Biographies of WNISEF Board of Directors
Patrick H. Arbor served three consecutive two-year terms as Chairman of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Under Mr. Arbor watch, the CBOT enjoyed its most successful years ever, charting six years of record growth and charting the future of both electronic and floor-based trading.
Mr. Arbor presently serves as a Director of First Chicago Bank & Trust Co, a billion dollar bank holding company and Merriman Curhan Ford & Co, an American Exchange listed company. He is a Principal of the trading firm Shatkin Arbor.
Mr. Arbor has been a member of the CBOT since 1965, serving three years as Vice Chairman and another ten years as Director. He also sat for three years on the Executive Committee of both the Board of Trade Clearing Corporation and the National Futures Association.
President Bill Clinton appointed Mr. Arbor to the WNIS Enterprise Fund Board of Directors in October 1994. Mr. Arbor numerous Board positions include Chicago Mercy Home for Boys and Girls; the Mission of Our Lady of Mercy; Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago; and the Illinois Facilities Fund.
Previous Board appointments include the Executive Committee and the Board of Trustees of Loyola University of Chicago; the United States Association for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; the First State Bank & Trust Company of Park Ridge, Illinois; London Investment Trust (LIT), PLC; the United Financial Holdings, Inc; and the United Community Bank.
Mr. Arbor received his bachelor degree in Finance from Loyola University in 1958. He started his career as a math teacher and later served as mayor of Harwood Heights, Illinois. He has authored numerous articles on Finance in leading professional and academic journals. A veteran mountain climber, who has scaled many of the world tallest peaks, Mr. Arbor is a lifelong resident of Chicago.
Richard (Dick) I. Arthur, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Sippican Corporation (TSC). Dick was instrumental in the management led buyout of the Company in 1990 and had served as Chairman until April of 2002. He was also the Company CEO until 1994. Dick joined TSC, Sippican, Inc. original parent company, as an engineer in 1964. He later became manufacturing manager and, ultimately, President of its Ocean Systems Division. In 1981, this division was spun out and became a public company under Dick as its President. He served in that position for the next 13 years. During his term as President, the Company was bought in 1987 by the Plessey Company, Plc. which, in turn, was taken over by GEC, UK and Siemans, FRG. In December 2004 Lockheed Martin Corporation acquired Sippican Holdings, Inc., a Massachusetts-based supplier of naval electronics systems.
Dick, a native of Massachusetts, was educated at Merrimack College and Penn State University. He is presently a member of the Corporation of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Mr. Arthur currently serves on the Board of Western Newly Independent States Enterprise Fund which provides growth capital to business in Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus. Dick also serves on the Board of Lifespan, an organization dedicated to serving the mentally impaired, as well as on the Board of SeaWave, a technology company serving the offshore commercial fleets.
He has served on the Boards of Neil Brown Instrumentation Systems, Datamarine, BayBanks S.E., Horizon Marine and the Naval Submarine League. Mr. Arthur also served on the Board of the Moby Dick Council Boy Scouts of America, the Massachusetts High Tech Council, and the Society for Human Advancement through Rehabilitation Engineering (SHARE) and on the Visiting Committee of the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies and as a member of the Advisory Committee of The Applied Research Laboratory of the University of Washington. Dick served as a Trustee of the Bird Johnson Company for many years. Dick is a past President of the Sippican Tennis Club and is an avid fisherman.
He and his wife, Helen Adams Arthur, live in Marion, Massachusetts. They have five children and ten grandchildren.
Robert M. Cotten, retired as Assistant General Counsel of Hughes Electronics Corporation in Los Angeles, California. Until his retirement, Mr. Cotten was responsible for the international legal affairs of Hughes Electronics (and its predecessor Hughes Aircraft Company), including joint ventures, acquisitions, divestitures, regulatory and export control issues, sales representatives, consultants and formation of new wholly owned subsidiaries.
Mr. Cotten received his Bachelor and Master degrees in Political Science from UCLA. Mr. Cotten received his Juris Doctor Degree from the Harvard Law School. Following graduation from law school, Mr. Cotten worked as a Deputy City Attorney for the City of Los Angeles, a Staff Assistant at the White House in Washington, D.C., and as an Attorney-Advisor for the Agency of International Development at the Department of State in Washington, D.C. Mr. Cotten joined Hughes Aircraft Company in 1980.
Mr. Cotten is a member of the California State Bar. He serves on the board of directors of the Western Newly Independent States (NIS) Enterprise Fund where he also serves as Chairman of the Audit Committee and is a member of the Personnel Committee. Mr. Cotten also serves on the Board of Overseers of the International Rescue Committee and as a member of the board of directors of the Los Angeles Library Foundation. He is a former member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association International Law Section Executive Committee and a former member of the California State Bar International Law Section Executive Committee.
Mr. Cotten resides in Los Angeles.
Natalie A. Jaresko is one of the co-founders of Horizon Capital and serves as its Managing Partner since March 2006. Simultaneously, Ms. Jaresko serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF), a position which she has held since February 2001. Ms. Jaresko manages Horizon Capital strategy, and develops and maintains relationships with current and potential investors. She is currently leading fundraising for the Emerging Europe Growth Fund, LP (EEGF). In a variety of positions since 1995, she has been setting long-term business goals, managing operations and investing in Ukraine and Moldova on behalf of WNISEF. She has personally led transactions in the industrial goods sector and supervised transactions in the retail, FMCG and financial services industries. In 2004, WNISEF exited a portfolio company sourced by Ms. Jaresko that generated a 2.5 times cash-on-cash return and a gross IRR of 23% for WNISEF. Ms. Jaresko broad experience in both the private and public sectors enables the Fund to successfully navigate complex business environments, while maintaining its focus on building profitable market leaders in a wide variety of industries.
Prior to joining WNISEF, Ms. Jaresko worked at the U.S. Department of State. From 1992 to 1995, she served as the first Chief of the Economic Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine where she negotiated key treaties and agreements establishing the framework for U.S.-Ukraine bilateral economic cooperation. Prior to her post with the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, Ms. Jaresko served in various economic positions at the State Department in Washington, D.C. She managed bilateral economic relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and the New Independent States and actively coordinated the joint activities of the State Department, the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, U.S. Trade Representative, and Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). She also interacted with multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Ms. Jaresko has over sixteen years of professional experience in the region, primarily in Ukraine. She is a U.S. citizen fluent in Ukrainian, and received her Master's Degree in Public Policy from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government in 1989. She received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois in 1987 and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Ms. Jaresko received the Order of Princess Olha award from the President of Ukraine in 2003 for her contributions to the Ukrainian economy, and is a member of President Yushchenko's Foreign Investors Advisory Council and the Advisory Board of the Ukrainian Center for Promotion of Foreign Investment under the auspices of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
Dennis A. Johnson is Executive Vice President of Cooperative Housing Resources, LLC, a lender and consultant specializing in the development and finance of senior housing cooperatives. He is an experienced executive with strong skills in finance, credit, and business development. Through domestic and international experience he has outstanding business acumen and leadership abilities. As a highly successful executive with the Farm Credit System, he held a variety of positions from credit analyst to President and CEO of the St. Paul Bank for Cooperatives.
He received a Bachelor of Agricultural Business Administration from the University of Minnesota in 1971 and a Master Degree in Agricultural Economics in 1973. In May 1996, he received the Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of Minnesota Department of Applied Economics.
Dennis is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund. He also serves as a member of the Fund Investment and Audit Committees. In addition, Dennis is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Senior Cooperative Foundation and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cooperative Development Services. He has previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of Farm Credit Leasing Services Corporation, Homestead Housing Center, Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, and Cooperative Development Foundation.
Mr. Johnson is a member of the American Agricultural Economics Association, the Association of Cooperative Educators, and also has been active in Boy Scouts of America.
Jaroslawa Zelinsky Johnson is an attorney and partner at Chadbourne & Parke LLP, and is Director of that firm Kyiv office. Her corporate law practice in Ukraine opened in 1990 when she began to champion the country post-Soviet economic development and business climate. Today, her Kyiv law office is recognized by the international business community as a leading source of transactional counsel for multinational companies doing business in Ukraine.
Her Ukraine law practice has provided legal services in connection with acquisitions and sales of businesses, international distributions, agency licensing, consulting and export agreements in telecommunications, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, food processing, transportation, agrochemicals and energy sectors for multinational companies based in Argentina, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States.
Ms. Johnson was born in Ukraine and emigrated to the U.S. as a child. She is a graduate of Goucher College and University of Wisconsin Law School, where she was editor of the law review and earned a J.D. in 1977. After law school, she served as law clerk to Chief Judge Thomas E. Fairchild, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and practiced corporate law with several Chicago law firms. She is a founding member and former chairperson of America Ukraine Business Council, which sponsored the first American visit of a Ukrainian president in 1991, and she organized the first Ukraine-U.S. Trade Conference for American companies in 1992. She was appointed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton to the Board of Directors of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund in 1994.
Jeffrey C. Neal until recently held the position of Chairman of the Global Investment Banking Group of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. Mr. Neal had been with Merrill Lynch and a predecessor firm since 1973. Previously, Mr. Neal served from 1969 to 1973 as Assistant Director of the Bureau of Budget, State of Illinois.
Mr. Neal, a native of Peoria, Illinois, earned his A.B. in 1967 from Harvard College and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1969. Mr. Neal is a member of The Board of Directors of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Council on Global Affairs and Western NIS Enterprise Fund. He is also a Life Member of the Visiting Committee of the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago and participates in the Mentor Program. He is a Life Trustee at Lake Forest Academy. Mr. Neal is a distinguished member of the Board of Directors of Caribou Coffee Company, Inc. and is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Whitney MacMillan retired as Chairman and CEO from Cargill on August 31, 1995. A native of Minnesota, he joined Cargill as a general trainee in 1951 after receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University.
MacMillan held various jobs in San Francisco, Manila and Minneapolis. He was elected CEO in 1976 and Chairman of the Board in 1977, holding these positions until his retirement in 1995.
In retirement, Mr. MacMillan is a director of the EastWest Institute, the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, the International Peace Academy, The Western NIS Enterprise Fund, the Yale President Council on International Activities, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
With his wife he operates a cow/calf ranch in Montana.
