, Ms. Richard concluded her tenure with the Roundabout Theatre Company and served as Executive Director of Second Stage Theatre Company through 2009. The Roundabout that Ms. Richard joined in 1983 was a small non-profit theatre company in bankruptcy. At the time of her departure as Managing Director, the Roundabout had become one of the country's largest and most successful theatre companies of its kind with net assets in excess of $67 million. Ms. Richard was the Director of Design and Construction for the American Airlines Theatre, Studio 54, and the Steinberg Center for the Arts. Prior to the Roundabout, Ms. Richard was the Theatre Manager for the Hartman Theatre Company, Business Manager for the Westport Country Playhouse and Business Manager for Atlas Scenic Studios, a union scenic studio. Ms. Richard began her career in production working as a stagehand, sound designer and scenic artist assistant. She is the recipient of six Tony Awards as producer.

WILLIAM A. THOMAS, III is the President of August Williams, LLC. A seasoned web programmer, William has more than 13 years of experience building web sites and web applications as an employee of government contractors and private internet consulting firms. In the mid-90's, while pursuing a B.S. degree from the University of Pittsburgh, he co-founded Pages Ink, Inc., an internet consulting firm that was instrumental in assisting local, minority-owned businesses understand the power of the internet. One of the firm's greatest achievements was successfully launching a web site for the oldest African-American newspaper in the country, The Philadelphia Tribune.

In the late '90's William took his entrepreneurial experience and collegiate education to corporate America. Working for a government contractor in the Washington, D.C. area, he held a Top Secret security clearance and worked on several groundbreaking projects, including creating a database to store Y2K conversion data for a high-profile system. After moving to New York, William worked as a senior web developer for Proxicom, Inc. creating cross-browser, cross-platform, dynamic web sites using platforms such as BroadVision and ATG Dynamo. While at Proxicom, he worked on projects for clients such as GE, Topps & Cole Haan, as well as several internal prototype mobile and voice-activated web sites.

Most recently William served as the Vice President of Digital Media with Visual Concepts, a video production and web development firm based in Windsor, CT. As a VP, William consulted many clients on web-related issues such as e-mail marketing and social media best practices, in addition to preparing web site analysis and search engine optimization reports. He also managed the multi-talented multimedia department of graphic designers, Flash programmers and front-end/back-end web programmers who won awards for their work on the Spalding, Peter Pan Bus and FRAM/Prestone/Autolite corporate web sites.

New Perspectives is actively seeking additional Board members who are committed to the arts and public service.  Particular areas of expertise needed include: Public Relations and Marketing and Finance/Fundraising.  If you are interested in being considered as a Board candidate, please send an introductory letter outlining your interest and qualifications to the attention of Catharine Guiher, c/o NPT 456 West 37th Street, Ground Floor, NYC, NY  10018, or via email at contact@nptnyc.org.