Rick Abbondanza has been serving clients with Hopkinson & Abbondanza since 1990. He practices primarily with families and business owners in the fields of estate planning, real estate & business law.
Rick received his JD from Catholic University and his BA, Cum Laude, from Amherst College. He has been practicing law since 1977. Rick constantly seeks out educational opportunities and is both a graduate and an instructor for the Laureate Program in Wealth Strategies. Rick frequently teaches local professional groups, is a regular speaker at the Maine Bar Association Annual Conference and presents the Trusts and Estate’s Section of the state bar’s annual Legal Year in Review. Rick demonstrates his commitment to legacy and family and received the 2014 Humanitarian of the Year Award from Habitat for Humanity. He has served that organization with both leadership and legal services since 1994. He is the current President and serves on the board of Lift 360, an organization devoted to developing future leaders, has served the town of Yarmouth in public positions, including Chair of its Town Council, and has been the Past President and board member of North Yarmouth Academy since his daughter graduated there in 2004. He is a member of Wealth Counsel and the Maine Estate Planning Council.
Sally Bancroft is retired from her non-profit management position with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland (Maine) but continues with civic volunteer activities, having served for 12 years on the Board of Habitat for Humanity, on the Alumnae/i Board of Wheaton College, continuing as Wheaton Class President, as Deacon of her UCC church, and as Vice President, Annual Fund for the PSO. Sally graduated with the Sigma Class from the Institute for Civic Leadership’s yearlong intensive leadership training. Additionally, she volunteer for many years at the Center for Grieving Children, for Safe Passage, and chaired the annual Good Friday Walk for Habitat which she instituted 30 years ago. Sally formerly sang in the Freeport Community Choir and tried her hand at learning cello without the success she’d hoped for!
She and her husband Ron live in Cumberland, Maine. Their two daughters and spouses currently reside near Port Townsend and Bainbridge Island, Washington. Sally enjoys kayaking, golf, hiking, cooking and being in the outdoors.
Kyo Bannai has been a long-time cheerleader for the arts, culture, education, and other good ideas, serving on numerous nonprofit boards, committees, and advisory groups since college. She enthusiastically considers the PSO at the top of her list of “good ideas” to support.
Originally from Tokyo and the San Francisco Bay Area, Kyo continued her competitive swimming career and earned her undergraduate degree in sociology at Harvard, moved to New York City to study architecture at Columbia, and settled in Maine with her husband to raise a family.
As a child, Kyo was a self-taught piano and violin player and an underwhelming member of the Bay Area Youth Symphony. Though her musical practice ended early, she fondly holds Schubert and Chopin as her earliest musical crushes. Today, she also enjoys contemporary artists for the new levels of accessibility and relevance they provide us through awe-inspiring musical talent, diverse representation, humor, creative collaborations, philanthropy, and their humanity.
Tiffany Breau-Metivier serves as the Senior Vice President, Client Success at Unum where she is responsible for delivering a market-leading client experience across onboarding, billing, and ongoing client service.
Prior to her current role, Tiffany served as Vice President of Unum’s Transformation Management Office where she oversaw the organization’s digital transformation portfolio with a focus on effective decision-making and value capture from strategic investments. Since joining Unum over 13 years ago, she has also held leadership roles in Client Onboarding, Strategic Business Planning, business development and large case underwriting. Before joining Unum, Tiffany worked as a management consultant for the Chartis Group and Bain & Company, leading engagements in numerous areas including enterprise strategy, growth strategy, merger and acquisition integration, clinical operations, and physician alignment.
Tiffany received her BA from Harvard University and her MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors for Goodwill Northern New England, as a member of the Steering Committee for the Maine Working Communities Challenge, and as an Alumni Admissions Interviewer for Dartmouth College. She resides in Lewiston, Maine with her husband, Tom, and three sons, Derek, Jacob, and Nate. Outside of work, Tiffany enjoys cooking, gardening, home improvement projects and travel.
Lucas Desmond has been a Financial Advisor for Edward Jones since 2016 with a primary goal to help individual investors develop an investment strategy geared toward their unique, long-term goals. Lucas attended the University of Southern Maine and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in history. Lucas serves on the steering committee of the PSO’s Symphony and Spirits organization, as well as the Rotary. Lucas loves Portland and the Symphony. He believes the Symphony’s value to the culture of Portland is immeasurable and looks forward to being a part of its ongoing success.
Vicki J. Gordan has been Senior Vice President and Chief Internal Auditor at Unum Group since August 10, 2015. Ms. Gordan serves as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Unum’s National Client Group. She has held a varied career with Unum that spans more than three decades. Her experience includes leadership roles in investments, strategy and development, products, rating and proposals, underwriting and benefits. She was responsible for business development in the U.S. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Bates College, a law degree from University of Maine and an MBA from the University of New Hampshire.
Peter Haynes served as President and CEO of Consumers Water Company in Portland and as President and CEO of NYNEX Enterprises in New York City. Earlier in his career, Mr. Haynes held various operations, planning, and marketing positions with New England Telephone and AT&T Company. Mr. Haynes is a member and former Chair of the Board of Governors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. He has served as Trustee and President of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Trustee and Chair of the Maine Medical Center, Trustee and Chair of MaineHealth, Member and Chair of the Board of Visitors of the University of Maine and Board Member of 317 Main Community Music Center. He is an organist and currently a member of the board of the Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ in Portland.
Mr. Haynes is a native of Ellsworth, Maine and graduated from the University of Maine (B.S., Engineering Physics, 1961) and Cornell University (M.B.A., 1963). He lives in Yarmouth, Maine. His wife of 57 years, Judith, died in 2018. He has three married sons, seven grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Gretchen Johnson As Preti Flaherty’s Director of Strategic Partnerships, Gretchen builds mutually beneficial connections between the attorneys of the firm and the business community. She coaches attorneys on business development and client relations and seeks opportunities for firm and individual professional growth.
Gretchen's academic background is in psychology and mental health counseling. In fact though, coaching professionals is not dissimilar from counseling individuals; business development requires careful assessment of goals, analysis of obstacles and challenges, and strategic planning to achieve success. In addition to her professional responsibilities, Gretchen serves on the PSO Business Ambassadors Committee and has been connected to the PSO for the last decade. She also serves on the Board of The Center for Grieving Children and serves on the MS Harborfest Committee. Education: University of Massachusetts, Boston (M.Ed.) Cornell University (B.A.)
Michael Johnson has served as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at IDEXX since March 2022 and leads worldwide human resources. Prior to joining, Mr. Johnson began his career in 1999 at Abbott Laboratories, Inc., a Fortune 500 human healthcare company, where he held various human resources positions of increasing seniority, including serving as Divisional Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion from July 2020 to March 2022, Divisional Vice President, Human Resources, for Abbott Diabetes Care from January 2017 to June 2020 and for Abbott
Medical Optics from November 2013 to December 2016, and Regional Human Resources Director for a variety of international operations in Asia and Europe from 2009 to 2013. Mr. Johnson holds an undergraduate degree in Organizational Administration from the University of Illinois.
Colleen A. Khoury is a Professor Emerita at the University of Maine School of Law in Portland. She served as Dean of the Law School from 1998-2005. A graduate of Colby College, Colleen received her J.D. from the Illinois Institute of Technology/Chicago Kent College of Law in 1975. After graduation, she joined the Chicago law firm of Bell, Boyd & Lloyd, where she specialized in tax and corporate law. In 1984, she moved to Portland and in 1985, joined the Maine Law faculty.
Colleen was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Portland Symphony Orchestra from 1996-2004. She was also a member of its President’s Council from 2006-2022, serving as Chair for five years. She has also served on the Boards of Colby College, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maine and the University of Maine School of Law Foundation. Long active in efforts to support and expand access to justice in Maine, Colleen chaired the Justice Action Group’s Statewide Access to Justice Planning Initiative in 2006 and served as Chair of the Maine Campaign for Justice which raises funds for civil legal aid providers in 2010.
Colleen is the recipient of several awards and honors, including the Caroline Duby Glassman Award (1997), the John W. Ballou Distinguished Service Award from the Maine State Bar Association (2001), the Deborah Morton Award from the University of New England, the ABA’s Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award (2003), and the Howard H. Dana, Jr. Award from the Maine Bar Foundation (2006).
Nancy Merwin is Vice President & Associate General Counsel for Advance, a privately held media, communications, entertainment, and technology company, which owns Condé Nast (the publisher of The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, GQ, Wired, and Architectural Digest), Advance Local, Turnitin, and The IRONMAN Group. Nancy specializes in employment law and compliance and serves as a corporate ethics officer.
Nancy is a graduate of Boston College, with a degree in mathematics and sociology, and of the University of California College of Law, San Francisco.
Nancy currently serves on the board of directors for the Portland Conservatory of Music, where her daughters are students, and for the New England Suzuki Institute, which her daughters attended in 2019-20. She previously served on the board of directors for Apex for Youth, a nonprofit that provides mentoring and educational services to Asian and immigrant youth from low-income families in New York City. Nancy has also tutored English in immigrant communities of New York City and Oakland, California.
Nancy lives in Portland, Maine, with her husband and two daughters. She and her family love and support the arts, and since moving from Brooklyn to Portland in 2018, they have enjoyed exploring the city’s lively music and arts scene, including attending PSO performances. Nancy hopes to help the PSO continue to thrive and grow.
Liz Murley’s parents met on choir tour in college, and her choral debut was at Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center -- two months before she was born – as her mother sang with the St. George Choral Society. Liz attended high school in New Jersey, where she was blessed to have a music director who led them through the “School-Community Project” each year, resulting in her singing with a full, professional orchestra at a young age. Many years later, Liz moved to Cape Elizabeth with her husband, Tom. She has continued singing with the Magic of Christmas chorus and ChoralArt Masterworks, through which she has sung many times with the PSO. Liz believes that the back row of the Alto section is the best seat in the house if you enjoy watching the maestro make magic happen!
Outside of singing, Liz is a graduate of Smith College and Northeastern University School of Law. As a recovering corporate lawyer, Liz has worked for and with several nonprofits over the last 20+ years (Samaritans, Diabetes UK, Disability Rights UK, the Locker Project, and the Association of Junior Leagues, among others). Most recently, she worked remotely for an executive search firm in Boston that specializes in academia and nonprofits. Currently, Liz chairs the board of the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust and the Governance Committee for ChoralArt. In her spare time, she enjoys getting outside in her kayak whenever possible.
Matty Oates
With a 1986 guest appearance by Itzhak Perlman on Sesame Street, Matty began his nearly lifelong entanglement with classical music, and began taking lessons from a local Suzuki-method violinist soon afterward. He grew up in the many ensembles of the Empire State Youth Orchestra in New York, performing with them through his school years, and attending orchestral camps out of Elizabethtown, PA each summer.
After school, Matty spent nearly a decade and a half as professional crew on sailing ships, here in the U.S. and in Europe, which allowed for trips to events like the International Music Festival in Prague - seeing the New World Symphony performed in Dvorak’s home city - or Cremona to study Stradivarius. Aboard the racing yacht Mariquita, Matty would play his violin at the ship’s bow as it left and returned to port each race day of a regatta.
Arriving in Portland in 2015, he has since co-founded and grown a local media strategy company - running the paid ad campaigns for clients like MaineHealth and Allagash Brewing - before moving to the Marketing team at Unum Group. He is also a board member for The Telling Room; a Maine nonprofit empowering youth through writing.
Rep. Holly T. Sargent is serving her second term in the Maine House of Representatives. She serves on the Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs and the Joint Committee on Rules.
Sargent is the founder and CEO of Doing Good While Doing Well, a consulting firm focused on building bridges among nonprofits, social entrepreneurs, and philanthropists. Her clients have included: the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital in Johannesburg, SA, MaineHealth, The Center for Development and Enterprise, and the State of the USA. She is also the founding director of the Harvard Women’s Leadership Board. Previously, Sargent served for nearly 20 years as the Senior Associate Dean for Strategy and External Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. She has also served as the Executive Director for Development of the Rhodes Trust, the global NGO overseeing the Rhodes Scholars.
An active member of her community, Sargent served as the president of the York Rotary Club, vice chair of the Community Auditorium Building Committee and founder of the York Chapter of Together Women Rise. She is a member of the International Women’s Forum of Maine, serves on the board of the Portland Symphony Orchestra and the Maine Recovery Fund and is an honorary board member of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
Sargent and her husband live in York and have two grown daughters.
Nate Stevens was born and raised in Portland, ME only leaving for a short time to attend college at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Returning in 2007, Nate joined The Boulos Company, a full service commercial real estate company where he is a partner and the Designated Broker. Nate has extensive experience working with local and national developers, investors, and companies including nonprofits, start-up businesses, state organizations, local municipalities, and large corporate companies. Nate is often asked to contribute to articles and be a panelist based on his knowledge of the commercial real estate market.
He has always been involved in the Portland community for as long as he can remember, including recently serving as board president of Greater Portland Landmarks, past board president and current trustee with the Maine Commercial Association of REALTORS, current trustee at the Portland Public Library, and former member of the board at the Portland Porpoise Swim Club. Nate has a long, well-engrained family history in Portland; his great-great grandfather being the famed regional architect John Calvin Stevens, a legacy which spawned his interest and passion for the local built environment. Nate’s other hobbies and interests include swimming (open water and competition pool), running, skiing, SwimRun competitions (ask him about this crazy race!), and spending time with his family on Little Diamond Island in summers which includes sailing, fishing, and beaching. Nate lives in the Deering Center neighborhood of Portland with his wife, Jane, and son, Carter. The musical talent in the family almost purely resides with his wife and son although Nate does enjoy playing around on his ukulele once in a while. However, Nate grew up attending PSO concerts and has seen the importance this organization plays in the community firsthand as his son learned to play the cello with one of PSO’s talented musicians, attended Discovery concerts, and always looked forward to PSO Explorers in Carter’s classroom.
Olivier te Boekhorst is the President, CEO and Director of ImmuCell, a Portland-based animal health company, and Chairman of the Board of SeqCenter, a Next Generation Sequencing laboratory based in Pittsburgh, PA. Previously, Olivier was an Operating Partner at ARCHIMED, a healthcare investment firm headquartered in Lyon, France and a Senior Vice President at IDEXX, overseeing the company’s Livestock, Water, OPTI Medical and Latin America businesses, and he created IDEXX’s Covid19 partnership with Maine’s CDC. Prior to joining IDEXX, he worked with The Boston Consulting Group. He has a B.A in political studies from Bard College and an M.B.A. from Cornell.
Olivier is passionate about soccer, trumpet and performing arts, and also enjoys hiking, traveling internationally and boating. He has two adult daughters; one works for the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and the other is an astrophysicist at St. Andrews University in Scotland. He was previously a board member of Portland Ovations and serves on the PortTix board as a PSO representative.
Bill Thornton and his wife, Jacky, of over 58 years were both military kids, so they moved a lot. They have a son who is a musician playing in the Cleveland Orchestra and a daughter who is a lawyer in Denver. They also have two granddaughters and a grandson.
Bill is retired from the WR Berkley Corporation, headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. During his career, he spent several years as President of Acadia Insurance in Westbrook, and other subsidiaries of WR Berkley Corporation. He has been an active member of the greater Portland community for many years and is currently serving on the board of the local Scouting America (past President of the board). He is past Chair of the Maine College of Art & Design Board as well.
Bill and his wife got involved with the PSO shortly after moving to Maine in 2000.
While Bill plays the radio, Jacky is the artistic member of the duo which is where the kids get their musical and artistic abilities. To quote Bill, “Through good times and bad, we have enjoyed the PSO, its leadership and impact on our community.” Bill was honored to be asked to rejoin “the wonderful group of PSO Trustees”.
Seth Webber Since joining BerryDunn in 2007, Seth has brought his combination of valuation, consulting, and operations skills to bear for his clients, helping them navigate challenging issues related to business valuation. As head of the Valuation Services Practice Group, he leads a diverse team of valuation experts that draw on the deep resources of BerryDunn to help clients address their needs.
Seth grew up in Yarmouth, Maine and headed to Cornell University for college. Graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he headed to western New York to work with Cummins Engine Company. Here, Seth worked as a product development engineer, figuring out ways to make the engine more reliable, better able to fit customer's particular needs, and less expensive.
The next step was for Seth to earn an MBA at the Darden School (UVA). There, Seth was elected and served as the president of the Darden Students Association, interacting with the administration of the business school and leading our class gift efforts. We were the first graduating class to achieve a 100% participation level.
After business school, Seth joined Deloitte Consulting, being based first in Detroit and then Boston. He was a member of the automotive strategy group and then was heavily involved in the mergers andacquisitions of life sciences companies. Ultimately, he left Deloitte to join a privately held company, based in Norfolk, Virginia. At that company, he was in charge of acquisition and growth strategy- which led to his leading a turn-around situation in the Los Angeles area.
Along the way, Seth has earned several valuation-related credentials, including becoming a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA). He has also served on national boards, including the Valuation Advisory Committee of the ESOP Association and on the Board of Governors of a valuation credentialing organization. He has also been involved locally, serving as a deacon and council member at large of his local church and as a board member of the Institute of Family Owned Businesses.
Seth and his wife, Jill, live in Yarmouth with their two children (Josh and Mollie).
Brent West recently completed a 40-year career at General Dynamics / Bath Iron Works. For the last five years at BIW he served as vice president for supply chain and quality; in this role he was responsible for material procurement, warehousing, and end-use delivery as well as for all quality assurance functions. His previous leadership assignments at BIW include program director for the DDG 1000 ship class, director of strategic planning, ship design director, and treasurer.
His volunteer activities include interviewing Maine applicants to Dartmouth College and serving on the alumni council of Maumee Valley Country Day School. He is the treasurer and a board member for the Friends of Worthley Pond. He previously served on the Parents Council of Choate Rosemary Hall and as President of the Board for the First Universalist Church of Yarmouth.
He earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, where he was a double major in government and economics and served as editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth daily newspaper; he also received an MBA degree from Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School.
Brent is a native of Toledo, OH, where he learned to play (unprofessionally!) the piano and developed his love for music. He is a Mahler enthusiast and enjoys hearing new orchestral music. He and his wife Tina have two adult children and reside in Yarmouth
Breda White Ireland born, though London bred, Breda retired from Waynflete two years ago, having spent twenty-five years there as an Upper-School teacher, advisor, and college counselor, and board member. She developed and taught electives in Spanish language and literature, and Art History, ranging from Hispano-Islamic architecture to Renaissance and Modernist painting. Last winter, Breda taught an OLLI course on Mediaeval Imagery, and has another course on 17th Century Dutch Art in the hopper. While at Waynflete, and as faculty advisor to Community Service Activity (CSA), Breda trained and coordinated Waynflete students to work as mentors to Reiche Elementary K-1 students through Project Story Boost, an almost fifteen-year collaborative Waynflete/Reiche literacy development program. Being involved now as a volunteer with the PSO Explorers program at Reiche seems a natural extension of Breda’s educational pursuits!
Breda moved to Maine in 1992 with her husband, David, and their then two small children. One of her first volunteer activities was to get involved with the PSO, assuming the role of organizer of the PSO’s Kinderkonzerts, sharing her life-long love of music with the next generation of concertgoers. Additionally, Breda has relished the opportunity to perform with the PSO as a first soprano in the ChoralArt Masterworks choir for fourteen years. She joined Renaissance Voices in 2019, and is delighting in the broad range of choral repertory opportunities here in Portland. Beyond music, Breda has been an active volunteer with Greater Portland Landmarks, Victoria Mansion, and Friends of Fort Williams Park.
In her spare time, Breda is an avid cook, bibliophile, and international traveler, when rehearsal schedules allow!
April Ylvisaker Tardiff joined Merrill Lynch in 2012 and has over 18 years in the financial services industry. She focuses on serving the unique wealth management needs of business owners and entrepreneurs. In order to serve clients, April leverages the investment insights of Merrill Lynch as well as the banking services of Bank of America to provide a holistic wealth management approach to her client's businesses as well as to their and personal finances.
April is a Senior Vice President of Investments, a Portfolio Manager, and a Retirement Benefits Consultant. This unique designation allows her to focus on retirement plans for businesses. She also holds her Accredited Asset Management Specialist designation (AAMS), she is a Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor (CPFA), and also a Chartered Retirement Plan Specialist Advisor (CRPS). April is also the Resident Director of the Portland Merrill Lynch branch.
April is very involved in her community and has been for years. She currently serves on the board of directors of Portland Ovations, Opera Maine, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland as well as the SP/CE Chamber of Commerce. April lives in Manchester, Maine with her husband Jon and two young daughters. She is a resident of Sugarloaf during the winter months.