board_of_directors – Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy

Board of Directors

Margery Feldberg

President
Margery Feldberg is a co-owner of De Hoek Farm in New Milford, Connecticut, a breeder and purveyor of Angus beef. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Columbia Business School, Margery spent three decades in commercial real estate development prior to taking up farming. She was a founding partner of National Development, the largest commercial real estate developer in Massachusetts, and was a director of the privately held firm for 19 years.
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David De Luca

Vice President
David De Luca is senior managing director and global head of equities at Raymond James & Associates. He holds a B.A. from Brown University, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. He is a former aide to U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. David serves on the boards of the Winterthur Museum, American Folk Art Museum, and Historic Deerfield. He and his family have lived in Northwest Connecticut for over 25 years.
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Jim Millstein

Vice President
Jim Millstein is the co-chairman of Guggenheim Securities, the investment banking and capital markets business of Guggenheim Partners, a global investment and advisory firm. Prior to joining Guggenheim in 2018, Jim was the founder and chief executive officer at Millstein & Co., a financial advisory and public policy firm with offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Before founding Millstein & Co., Jim was the chief restructuring officer at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2009 to 2011. Prior to joining the Treasury, he served as managing director and global co-head of corporate restructuring at Lazard from 2000 to 2008. Before joining Lazard, Jim was partner and head of the corporate restructuring practice at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. Jim splits his time between Washington, D.C. and South Kent, Connecticut with his family.
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Andrew Gordon

Treasurer
Andrew Gordon divides his time between Manhattan and New Milford. He recently retired after a long career in international finance, with the last fifteen years as a managing director and global bond portfolio manager at BlackRock. Previously, he worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Credit Suisse First Boston. He served on the board of the Trevor Day School for many years, acting as treasurer. He has a BA in economics and political science and an MBA in finance, both from the University of Pennsylvania.
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Christine A. Flynn

Recording Secretary
Christine Flynn is a lawyer and a consultant in real estate matters. She has spent her career involved in housing and urban development, both for the State of New York and for private and nonprofit entities. She divides her time between Manhattan and Bridgewater. Christine is particularly interested in raising awareness about local land planning and development decisions that have an impact on our increasingly limited open spaces. She serves as the board’s recording secretary.
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Karen Cushnie

Karen Cushnie has been involved in philanthropy throughout her adult life, serving as a trustee on the Kettering Family Foundation and working with various nonprofit and for-profit entities affiliated with the Kettering Family. Karen served on the Sherman Library Board of Trustees from 2008-2015, notably as president for the final two years, overseeing the long-awaited construction and renovation project. She was also a member of the project’s building committee and the capital campaign chair. Additionally, Karen was named a trustee for the Naromi Land Trust board in 2020, served on several different fundraising committees for Regional Hospice of Danbury, and volunteered for the Sherman Historical Society.
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Michele Shapiro Deshpande

Michele Shapiro Deshpande was the head of public relations for McLaren Automotive North America, where she helped to launch the company in the United States. Prior to McLaren, she was the head of communications for the Center on International Cooperation, a think tank based at New York University. Michele also worked at Conde Nast (Vanity Fair and Glamour). She holds a BA in Philosophy and a Master’s in International Affairs from New York University. Michele recently produced an award-winning documentary, Six Locked Doors, about the 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston, which has appeared in film festivals and on PBS. She is an avid car enthusiast and has raced cars on four continents. Michele lives in Roxbury with her husband and daughter.
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Carol Flaton

Carol Flaton currently serves as an independent director for public and private companies. Her career in banking and finance was primarily working with companies and constituencies undergoing substantial transformation and financial turnaround. She is a resident of Sharon, Connecticut, and an elected member of the town’s Board of Finance. She currently serves on the board of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, a public charity that supports the four rural counties where Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York intersect.
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Mark Duvall Gude

Mark Duvall Gude is from Washington, D.C., and has deep roots in the Maryland and D.C. region. After the University of Maryland, Mark worked in residential real estate in Washington D.C. He now splits his time between New York City, where he is involved in the arts scene, and Sharon, Connecticut, where he loves frequenting local farmer’s markets. Mark also serves as vice chair of the Tectonic Theater Project in New York City, a theater that develops innovative works that explore the social, political, and human issues that affect us all.
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Philip Korsant

Philip Korsant is currently a private investor and founding member of Long Light Capital. He spent most of his professional life at Ziff-Davis Publishing Company and Ziff Communications Company, where he served in various capacities, including president and chairman of the board. He retired from the company when it was sold in 1994. Mr. Korsant graduated from the University of Miami with a degree in economics and was a captain in the United States Air Force. He has been an active conservationist for the past 40 years, including 20 years on the NRDC board, and is a director emeritus of Naromi Land Trust. He and his wife, Catherine, reside in Florida and share a farm in Sherman, Connecticut, with their two sons.
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Peter W. May

Peter W. May is president and a founding partner of Trian Fund Management, an investment firm that invests in underperforming and undervalued companies and works with them to create lasting shareholder value. Peter serves as vice chairman of The Wendy’s Company and is also a director of Mondelez International, Inc. He recently retired from the board of Tiffany & Co. From 1993 through 2007, he served as president, chief operating officer, and a director of Triarc Companies—which, during that period, owned Arby’s Restaurant Group, The Snapple Beverage Group, and several consumer and industrial businesses.
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Jameela Pedicini

ameela Pedicini manages and leads the Secretariat for the Climate Finance Leadership Initiative, formed at the request of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and chaired by Michael R. Bloomberg, focusing on mobilizing private finance to address the challenge of climate change by accelerating investments in clean energy and low-carbon opportunities globally. She also supports the development of environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-related products and services for Bloomberg clients. Jameela has over 10 years of experience working with institutional investors on sustainable finance and impact investing.
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Alexandra “Roo” Wheeler

Roo Wheeler recently retired after a long career in the philanthropy and nonprofit sector, directing major capital campaigns and managing institutional transformation. Her most recent tenure was at The Juilliard School, where she served as vice president and chief advancement officer, raising $280 million over six years. Roo also spent over 17 years at the Whitney Museum of American Art and oversaw the successful completion of a $670 million campaign to build and support the museum’s downtown Manhattan home. Prior to that, she held roles at Cambridge in America, The Fund for Dance, and The Joffrey Ballet. She began her professional journey working for the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C.
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