PEF is pleased to welcome (above from left) Amelie Kappes, Emily Harrold and Rich Thompson to the Board of Directors.
Amelie Kappes is the Chief of Staff of Ishiyama Corporation, a diversified family company with operations in Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and the Far East. She also manages the Henry’s Fork Lodge, a fly fishing lodge in Idaho, and is an administrator of the Ishiyama Foundation.
She currently serves on the boards of California Trout and the Henry’s Fork Foundation. She co-chaired the 2019-2020 Giving Campaign.
Amelie received her B.A. from University of Colorado, Boulder and her M.S. from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. She grew up in Piedmont (class of ’96) and decided to return with her husband, Dan, and two sons because of the community’s commitment to public education and their schools.
Emily Harrold is a marketing communications professional. After seven years at Apple, she now runs her own marketing consultancy. Emily has degrees from Wellesley College, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
Raised in Sacramento, Emily has fond memories and close friends from her public school years there. She and her husband, Seth Bindernagel, moved to Piedmont for the strong schools and have two daughters at Beach Elementary. Emily served as the Giving Campaign Marketing Lead in 2018-2019 and as a Co-Chair in 2019-2020.
Rich Thompson was born at Alta Bates and raised in Richmond, California. He is a Stanford graduate, with degrees in Electrical Engineering and an MBA. Together with his wife, Barbara, of 59 years, also a Stanford graduate with a BS and MS in Elementary Education and also a 4th generation Californian, Rich pursued a multi-faceted business career with General Electric and Caterpillar. Following his retirement, they have enjoyed their return to the Bay Area after 40 years and 11 moves around the country.
Rich and Barbara have two married sons living in San Francisco and Los Gatos, with a total of five grandchildren. Rich is a retired Group President of Caterpillar Inc. and served as Chairman of the Board of Lennox International Inc. and NiSource Inc., NYSE companies. Currently, he is a Trustee of Piedmont Community Church, and he and Barbara volunteer in an Oakland Elementary School as reading tutors.
PEF is also proud to announce the formation of the 2020-2021 PEF Executive Board:
- Nicki Gilbert, Chair
- Cortney Allen, Vice Chair
- John Orta, Vice Chair
- Abby Scott, Secretary
- Charlotte Ero, Treasurer
- Eileen Kwei, Immediate Past Chair
PEF is looking forward to another successful year supporting the Piedmont community and schools.
