WGBA - Peer Counsel™ Board of Advisors and Directors are among the most accomplished professionals in their industries. Each helps to support the business and professional mission of WGBA - Peer Counsel and the needs of its executive members. They include:

Myles A. Cane

Keith T. Darcy

Evelyn Follit

Dr. Claire Gaudiani

L. Lynne Hall

Frances Hesselbein

Diane T. Woo

Myles A. Cane

Mr. Cane has had a long and distinguished career as a lawyer, private equity investor and philanthropist. He is noted for his expertise and accomplishments in general corporate and corporate and real estate finance law.  For 40 years he has practiced law in New York City.  He has served as a partner in the law firm Baer Marks & Upham, LLP, a prestigious law firm representing Wall Street and closely held and mid-cap public corporations. While with the firm he served for over 10 years as its Managing Partner and Chairman and member of its Management Committee.  Mr. Cane has served as counsel to public and privately held corporations including Food Fair Stores, Inc., Progress Manufacturing Company and Poloron Products. Inc.

Included among Mr. Cane’s accomplishments is his work in representation of The Commodity Exchange, Inc. in connection with the organization of a corporation controlled by four New York City commodity exchanges and their leasing and  occupancy of the trading floor and offices at the World Trade Center. 

His representation of Percy Friedlander & Co., Inc. in connection with the acquisition of a mutual fund management company from City Investing Company that resulted in the abandonment of the rules of both the New York and American Stock Exchanges that  prohibited corporate ownership of stock of member firms. Among other U.S. and international clients, Mr. Cane also is noted for his work representing Carl C. Icahn & Co., in connection with its third party financing by Walter Kidde & Company.                            

Mr. Cane’s past and present Board activities include Director and Chairman of the Board, Morsemere Federal Savings and Loan Association; Member, Board of  Directors, Connectivity, Inc.; Member, Advisory Board, Marathon Technologies Corporation; and  Director, Technology Manufacturing and Design, Inc.

Among his other business endeavors, Mr. Cane is a private equity investor who, as  a value-added partner, invests his own capital and that of others in emerging companies.

Mr. Cane also has an outstanding philanthropic record.  He was a long-time member of the Board of Trustees and Chairman of the Board of Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York. He was Chairman of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center  Committee for Educational Conference Centers.  He is the President and CEO of two private not-for-profit foundations.  Until 1999 he was a member of the Conference of Board Chairs and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges’ Council of Board Chairs.

Mr. Cane attended Rutgers University and graduated from The Law School,  University of Virginia.  He is a past recipient of a DuPont Fellowship which funded his work with Mortimer M. Caplin, the former Commissioner of the Internal Revenue  Service during the John F. Kennedy Administration.  He is a member of the bars of New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. He is listed in Who’s Who in America. In  November 1999, he was honored by St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center at its 150th Anniversary Ball for his service and philanthropy to the Hospital Center.  In May 1998 he was honored by Skidmore College, which conferred upon him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.  

Keith T. Darcy

Keith T. Darcy, Chairman & CEO of Darcy Partners, Inc. (DPI), has combined a 30-year career in the financial services industry with his profession as an educator and his long-term involvement in business ethics, corporate governance and organizational leadership. DPI provides strategic, operational, tactical and  personal services to boards and top executives by linking reputation risk  management, ethics, governance, and culture with brand promise, corporate performance and shareholder value. In addition, Darcy is President & CEO of The Center for Integrity, a nonprofit established to promote ethics and values-based leadership.

Darcy currently serves on the board of directors of E*Trade Bank, where he is a member of the Audit Committee, and ETB Holdings, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Prior to its merger in 2002, Darcy served as Executive Vice President and a member of the Office of the President of IBJ Whitehall Bank & Trust Company (IBJW), NYC. In the early-1990’s, Darcy helped Prudential Securities Inc. establish the first Ethics Office among Wall Street firms in conformance with standards promulgated by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. For fifteen years he was a senior executive Marine Midland Bank, N.A. (now HSBC) where he headed both consumer banking and corporate finance groups and was a key advisor to the President of Marine Midland Bank, NY. Darcy also served as Chief Executive Officer of IGM, an insurance company jointly owned by General Reinsurance Corporation and Frank B. Hall & Company, and served as CEO of a related derivatives trading company.

Darcy teaches Ethics & Leadership in the Executive Programs at The Wharton School, of Pennsylvania. Darcy is also a Teaching Fellow at the R.H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland and Executive-in-Residence at Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY. Darcy also is an Executive Fellow and Vice Chairman of the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College in Waltham, MA. He previously served as Associate Dean and Distinguished Professor of Business at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

Darcy is Chairman of the Board of the Better Business Bureau Foundation, which supports the Better Business Bureau of New York. He is also Vice Chairman of the Board of the Center for Values-Based Leadership headquartered in Fairfield, CT.

Additionally he is Director Emeritus of the Ethics Officer Association, based in Waltham, MA, where he remains an active member and advisor. Darcy has also long played an active role with the Caux Round Table, based in Caux, Switzerland, which is a group of world business leaders concerned with the role and responsibilities of business in society.

Mr. Darcy has contributed his expertise to numerous books including The Change Management Handbook (Irwin Press), A Companion to Business Ethics (Blackwell Publishers, Oxford) and Restoring Trust: HR’s Role in Corporate Governance (HR Society Publishing). He is on the Editorial Board of At Work: Stories of Tomorrow's Workplace, is featured in Survival Skills for the Financial Services Industry (John Wiley & Sons), Winning the People Wars (Financial Times-Prentice Hall), The Ethical Edge (Mastermedia Publishers), The Portable Executive (Simon and Schuster), Merchants of Vision (Berret Koehler Publishers), and Career Crossroads (Workworld Press) and is widely published, quoted and referenced in newspapers and magazines. Over the years, he has been a keynote speaker and panelist in hundreds of venues. His biography is included in Who's Who in the World, Who’s Who in Finance and Who's Who in American Education among others.

Evelyn Follit

Evelyn Follit has over 35 years experience in the Information Technology industry, including eight years as SVP and Chief Information Officer of RadioShack.  Under her guidance, RadioShack upgraded their technology infrastructure, created perpetual connectivity from all stores and distribution centers to a central operations facility in Fort Worth, TX, and introduced RadioShack’s first web presence.

Prior employers included AC Nielsen, Dun & Bradstreet, ITT and IBM. Her broad-ranging responsibilities have provided a rich perspective on technology innovation, hardware design, software development, and the pricing of hardware, software, consumer electronics products and services.
In 2000, Ms. Follit became a board member of publicly traded Catalina Marketing Corporation, which provides strategic, targeted, marketing solutions for consumer goods companies and retailers. She is also a member of Catalina's Audit Committee. In April of 2005, Follit joined the board of Linens-n-Things, a leading national large format specialty retailer of home textiles, housewares and home accessories. Until the sale of the company in February, 2006, she was a member of Linens-n-Things Audit Committee. 

In May of 2005, she joined the board of People Business Network, a small Human Resources Services start-up venture that specializes in workforce alignment. In December, 2005, Follit joined the board of GETCONNECTEDinc.com, a Boston company that provides online technology activation services to electronics retailers and services providers.   In 2005-2006, Follit established and chaired Cognizant Corporation’s Retail Advisory Committee.  Cognizant is an offshore Indian I/T development organization that specializes in improving business process performance while lowering total costs of operations.

For two years (2003 – 2004), Follit chaired the National Retail Federation's (NRF) CIO Council. NRF is the world's largest retail trade association.

Since 1999, Follit has been a member of the International Board of Visitors at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, where she successfully negotiated RadioShack partner product contributions to establish TCU's state-of-the-art "RadioShack eBusiness Laboratory." She continues in an emeritus capacity today.  Follit had also been a member of the Hewlett-Packard Cross Industries Board of Advisors, the Compaq Computer Board of Advisory, the Sprint Advisory Board and Microsoft's Retail Client Advisory Board. She was also a member of RadioShack's Corporate Citizenship Council, which oversees the company's charitable activities.

Evelyn has been recognized as one of the top 10 CIOs in the U.S. Through her leadership RadioShack’s I/T operations were listed as one of the top 100 places to work.

In 2003, she was named one of the 50 most powerful people in retail I/T by “Executive Technology” magazine and, in 2004, was named a co-recipient of the Society for Information Management’s “CIO of the Year” award.

A native of New York City, Evelyn has a Master of Business Administration degree in finance and information systems and a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics. She has completed executive planning and technology programs at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations and MIT's Sloan School.     

Dr. Claire Gaudiani

Dr. Gaudiani served for 13 years as President of Connecticut College. Under her leadership, Connecticut College quintupled its endowment and rose in the influential US News and World Report survey from No. 41 to a ranking in the mid-20s.  Applications for admission rose a total of 40 percent over the last five years of her leadership.

Dr. Gaudiani served for five years as the volunteer president of the non-profit New London Development Corporation and remains on the Board of the corporation, which is dedicated to building the tax base, creating jobs and improving the quality of life for all citizens of New London.  During her term, Pfizer Inc. opened its new $300 million Global Research & Development facility adding 2,100 jobs and a dramatic change to New London’s tax base.  The NLDC also received an Annie E. Casey Foundation grant (among other funds) to support its Social Justice Initiatives to improve early and K-8 education after-school program housing and job-readiness programs for New London’s citizens.

Dr. Gaudiani  holds a Ph.D. and Master’s Degree in French literature from Indiana University and a Bachelor’s Degree, also in French, from Connecticut College.  She has served on the Boards of numbers for-profit not-for-profit enterprises including The Henry Luce Foundation, MBIA, Inc, Southern New England Telephone (now SBC Communications), the Shubert Theatre, the Connecticut Center for School Change, Connecticut Legal Services Advisory Board, Public Radio International, the National Council on Economic Education, Bank of Southern Connecticut and Citizens Bank. She is a trustee of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).  Dr Gaudiani has received many honors and distinctions .  She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and as a fellow of the PBK Society.  In addition, she was elected to the Century Association.  She received the John Templeton Foundation award as one of the 50 top college presidents in 1999.  In 2005 she received the Henry Rosso Medal for Outstanding Ethics in Philanthropy from the IU Philanthropy Center. In addition, Dr. Gaudiani has received ten honorary doctorates.

Currently Dr. Gaudiani serves as a Professor at The George H. Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising at New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies.  Prior to accepting this position she was a Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School where she worked to complete a book entitled The Greater Good: How Philanthropy Drives the American Economy and Can Save Capitalism.

Dr. Gaudiani is the author of six books and monographs and more than 80 articles. She is a frequent speaker both nationally and internationally.

L. Lynne Hall

Lynne Hall advises multinational organizations, corporations, and corporate and private investors on the creation, protection, and extraction of maximum value from intellectual capital; identifying and evaluating foreign and domestic risk;  negotiating cross-border alliances, joint ventures and partnerships; preparing and  implementing strategic plans; as well as forming and promoting new ventures. She is experienced in strategic management, and conflict management including international dispute resolution, early neutral fact finding, and negotiated settlement. She works together with an extensive network spanning North, Central, and South America as well as East, Central, and Western Europe.

Ms. Hall is well known in the energy, financial services, information, manufacturing and telecommunications industries and has conducted advanced international and strategic work with General Electric Company, AT & T, Royal Dutch Shell, Arthur Andersen & Company, and Andersen Consulting.  She co-founded and managed both an international counter trade and venture capital operations, and has worked with Yale and Harvard Law Schools where she created, tested, and validated an innovative approach to intellectual capital management.

This approach permitted the shift of $1B from the expenditure to the revenue side of the balance sheet of a global energy company; the retrieval of up to $500M/year for a North American high-tech manufacturer; and the addition of $3B in new revenues to the bottom-line of a European telecommunications company. 

Educated at Harvard Business and Law Schools, Yale Law School, London School of Economics and INSEAD.  A Fulbright Fellow, Ms. Hall was awarded the George C. Marshall prize and was appointed Visiting Fellow at the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management in Brussels, Belgium. 

She has also served as a visiting fellow at the Escuela de Administracion de Negocios para Graduados in Lima, Peru, and was the first woman appointed as Executive-in-Residence at the Graduate School of Business Administration, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario.

Ms. Hall serves on the international editorial board of the Corporate Ethics Monitor and the board of directors of Canadian Tire Corporation where she chaired the Social Responsibility Committee. She also serves on the Advisory Council of the University of Toronto, faculty of Management and Queens University House/Congressional Task Force on Strategic Process.

Frances Hesselbein

Frances Hesselbein is the Chairman of the board of Governors of the Leader-to-Leader Institute (formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management).  Mrs. Hesselbein  was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America’s highest civilian honor, in 1998.  The award recognized her leadership as Chief Executive Officer of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. from 1976-1990 as well as her role as the Founding President of the Drucker Foundation.  Her contributions were also recognized by former President Bush, who appointed her to two Presidential Commissions on national and community service.

She serves on many nonprofit and private sector corporate boards, including the Board of Mutual of America Life Insurance Company, New York, the Veterans Corporation Advisory Board, the Boards of the Center for Social Initiative at the Harvard Business School and the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Management at the Kennedy School.  She is also the recipient of sixteen honorary doctoral degrees.  

In 2001, Mrs. Heselbein was awarded the Henry A. Rosso Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Ethical Fund Raising from the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and the International ATHENA Award.  In 2002 Ms. Hesselbein was the first recipient of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National Security Series Award for her “outstanding contributions to  America’s national security.”
Mrs. Hesselbein is  Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly journal Leader-to-Leader, and a co-editor of a book of the same title.  She also is co-editor of the Drucker Foundation’s three-volume Future Series and Leading Beyond the Walls, and Leading for Innovation, Organizing for Results, the first two books in the Foundation’s Wisdom to Action Series. 

Mrs. Hesselbein was featured in 2001 Special Issue of the Harvard Business Review as a member of a leadership roundtable of six leaders in an article entitled “All in a Days Work.”  She is the aruthor of Hesselbein on Leadership, published August 2002.

Diane T. Woo

Diane Woo’s expertise centers on China international relations and development.  Throughout her career, Ms. Woo has served as a consultant for Chinese and Hong Kong businesses. She has served as Vice President of Beatrice China, Ltd. where she established the first model joint-venture — Guang Mei Foods, Beatrice - CITIC.   Ms. Woo is also responsible for establishing the first holding company in China, Beatrice-CITIC Development Company.

Ms. Woo has managed instrumental positions and negotiations for Reader’s Digest,  Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the Discovery Channel, Forbes Publishing, Numar Corporation, Gannaway Entertainment Corporation, and the Entergy Transportation Group among others. 

She is a Board and Committee Member of the National Committee on United States - China Relations and the Yale-China Association (Ms. Woo’s family originated and funded the Yale-China Association over 80 years ago).