Board of Directors

The fifth generation of the Bechtel family to lead the company, Brendan Bechtel was named Chief Executive Officer in September 2016. He currently serves on the board of trustees for the National Geographic Society and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Bechtel was named #1 on Fortune Magazine’s 2016 “40 Under 40” list.

The first native of Spain to lead an American university, Dr. Cabrera serves as president of the largest public university in Virginia. George Mason University has been included in the top 200 of the Academic Ranking of World Universities, and was moved into the highest research category as determined by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education in 2016.

Christoff leads Salesforce’s Washington office and is responsible for outreach to the White House, Congress, regulatory agencies, and trade associations headquartered within the Beltway. Prior to joining Salesforce, Christoff held a similar position at Uber, as well as ran corporate and consumer communications for Google, where she was named a “Best Communications Pros in Technology” by Business Insider in 2012.

Crane is an acknowledged leader in the electric utility and nuclear industries. In addition to helming one of the nation’s leading energy providers, he is vice chair of the Edison Electric Institute and chair of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. He serves on several industry and nonprofit boards, including the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Mr. Goldstein has received numerous national and regional awards for excellence in architecture, interior design, and product design. A sought-after spokesperson on the future of domestic and global design, he is often featured in prominent publications, and was named an industry leader by Building Design & Construction and the Washington Business Journal.

Ms. Horn’s oversees 31 regional medical centers, with approximately 8,000 individuals serving more than 665,000 members, and nearly $3.5 billion in annual revenue. She is engaged in community, philanthropic, and industry endeavors including the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the DC Chamber of Commerce, and Baltimore’s Living Classrooms Foundation, which offers hands-on job training.

A native of Washington, D.C., Ms. Karol has more than 25 years of experience in the field of international government affairs. She serves on the boards of Freedom House, the Washington International Horse Show, and NACD.  Additionally, she is active with  the European Institute, the Business Council of International Understanding, the Government Relations Forum, and the Conference Board Council on Corporate Communications Strategy II.

Formerly, special assistant to President Clinton and staff director for White House Legislative Affairs, Keating leads Boeing’s public policy efforts and Global Engagement organization. He also is a member of the company's Executive Council. Keating is an active board member with several industry and nonprofit organizations.

Mr. Krone oversees Leidos, a recognized global leader in solving important problems in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. He is a member of the Georgia Tech Foundation Board of Trustees, and a member of WETA Public Television and Radio in Washington, D.C. 

A lifelong entrepreneur, and third-generation Washingtonian, Lemer leads the privately-held and disruptive health insurance company delivering immediate, lower-cost, health insurance plans to businesses around the nation. Lemer holds a patent for a network-based healthcare management, and is also founder of Healthcare Interactive, a software development firm that builds applications to control and consolidate healthcare management within a single system. He lobbies extensively on Capitol Hill for Healthcare reform and is also the Chairman of The Board of Unsung Heroes, a university system platform that enhances workforce development and entrepreneurship opportunities for those employees that keep the nation’s colleges running behind the scenes, though often go unrecognized.

Milkovich led First Potomac Realty Trust, a self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) that focuses on owning, operating, and redeveloping office and business park properties in the Washington, D.C. region, since December 2015. He has been a leader in the greater Washington, D.C. region commercial real estate industry for more than 25 years.

A surgeon for 30+ years, Dr. Newman guided the creation of the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation to make children’s surgery less painful and invasive. He advocates for greater mental health access for children and influences national pediatric health through his board work with Children’s Hospital Association and Safe Kids Worldwide.

Mr. Pelletier has served as a trusted advisor at the highest executive levels of Congress, the White House, and the private sector. In 2000, he was tapped by President Bush to be the Associate Director of Legislative Affairs for the White House Office of Management and Budget. He currently leads the Alibaba team and manages all government and regulatory affairs activity in the US, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia outside of China at the national, regional, state and local levels. 

Mr. Rich is the Co-Founder, Partner, and Head of Real Estate at Declaration Partners.  Mr. Rich most recently served as Executive Vice President at JBG Smith.  He was a member of JBG’s investment team, which oversees acquisitions and dispositions of office, multifamily, and retail properties in the Washington region.  Mr. Rich served on JBG’s Investment and Management Committees.  A graduate of Princeton University and a Fulbright Scholar, Mr. Rich also sits on the board of the SED Center, a local educational non-profit organization.

Peter Scher is the firm’s senior executive in the Washington, DC region. He also serves as Head of Corporate Responsibility, overseeing Global Government Relations and Public Policy, Sustainable Finance, Nonprofit Engagement, and Global Philanthropy.  He also Chairs the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, which focuses on improving economic opportunity and has led cutting-edge programs, including the Global Cities Initiative, New Skills at Work, and Invested in Detroit.

Ms. Vorwerk is Cargill’s leader in corporate branding, communications, corporate responsibility and government relations efforts. Ms. Vorwerk is Chair of the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba and formerly co-chair of the U.S. Business Coalition for the Transpacific Partnership.

Witter is a seasoned financial services executive with more than 20 years of experience building profitable products, channels and businesses in the consumer and wholesale financial service sectors. Previously serving as President of the Retail and Direct Banking at Capital One Bank, he was responsible for almost 13,500 Retail and Direct Bank associates and just over 800 branch and office locations.