SEVEN NEW MEMBERS JOIN SEATTLE SYMPHONY BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Seattle, WA – Seattle Symphony Board Chair René Ancinas and the Board of Directors have elected seven new members to join its ranks. The newly elected Directors began their three-year terms in January 2020.

Included are: Mimi Gates, Director Emerita of the Seattle Art Museum, currently overseeing the Gardner Center for Asian Art and Ideas; Cheryl Lee, an attorney with Helsell Fetterman; Diena Lee Mann, Vice President of Digital Strategy at iLink; Benjamin Martz, Head of Sales Operations at Zipwhip; Marshal McReal, Principal and Co-Founder of Garde Capital, Inc.; Jenny Schultz, board member for the St. Thomas School Capital Campaign Committee and One Love Foundation, with extensive prior consulting experience at Ernst & Young; and Charles Schweizer, formerly Managing Member of LCI Advisors and presently a private investor. 

“The world recognizes Seattle as an exciting community that values inclusivity, invention and curiosity,” shared Krishna Thiagarajan, President & CEO of the Seattle Symphony. “As the Seattle Symphony focuses on sharing the vibrant energy of our city with international audiences through music, these seven new appointees, alongside our current dedicated board members, will help shape the future of our wonderful orchestra and our relationship with the local community and beyond. It is a privilege to work with them, and I cannot wait to see what we will achieve together.”

MIMI GARDNER GATES

Mimi Gardner Gates, now Director Emerita, was Director of the Seattle Art Museum for 15 years (1994–2009). Under her leadership, the Olympic Sculpture Park was created; the downtown museum was expanded and the artistic program achieved a high level of excellence.

Gates is a scholar of the history of Chinese art with a BA from Stanford University and a PhD from Yale University. Prior to moving to Seattle, she was Curator of Asian Art (1975–86) and Director (1987–94) of the Yale University Art Gallery. In the field of Chinese art she has taught, published essays and organized numerous exhibitions, including Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China’s Silk Road, the major 2016 exhibition at the Getty Center, Los Angeles.

Currently, she chairs the Dunhuang Foundation and the Board of Managers of the Blakemore Foundation, and is a member of the board of the Terra Foundation for American Art. She is a member of the board of the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Northwest African American Museum and Copper Canyon Press. Gates is a former fellow of the Yale Corporation and founder of the Gardner Center for Asian Art and Ideas at the Seattle Art Museum.
 

CHERYL LEE

Cheryl Lee is an attorney with Helsell Fetterman LLP and General Counsel for a family office. With over 20 years of corporate experience at Boeing Commercial Airplane Group and Microsoft Corporation, Lee advises family-owned businesses and closely held corporations with her background in global business, marketing and technology.

Upon earning her Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington (UW), Lee spent a decade at Boeing Commercial Airplane Group. She returned to UW to pursue an MBA from the Foster School of Business and then joined Microsoft, where she led international marketing, product management, and enterprise marketing and business development. After 11 years, Lee resigned from Microsoft to earn her JD from the University of Washington School of Law. 

Lee served on the founding Shoreline City Council and helped incorporate the city. Active in the Asian American community, she is a recipient of the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation’s “Living Pioneer Award” and International Examiner’s “Community Voices Award.” In 2014, the South Korean government recognized Lee for her service to the Korean American community with the President’s Commendation Medal. Lee currently serves on the board of Shoreline Community College Foundation, Allied Arts Foundation and as the President of Korean American Bar Association. Her musical interests began in the 5th grade when she started playing the violin.

DIENA LEE MANN

Diena Lee Mann leads digital transformation initiatives at iLink Systems as Vice President & GM of Digital Strategy. She establishes collaborative partnerships with global enterprises to engineer outcomes that accelerate business growth, improve operational efficiency and mitigate risks. Beyond generating impactful ROI and increasing shareholder value, her goal is to create sustainable and scalable value for clients through technology. 

In addition to her professional work, Mann is an active participant in the advancement of STEM education. Through YearUp, she prepares young adults from underserved communities to improve their employment outcomes through technical education. She is also a member of ARCS, an organization that promotes U.S. competitiveness by providing financial awards to academically outstanding PhD students in STEM at leading research universities.

Mann received her Master of Arts in Applied Statistics and Bachelor of Science in Statistics from the University of Michigan. She attributes her analytical abilities to the extensive training received in music performance, having studied piano with Logan Skelton and harpsichord with Edward Parmentier. She is a passionate advocate for education and access to classical music and believes in enhancing reach and engagement through digital experiences.
 

BENJAMIN MARTZ

Benjamin Martz’s career has included leadership roles in strategic finance, business operations and capital markets, primarily focused on the tech sector. He currently serves as Head of Sales Operations at Zipwhip, a Seattle-based enterprise messaging platform company, where he leads strategic planning and business optimization initiatives. He previously held similar roles at Skytap, another Seattle startup, as well as with Oracle in Seattle and San Francisco Bay Area. Martz began his career with Lehman Brothers in the Bay Area, focused on M&A advisory.

Martz’s interest in music and performing arts began by taking up percussion in his elementary school music program. He continued to play and perform throughout school, including studying and performing with members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He has continued to support performing arts throughout his career. Martz previously served on the board of Northwest Sinfonietta.

Originally from the greater Pittsburgh region, Martz graduated from Case Western Reserve University. Martz lives on Mercer Island with his wife, Kelly, and their two daughters. 

MARSHAL MCREAL

Marshal McReal is Principal and Founder of Garde Capital Inc., a Seattle-based Registered Investment Advisory and fiduciary, with over $1 billion in assets under management. McReal began his career with Drexel Burnham Lambert and spent many years with Salomon Smith Barney and Goldman, Sachs & Co. Garde Capital is recognized as one of the top 300 Registered Investment Advisors in the United States by the Financial Times. 

McReal is a graduate of Whitman College and Cambridge University. He currently serves on the boards of Cambridge in America, the university’s U.S. alumni board, as well as the President’s Advisory Board at Whitman College. Previously he was Board Secretary of the Henry Art Gallery, and a Trustee of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Washington.

McReal has lived in Seattle since 1984 and values the city’s dedication to the arts and non-profit ecosystem. A piano player growing up, when he was 10 years old he wrote to the advice columnist of the Statesman-Journal, his hometown newspaper, asking for advice on how to prepare himself for a career as the conductor of the New York Philharmonic.

JENNY SCHULTZ

Originally from the Seattle area, Jenny Schultz first experienced the Symphony, Seattle Opera and Chamber Music Society alongside her parents, who ignited her passion for classical music, being active ticket holders and dedicated patrons of the arts for the last 40 years.

Schultz received her BA from Scripps College where she dual majored in American History and Economics. She began her career as a management consultant for Ernst & Young, prior to working in business development during the Internet boom in San Francisco. After living and working on a cattle ranch in Colorado and publishing the newspaper at the Harvard Business School, she returned to Seattle to raise her family and invest in her community.

Schultz and her husband, Ty, have four children. She is active in sitting on the board of the St. Thomas School Capital Campaign Committee as well as the Pacific Northwest Regional Leadership Council for the One Love Foundation, which strives to educate young people about the differences between healthy and unhealthy relationships. 

CHARLES SCHWEIZER

Charles (Chuck) Schweizer retired in 2014 with over 40 years of experience in financial services. Most recently he was founder and Managing Member of LCI Advisors. Prior to founding LCI Advisors, he was General Counsel, then President of Kennedy Capital Management, an institutional investment manager with over $4 billion of assets under management. From 1995 to 1998, he practiced corporate and securities law, primarily with Thompson Coburn. From 1988 to 1995, he held senior positions with Stifel Nicolaus, including Director of Operations as well as Director and Secretary to the Board; he was responsible for compliance, legal, human resources, facilities management and management information services. Schweizer started his career with R. Rowland & Co. and rose through the ranks to become its Executive Vice President.

Schweizer holds his BA from Dartmouth College, MBA from Harvard Business School and JD from St. Louis University. Upon retirement, Schweizer and his wife Maria moved from the Midwest, where they were longtime subscribers of the St. Louis Symphony, to be near family in the Pacific Northwest. They have since been delighted to experience and support the Seattle Symphony.

RENÉ ANCINAS BOARD CHAIR

As Chairman & CEO of Port Blakely, René Ancinas’s leadership skills guide the strategic direction of the company, setting the tone of Port Blakely’s multi-national operations.

A fourth generation descendent of the company founders, he helped establish a sustainable family business governance structure that has become a model for other multi-generational family-owned companies, becoming its first Family Council President from 2000–04.

Identified as a succession candidate in 2004, Ancinas joined Port Blakely in 2005 gaining experience in the company’s Forestry and Real Estate Operations before becoming COO in 2008. He stepped into the CEO role in 2010, then Chairman & CEO in 2015. Ancinas has driven development of the company’s vision framework and long-term strategy based on the company’s core purpose and values.   

Ancinas previously served on the board of NatureBridge and is a currently active on boards or committees for the National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO), the Washington Roundtable, Forterra and the Seattle Symphony where he is currently Board Chair.

Ancinas holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Clarinet from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music respectively. Ancinas is a 2009 graduate of the Executive MBA program at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.

SEATTLE SYMPHONY

Led by Music Director Thomas Dausgaard, the Seattle Symphony unleashes the power of music, brings people together and lifts the human spirit. Recognized as one of the “most vital American orchestras” (NPR), the Seattle Symphony is internationally acclaimed for its inventive programming, community-minded initiatives and superb recordings on the Seattle Symphony Media label. With a strong commitment to new music and a legacy of over 150 recordings, the orchestra has garnered five Grammy Awards, 26 Grammy nominations, two Emmy Awards and was named Gramophone’s 2018 Orchestra of the Year. The Symphony performs in Benaroya Hall in the heart of downtown Seattle from September through July, reaching over 500,000 people annually through live performances and radio broadcasts.

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