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board of trustees

Officers

Chair: Andy Dietz, Spectra Gases Inc. (retired)

Vice Chair: Bruce Hyde, Round Table Services

Secretary: Kaki Pierson, The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel

Assistant Secretary: Jeremy Doppelt, Jeremy Doppelt Realty Management, LLC

Treasurer: Tom Scudese, Investments

Ex Officio: John P. de Neufville, Ph.D., Eutectix Corporation


Trustees

Sherri Albrecht,  URS Corp.

Andrew Allen, LSRP, GKL Environmental Consulting, LLC

Teresa Finlay,  Founder of The Nickelodeon Fund

Berkley Harmon III, Insperity

Dennis J. Krumholz, Esq., Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti LLP

Spence Mehl, RCS Real Estate Advisors

Elise Morrison, IBM Corporation, Retired

Dr. Grant Parr, Cardiac Surgeon, Retired

Barbara Wattenbach

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Trustees Emeritus

Albie Booth

Sally R. Epstein
Patricia Kennelly
John Lundberg
Sally B. Martin

Peter Meyer

Rick Simon

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Trustee Biographies

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Sherri Albrecht joined The Conservancy’s Board of Trustees in 2006 and is a resident of Rockaway Township. Sherri is a Senior Environmental Scientist for URS Corp and specializes in wetlands and permitting. She has an MA in Environmental Science and a BS in Biology. Sherri has been a volunteer and later treasurer with Tri-Boro Animal Welfare in Butler. She was also a volunteer and later board member with Brookview Wildlife Center, formerly of Boonton. She currently volunteers with the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife through the Wildlife Conservation Corps (WCC). Her main involvement as a WCC volunteer is with the Endangered and Non-game species program conducting amphibian crossing and vernal pool surveys. Sherri enjoys outdoor recreation activities, particularly kayaking, mountain biking, hiking and cross-country skiing. She also enjoys gardening and spending time with family and friends.

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Andrew Allen is a Licensed Site Remediation Professional with 17 years of experience in the environmental engineering field. He has worked extensively with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and
started his own firm, GKL Environmental Consulting, in 2022. He lives in Newton with his wife and three children.

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John P. de Neufville, Ph.D. is the President and founder of Voltaix, Inc., a manufacturer and international supplier of electronic gases based in North Branch, NJ. He started Voltaix, Inc. in 1986 to capture the market for an obscure gas, germane, GeH4, which is used in multi-junction solar cells based on “amorphous silicon” to improve efficiency by better converting the red and near infra-red portions of the solar spectrum into electricity. He has a Ph.D. in Applied Physics (specialty in Materials Science, Harvard, 1969), an M.S. (Harvard, 1965) and a B.S. (Yale, 1961) in geology, and is a self-taught chemist, who has worked on advanced batteries, phase change rewritable CD technology, catalysis, uranium exploration technology and semiconductor physics at Energy Conversion Devices in Troy, MI and Exxon’s Corporate Lab when it was in Linden, NJ. He was a Board Member of Planned Parenthood of Greater Northern New Jersey from 1994-1999, serving as Vice Chairperson in 1995 and Chairperson in 1998. He is a past Board Chair and has been a trustee on the board at The Land Conservancy of New Jersey since 1995.

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Andy Dietz was the Co-founder and CEO of Spectra Gases, Inc., a specialty gas company. Andy and his brother ran the company for 25 years until they sold it to Linde AG, a multinational engineering and industrial gases company. Andy attended Lafayette College and currently lives on a farm in Chester with his wife, Karen and their two children. He has been a Conservancy member since 2002 and joined our Board of Trustees in 2013.

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Jeremy Doppelt is a former civil trial and real estate attorney. In 2000 he gave up his files to become a full time real estate investor. He is also the Managing Member of several LLCs. Jeremy graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of General Studies, majoring in Political Science and History. He later attained his law degree from the Rutgers Newark School of Law. A Boonton Township resident since 1993, Jeremy is married with 3 grown daughters. He is also on the advisory board of Roots and Wings and joined The Land Conservancy’s Board in 2018.

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Teresa Finlay has lived in Mendham with her husband and three sons since 1998, relocating from Manhattan. In 1999 she established a 501(c)(3), The Nickelodeon Fund, to raise funds, design and build a children’s playground in Mendham. The playground was recognized by the State of New Jersey for its design, which features play structures modeled after local historic sites. She served on the Board of Trustees of Schiff Natural Lands Trust for 8 years and chaired 3 of its major fundraising events. Teresa is Vice President of Friends of Pitney Farm, a non-profit committed to preservation of historic Pitney Farm in Mendham Township, and its repurpose for community uses. She has been active in her children’s various schools, including Peck School, Willow School, Hotchkiss and Peddie. She held a Series 7 and spent time at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette in Private Client Services. Prior to that, Teresa worked in Corporate Finance at the Fiat Group in New York. Teresa graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Art History and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School in Finance. Teresa enjoys gardening, hiking, sailing, tennis, skiing and traveling to all corners of the earth. Her favorite place, however, is home, where her family enjoys fly fishing, cycling and appreciating the great outdoors. She has been a trustee since 2016.

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Berkley Harmon III is a Certified Business Performance Advisor with Insperity, a Human Resources company, where in his role there for the last five years, he has helped small and mid-sized businesses, schools, and non-profit organizations provide cost-effective benefits and human resource services and technology to help their organizations compete and grow. Prior to his role with Insperity, Berkley was a licensed insurance agent with licenses in NJ, PA and DE in property & casualty and life & health insurance. For six years, he was a business owner serving small businesses in NJ and PA, helping them with their insurance and human resource needs, until he sold his company to join Insperity. After graduating with a B.A. Degree in Business Management from Eastern University in St. David’s, PA, Berkley spent ten years of his career in the pharmaceutical industry with GSK and Merck & Co. During his time with GSK, Berkley also received his MBA from Villanova University in their Executive MBA Program. As part of his MBA program, he spent part of a semester overseas in Chile and Argentina studying American business investments in South America and International Business. He has a family of eight including his wife, Dr. Sandra Harmon, his namesake Berkley Harmon IV and five siblings. Berkley joined The Land Conservancy’s Board in 2019.

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Bruce Hyde joined The Land Conservancy’s Board in 2014 and is a 20 year resident of Chester where he resides with his wife Lee Ann and his two children and various other animals including horses, ducks, a dog and other wildlife. Bruce has been in the wealth advisory field for over 12 years and is currently a Wealth Manager for Round Table Services LLC in Westfield, NJ. He had previously worked for another wealth advisory firm in Manhattan for over 10 years. His career began in public accounting with Price Waterhouse in Morristown where he spent 8 years advising a broad range of corporate and individual clients before moving to AT&T and eventually Lucent Technologies where he worked in the Corporate Tax Planning group as Assistant Tax Director. Bruce is a graduate of Lafayette College where he earned his BA in Economics and Business and he later received a Masters in Taxation from Seton Hall University where he was elected Beta Gamma Sigma for high scholastic achievement. Bruce and his family have a passion for the outdoors including the beach and he is constantly tinkering with a project or two having to do with vintage muscle cars.

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Dennis J. Krumholz joined the Board of The Land Conservancy in 2010. He is a partner in the Morristown office of Riker Danzig law firm, where he directs the firm’s environmental practice. Dennis’s practice emphasizes the remediation of contaminated sites and includes litigation, transactional and regulatory work. He is a former deputy attorney general for the State of New Jersey and past chair of the environmental law section of the New Jersey State Bar Association. Dennis is named on the first tier of New Jersey environmental lawyers in Chambers USA’s annual attorney review, along with similar designations by Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers. He is former chair of INFORM, a non-profit environmental research organization based in New York City, and served as trustee and general counsel to the Community Theatre of Morristown. Dennis is a graduate of Oberlin College and Boston College Law School.

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Spence Mehl is a Senior Vice President at RCS Real Estate Advisors, a New York City based firm specializing in real estate portfolio analysis. He has worked with many of RCS’ large national clients, developing close relationships with them through his unique skills as an effective negotiator and expertise in property dispositions. Previously Spence served as general counsel and real estate director for a national retail chain. Following that tenure he was involved in prominent and large-scale bankruptcy proceedings. Spence holds a JD degree from St. John’s University School of Law as well as a BA from Tulane University, and practiced law in New York, focusing on transactional real estate litigation. He joined The Land Conservancy Board in 2018.

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Elise Morrison joined The Land Conservancy’s Board in 2017. She is a New Jersey native, and has been a lifelong enthusiast of protecting our natural environment and enjoying the outdoors. Elise had an extensive career with IBM in Sales and Sales Management positions, based in Washington, DC, Boston, New York City, Dallas, and New Jersey. She managed national and worldwide sales teams, growing IBM’s revenues with an ecosystem of business partners for IBM’s software, hardware, and services. Elise graduated from Cornell University’s College of Arts & Sciences with a BA in Economics, and from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business with her MBA. Elise also serves on the Board and is past-President of The New Players Company Association for theater in Ridgewood, NJ. She volunteers teaching English to immigrants in NJ. Elise resides in Edgewater, NJ, and is very proud of her two daughters living in LA and Brooklyn. She enjoys being with family and friends, adventure traveling around the world, exploring NYC, hiking, kayaking, paddle boarding, cooking, playing the piano, and reading.

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Dr. Grant Parr grew up in Essex Fells, NJ. He attended Wesleyan University where he graduated with honors in Physics. He received his MD from Cornell University Medical College. In 1978 he joined the faculty of Penn State University School of Medicine in Hershey. Dr. Parr subsequently became Chief of Cardiac Surgery and Acting Chair of Surgery at the Presbyterian-University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia. In 1988, Dr. Parr started the Cardiac Surgery Program at Morristown Medical Center. Under his guidance, this program grew rapidly to become the largest in New Jersey and the second largest in the New York Tri-State area. It has achieved national and international recognition, being ranked by the US News and World Report. Dr. Parr was instrumental in fund raising for and the design of the Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute at MMC. Grant and his wife Helen have owned their home at 75 Picatinny Road in Morris Township for 22 years. He is exceptionally proud of his two daughters – one is a Cardiac Anesthesiologist in Maryland where she lives with her husband and son, and the other is Senior Director Editorial Operations of Medscape, the professional side of WebMD and she lives in Hastings-on-Hudson NY with her husband and son. Grant is an avid fly-fisherman who has fished from the Arctic Circle in Russia and Alaska to Tierra del Fuego in Chile and New Zealand. His life-long love of fly fishing started his interest in conservation. Grant has been a Land Conservancy member since 1997, and joined the board in 2014.

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Catherine Pierson is an editor at The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, a monthly newspaper for corporate lawyers. She has worked as an English instructor for West Morris Mendham High School, teaching students absent with long-term illnesses, and has worked as a writing instructor at Penn State. She has served on several committees at Brookside Community Church, recently as chair of the trustees and on the building committee during a $1.2 million dollar expansion project. She also served on the Mendham Borough Board of Education for four years. She earned a dual bachelor’s degree in Economics and English at Goucher College and a master’s degree in English at Iowa State. She lives in Mendham with her family and enjoys hiking and cross-country skiing on the local trails. She is also an avid cyclist and amateur birder, and is looking forward to helping The Land Conservancy preserve the beautiful places in our state. Catherine Joined the Board of Trustees in 2014.

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Tom Scudese has over 18 years of experience in the Capital Markets. He was an institutional trader/portfolio manager specializing in fixed income, and more recently has provided wealth management services for individuals, charities, and corporations. Tom graduated from The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance. He holds Series 7, 63, and 66 NASD registrations. Tom and his team joined UBS in 2012 from Merrill Lynch. Prior to that, he held senior positions at JP Morgan Securities and Brookfield Investment Management in New York City. Tom, his wife, Sarah, and son, Luke, live on their family farm in Long Valley, NJ with several slow, but lovable, Thoroughbred ex-racehorses. He has been a Land Conservancy trustee since 2012.

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Barbara Wattenbach is a former commercial real estate professional who lived in Germany, England, and the US.  Now she is putting her real estate knowledge and experience to work in order to preserve our precious lands.  Splitting her time between Manhattan and Morristown, Barbara especially cherishes New Jersey’s parks, lakes, farms and other natural areas.  She earned a BS in mathematics at Montclair University and an MBA in finance at Rutgers University.  Barbara enjoys outdoor challenges such as summiting high peaks, rock climbing and scuba diving but also takes advantage of local hiking, biking, swimming and gardening and joined the Land Conservancy Board in 2018.

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