Michael Klingher of Weston to Head a New Slate of Trustee Leadership at WCP

Michael Klingher of Weston was elected to chair Westport Country Playhouse's board of trustees' leadership at a recent annual meeting. Klingher succeeds Sandra DeFeo of Westport, who served as chair since 2008.

Klingher is senior managing director of Westbridge Capital, a real estate/hospitality investment fund, which he co-founded in 2006. He spent 20 years at Goldman Sachs, most recently as a managing director in New York and London, where he focused on opportunistic real estate investments on behalf of the Whitehall Funds. Prior to entering the business world, Klingher was a professional actor in New York and Los Angeles. He appeared in numerous commercials, as a guest star on several television shows, including "Taxi," "Sanford" and "Ryan's Hope," and as a lead in the Broadway comedy, "Gemini." Klingher has a BA from Wesleyan University, where he currently serves as a trustee, as well as a JD/MBA from Harvard University.

"I am thrilled to be assuming the role of chair of The Westport Country Playhouse," said Klingher. "I thank the board for their continued support and especially Sandy DeFeo who has done such a terrific job over the past three years. I look forward to working with the board, with Mark [Lamos] and Michael [Ross] and with the wonderful Playhouse staff to continue to enhance the quality of our productions and programs. I am also counting on the support of our community and subscribers whose contributions allow us to provide world class theater at an affordable price and close to home. Please join us for the exciting 2012 Season."

Other recently elected officers are Howard J. Aibel of Weston, vice chair; Michele Flaster of Southport, vice chair; Johnna Torsone of Stamford, vice chair; David C. Bukzin of Westport, treasurer; Ann Sheffer of Westport, secretary; and Richard Slavin of Fairfield, assistant secretary.

Fairfield County Community Foundation (FCCF) provided a general operating grant to The Playhouse specifically to support capacity-building focused in three key areas-to grow audience, broaden fundraising and to expand the board of trustees. It is thanks, in part, to the partnership with FCCF that The Playhouse is seeing growth in all three areas.

Recently elected board members are Alex Dimitrief, Katia Friend, Scott Hensel, Clarissa Moore, Margaret-M.V. Preston, Kenneth Seel, CarLyn Leslie Stonehill, Preston Tisdale and Judy M. Witt. Chairperson of the board's nominating committee is Barbara Streicker.

Alex Dimitrief was named Vice President and General Counsel of GE Energy in October 2011. He joined General Electric in 2007 as Vice President for Litigation and Legal Policy. Dimitrief joined GE from Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he had been a trial lawyer in the firm's Chicago office since 1986. Dimitrief previously served as a White House Fellow in the Reagan Administration's Office of Political and Intergovernmental Affairs and as an Honors Intern in the U.S. Department of Justice.

Dimitrief attended Yale College and Harvard Law School, where he was the managing editor of the Harvard Law Review. Dimitrief and his wife Jill have three children and actively support numerous charitable organizations in Chicago, Fairfield County and New York.

Katia Friend is a senior director for BNY Mellon Wealth Management. In this role, Friend is responsible for new business development in the tri-state region, working primarily with individuals, families, endowments and foundations to provide wealth management solutions. Friend joined the firm in 2008 and has over 20 years of experience serving the ultra-high net worth market. Prior to joining BNY Mellon Wealth Management, Friend was a managing director with U.S. Trust Company for 10 years where she advised high net worth individuals and families.

Friend received her bachelor's degree from Adelphi University and completed Stanford University's executive investment strategy training program. She holds series 6, 63, 66 and 7 licenses. Residing in Westport for over 20 years, Friend and her husband John have two daughters.

Scott Hensel is a Partner with McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm and trusted advisor to the world's leading businesses, governments, and institutions. Hensel is based in McKinsey's Stamford, Connecticut, Office, where he has resided for the last 11 years. He works primarily with clients in the High Tech and Industrial sectors across a range of topics, including strategy, business development, sales and marketing, and operations. Hensel currently leads McKinsey's Service Operations practice in the Americas, and its overall Operations practice in the Advanced Industries sector.

Hensel has co-authored several articles on these topics, including "Measuring Performance in Services" and "Bringing the Lean Revolution to Services." Hensel has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Brown University, and an M.B.A. with distinction from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Fairfield with his wife Beth and their four children.

Clarissa Moore was a principal of privately held David J. Greene and Company, LLC from 1999 to 2008. In 2008, Moore and her partners sold the firm to Neuberger Berman. She remains involved with the team as a consultant. Moore headed Greene's sales, marketing strategy and client service. Previously, she was director of Fleming Capital Management. Moore has also been responsible for sales and marketing at Seligman Henderson, Calport Asset Management, Matrix Capital Management and Bear Stearns Asset Management. She has served as a frequent speaker and chair at industry conferences. Moore is co-president of the Green's Farms School PTA in Westport. She is a Cum Laude Society graduate of Phillips Academy Andover, holds a BA in economics and political science from Yale University and earned her MBA (finance) from The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College. Married to Michael A. Petrino, the couple has a daughter.

Margaret-M.V. Preston has been with U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management since 2006. Ms. Preston, a regional executive and managing director, is focused on expanding the market presence for U.S. Trust in Connecticut, Western Massachusetts, Westchester County and Long Island, NY. Prior to joining Bank of America, Ms. Preston was executive vice president of Private Wealth Management for Mercantile Safe Deposit & Trust Company in Baltimore and spent nearly 20 years as a managing director with Deutsche Bank. Ms. Preston serves on the boards of McCormick & Company, Inc., the Wadsworth Atheneum, and the Women's Initiative of the United Way of New York City. She is the recipient of many awards, including the Women United in Philanthropy Award (United Way of New York City, 2008). Ms. Preston received her undergraduate degree from Trinity College and her master's degree from Harvard University, Graduate School of Business Administration.

Kenneth Seel is the office managing partner of KPMG LLP's Stamford office. He has over 25 years of diversified tax experience, including significant experience with audit teams on tax accounting and provision matters. He is a member of KPMG's Chairman's 25 and KPMG's Diversified Industrials steering committee. Seel has significant experience in serving many of KPMG's large multinational clients. He has extensive experience in dealing with income tax accounting issues and has been actively involved in federal and state corporate tax planning for both public and private corporations.

Seel is a member of the AICPA, Connecticut State Society of CPAs, board member of the Business Council of Fairfield County, board member of the Boys and Girls Club of Ridgefield, and chair of KPMG's Stamford's Family for Literacy – First Book Program. He has a B.S. in accounting from Clarkson University, and is a CPA in both New York and Connecticut.

CarLyn Leslie Stonehill was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and came to New Canaan when she was 12. A graduate of Randolph Macon Women's College, she moved to New York City in 1960 to begin her married life with husband Robin Stonehill. A Weston resident for many years, she and her husband now divide their time between their homes in Southport, and Palm Desert, CA.

Stonehill has been a patron of the performing arts with a particular love of the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. Additionally, she also now attends the Philharmonic and McCallum Theater while in California. Stonehill volunteers twice weekly when in Connecticut for Norwalk Hospital as a patient representative and while in Palm Desert at the Eisenhower Medical Center. She is a former board president of the Visiting Homemakers, a United Way agency and also served on the United Way board.

Preston Tisdale began his legal career at Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder nearly 34 years ago. He left in 1977 to pursue other legal and civic ventures. His legal accomplishments and his devotion to community service made him a welcome addition back to Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder. Most recently, Tisdale served as the director of special public defenders for the State of Connecticut, Office of Chief Public Defender. Tisdale headed the Fairfield Judicial District Public Defender's Office and served as an original member of the Connecticut Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparity in the Criminal Justice System. He currently serves on the Connecticut Bar Association's Task Force on Mentoring.

In other civic capacities, Tisdale is the vice-chairperson of the Regional Youth/Adult Substance Abuse Project (RYASAP), and serves on many boards, including Bridgeport Public Education Fund, Inc. and Greater Bridgeport Symphony. Tisdale graduated from Brown University and the New York University School of Law. He is a member oF Brown University's President's Leadership Council and serves on the University's Fairfield County Board of Directors.

Judy M. Witt has been involved in some capacity with performing arts organizations for over 15 years. She spent 10 years working for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, both as associate director of marketing and as editor of Overture, their quarterly magazine. She has also sat on the board of trustees of several organizations, including Center Stage in Baltimore, Baltimore Choral Arts Society and the American Friends of the St. Petersburg (Russia) Philharmonic. In this capacity Ms. Witt has helped these organizations with marketing, fundraising and strategic planning. Witt has a BA from Tufts University in French and international relations and a MBA from Columbia University in marketing. Previous professional experience also includes media planning and account management in advertising (Lowe Marschalk and Barry Blau & Partners) with such clients as Citibank, Minute Maid, AARP and Travelers Insurance. She also spent five years working on the client side at Citibank in the credit card marketing division. She currently divides her time between homes in Baltimore, New York City and Westport.

About The Playhouse

Reimagining itself in recent years, Westport Country Playhouse is rapidly emerging as a nationally recognized professional theater. Under the artistic direction of Mark Lamos and management direction of Michael Ross, The Playhouse creates five live theater experiences, produced at the highest level, from April through November. Its vital mix of works---dramatic, comedic, occasionally exploratory and unusual---expands the audience's sense of what theater can be. The depth and scope of its productions display the foremost theatrical literature from the past---recent as well as distant---in addition to musicals and premieres of new plays. During the summer, The Playhouse is home to the Woodward Internship Program, renowned for the training of aspiring theater professionals. Winter at The Playhouse, from November through March, offers events outside of the main season---Family Festivities presentations, Script in Hand play readings and a Holiday Festival. In addition, businesses and organizations are encouraged to rent the handsome facility for their meetings, receptions and fundraisers.

As an historic venue, Westport Country Playhouse has had many different lives leading up to the present. Originally built in 1835 as a tannery manufacturing hatters' leathers, it became a steam-powered cider mill in 1880, later to be abandoned in the 1920s. Splendidly transformed into a theater in 1931, it initially served as a try-out house for Broadway transfers, evolving into an established stop on the New England straw hat circuit of summer stock theaters through the end of the 20th century.

Today, the not-for-profit Westport Country Playhouse serves as a cultural nexus for patrons, artists and students and is a treasured resource for the State of Connecticut. There are no boundaries to the creative thinking for future seasons or the kinds of audiences and excitement for theater that Westport Country Playhouse can build.
Westport Country Playhouse's five-play 2012 season: "Into the Woods," a beguiling take on timeless fairy tales, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by James Lapine, directed by Mark Lamos, May 1 - 26; "The Year of Magical Thinking," based on the National Book Award Winner by Joan Didion, directed by Nicholas Martin and featuring Maureen Anderman, June 12 - 30; Molière's "Tartuffe," a funny and wise farce, translated by Richard Wilbur, directed by David Kennedy, July 17 – August 4; the world premiere of "Harbor," a comedy about a dysfunctional, loving family, by Chad Beguelin, directed by Mark Lamos, August 23 – September 15; "A Raisin in the Sun," the timeless classic about a black family in 1950s Southside Chicago and their quest for a piece of the American Dream, by Lorraine Hansberry, directed by Phylicia Rashad, October 9 – November 3.

For more information or tickets, call the box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets are available online 24/7 at www.westportplayhouse.org. Stay connected to The Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), view Playhouse videos on YouTube (WestportPlayhouse) or get an insider's peek on The Playhouse Blog (www.theplayhouseblog.org).

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