Board of Directors

Martin L. Gross, Chair, practices law at Sulloway & Hollis PLLC in Concord.  He has served as legal counsel to two New Hampshire governors (one Democrat, one Republican). He was mayor of Concord for three terms and a member of the Concord City Council for 12 years. He was a member of New Hampshire's Constitutional Conventions of 1974 and 1984 and has served on or chaired a variety of municipal and state study commissions, including the Concord City Charter Review Commission. He was acting chair and secretary of the NH Board of Prison Trustees. He also chaired the advisory committee for the State of New Hampshire's Health Care Fund Community Grant Program. He chaired the NH Supreme Court's Board of Bar Examiners for 23 years and has chaired the advisory committee for the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He currently chairs the Conservation Law Foundation’s NH State Board and serves as a trustee of Concord Area Trust for Affordable Housing (CATCH) and Capitol Center for the Arts.  He is a member of the Concord Planning Board and chairs the City of Concord’s Airport Advisory Committee. He has chaired the NH Charitable Foundation, and the Capitol Region Health Care Corporation/Concord Hospital. He was a founding member and subsequently chair of New Hampshire’s Public Radio network.   

John B. Andrews has been the Executive Director of the NH Local Government Center [formerly NH Municipal Association] since 1975. He is also the Executive Director of the LGC HealthTrust and Property-Liability Trust. He serves on the Governor's Citizens Health Initiative and the NH Bar Association's Board of Governors and is a Trustee of the NH Bar Foundation. He has served on the Advisory Board of Anthem BCBS of New Hampshire and the Board of Directors of the National League of Cities. He is a graduate of the University of Southern Maine and Maine Law School as well as the Program for Senior Executives at Harvard University 's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Before moving to New Hampshire , he was the Assistant Executive Director of the Maine Municipal Association and worked in a variety of positions in Portland city government.  

John Crosier, Secretary/Treasurer, retired as president of the Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire in 2004, a position he held since 1988. He is a trustee of the University System of New Hampshire, a member of the board of governors for the NH Forum on Higher Education, a member of the executive committee of the Whittemore School of Business and Economics, and a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee representing state chambers of commerce.  He is an incorporator of the NH Charitable Foundation and a founding member of the NH Advisory Committee for Junior Achievement of NH.  Crosier was a founding member of the board of Leadership New Hampshire, and has served on the boards of the American Cancer Society, NH Division, and the NH Charitable Foundation.

Gary Matteson of Epsom, NH, is a farmer specializing in anemones as greenhouse wholesale cut flowers.  The operation is unusual in that all hybridization, seed production, variety selection, and cut flower production is done at the farm in a continuous, self-contained cycle.  He is Vice-chairman of the board of First Pioneer Farm Credit, an agricultural financial cooperative, and serves on the federally chartered Farm Credit System’s national trade organization, the Farm Credit Council.  Gary was a founding member (in 1997) and still serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of New Hampshire Made, a non-profit that promotes New Hampshire made products and services.  He is a small business representative to the Workforce Opportunity Council, which assists the Governor in planning and overseeing the state’s unemployment and job training programs.  Gary is also on the board of the Boston Flower Exchange, the New Hampshire Coalition for Sustaining Agriculture, and the Governor’s Farm Viability Task Force. Gary has served in many capacities in Epsom, including Selectman, Planning Board member for ten years, and is now town moderator.

Todd I. Selig serves as the Town Administrator of Durham, New Hampshire. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Syracuse University in 1991, Mr. Selig went on to complete a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of New Hampshire in 1994.  He has served in a variety of New Hampshire administrative positions within both the municipal and school sectors including positions in Raymond, Laconia, New Boston, Hopkinton, and now Durham.  In 2003, Todd Selig was awarded the Caroline Gross Fellowship allowing him to attend the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.  In addition to being involved as a community leader, Mr. Selig serves as a Corporator on the Board of Canterbury Shaker Village in Canterbury, New Hampshire and is a member of the International City/County Management Association.  He is also a member of the Laconia and Durham Historical Societies.  Mr. Selig resides in Durham, New Hampshire.

Donna Sytek, Vice Chair, is a veteran of New Hampshire politics, having served as speaker of the House and chairman of the NH Republican Party.  During 23 years as a state representative from Salem, she chaired several major committees including Judiciary, Ways and Means, and Criminal Justice. She has a continuing interest and involvement in state policy on taxation, corrections, and substance-abuse treatment.  Since her retirement from the legislature in 2000, she has been elected to the boards of the NH Charitable Foundation and New Futures. She is currently chairman of the Judicial Conduct Commission.  She is author of Further Ado: Practical Protocol for New Hampshire, published in 2003. 

Georgie Thomas joined Citizens Bank NH in 2002 as vice president in the Government Banking/Not-for-Profit Division after serving 18 years as New Hampshire’s State Treasurer. She has served as the president of the National Association of State Treasurers, chair of the College Savings Plan Network, chair of the National Institute for Public Finance at the Kellogg School at Northwestern University, and on the executive committee of the Council of State Governments and Women Executives in State Government.  She currently serves as a member of the Campaign Cabinet for the Heritage United Way, the advisory committee of the NH Public Deposit Investment Pool, and the Cannon Mt. Advisory Commission.

James E. Tibbetts is president, chief executive officer, and director of the First Colebrook Bank.  He has 28 years of experience in banking in New Hampshire.  He is the chairperson of the Small Business Development Center Advisory Board, an incorporator of the New Hampshire and Northern New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, and director of the Colebrook Development Corporation, the Friends of Norris Cotton Cancer Center, and the NH Municipal Bond Bank. 

Brian F. Walsh is Chairman of the Board of Selectmen in Hanover, New Hampshire, and the founder and original CEO of three technology start-ups including Spectra, Inc. of Lebanon, NH. In the past, he has served on the Planning Board in Hanover , and numerous boards of private companies.  Currently, Brian is a Trustee of the Upper Valley Land Trust, and a Director of Americans for Campaign Reform. As an artist, through his watercolor paintings, Brian seeks to portray the beauty of our earth’s special times and places: ten percent of the proceeds from the sale of his works is donated to non-profit organizations working to protect the environment. Brian lives in Hanover with his wife Linda Patchett. Their five children have grown and fled the nest.

Kimon Zachos is a partner in the law firm of  Sheehan Phinney Bass & Green.  He served as a White House Fellow in 1965-1966 and in the NH House of Representatives from 1969 through 1974, where he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, majority leader and deputy speaker. In 1994, he was named “Business Leader of the Year” by Business New Hampshire magazine and the NH Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives.  The Business and Industry Association awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.  He is a director of Hitchiner Manufacturing Company, a trustee and president of the board of the Currier Gallery of Art, a trustee of Southern New Hampshire University, a trustee of endowment funds for Havenwood Retirement Community, and a trustee of trust funds of St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral.  

Non-Voting Member 

Lew Feldstein President, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation

Date last modified: January 29, 2006