Community Foundation Assets Reach $70M;
Richard Lau Named President at Annual Meeting

WATERBURY, CT – March 29, 2011 – The Board of Trustees at the Connecticut Community Foundation welcomed the organization’s new trustees and announced the election of Richard E. Lau, DVM, of Cheshire as president at the 88th annual meeting and donor thank you event on March 23 at the newly-restored Waterbury
City Hall.

Highlights from 2010 include:
• Donors gave more than $5.3 million to make life better in our community
• More than $1.6 million awarded in grants and sponsorships
• More than $600,000 in scholarships awarded to local students
• Assets reach $70 million; 12.4% return on investments

More than 140 people attended the event, which included an introduction by Waterbury Mayor Michael Jarjura.

Election of Trustees and Officers
Charles Boulier, chairman of the Governance Committee, announced the election of new trustees Martha Bernstein, Anne Delo, John Michaels and Anne Slattery, and re-elected trustees Margaret Field, Richard Lau and John Millington.

In addition to electing Lau as president, elected officers also include Jack Baker, vice president; Christine Reardon, secretary; and Charles Boulier, treasurer.

Outgoing board president, Peter Jacoby, M.D., acknowledged retiring trustees Kevin DelGobbo, Jeanne Paparazzo, Molly Parker, and Edwin Rodriguez for their service to the Foundation and their community. He also announced that CEO, Ingrid Manning will retire from the Foundation at the end of the year.

About Richard E. Lau, DVM
Richard E. Lau, DVM, president of the Connecticut Community Foundation, has lived in Cheshire since 1970. A veterinary surgeon, he was principal at Cheshire Veterinary Hospital until he retired in 2005. Dr. Lau is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons, served as a member of the Connecticut Board of Veterinary Medicine from 1988-2008, and previously served as president and chair of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons and president of the Veterinary Orthopedic Society.

With interests in education, specifically science and technology, and youth issues, Dr. Lau served as a member and chair of the Cheshire Board of Education from 1993-2005. He is currently a member of the Cheshire Education Foundation.

Dr. Lau and his wife Elaine have been friends of the Connecticut Community Foundation since 2006. He was elected to the board of trustees in 2008 and has served as vice president since 2009. Dr. Lau currently chairs the Executive Committee and is former chair of the Grants Committee at the Foundation.

Dr. and Mrs. Lau have two adult children.

Anne Delo, Woodbury
Woodbury resident, Anne Delo is a retired vice president of Human Resources at Travelers Insurance Company. She currently serves as a board member and Development Committee Chair of the Pomperaug River Watershed Coalition. She has been a friend of the Connecticut Community Foundation since 2005 and currently chairs the Grants Committee.

Anne Slattery, Woodbury
Anne M. Slattery of Woodbury is executive vice president of Retail Banking of Webster Bank, N.A., and executive vice president of Webster Financial Corporation (NYSE:WBS).

In this position, Ms. Slattery has primary responsibility for serving customers throughout Webster’s 181-branch network, the Customer Care Center, Business and Professional Banking and Webster Investment Services. She is a member of Webster’s Executive Management Committee.

Slattery has extensive experience in sales and service operations in New England and New York. At the former Fleet Financial, she oversaw Fleet’s Retail Bank, the company’s largest division, which contributed 40 percent of the company’s earnings and included small business, marketing, the branch network, and consumer credit. In that role, she drove Fleet’s distribution strategy and created its customer profitability management system.

Earlier in her career, she held a variety of increasingly responsible positions in marketing and branch management at Citibank, culminating in responsibility for Citibank’s retail and small business distribution strategy in New York. Most recently, Slattery was president of Marymount College in Tarrytown, N.Y., and headed her own manufacturing company in Connecticut.

Slattery, a resident of Woodbury, has a bachelor of arts in political science and economics from Marymount College. She also is a former member of the Board of Trustees for The Seabury Society for preservation of the Glebe House.

John Michaels, Southbury
Southbury resident John A. Michaels is Vice President, Strategy at Michaels Jewelers which currently operates 12 retail jewelry stores in Connecticut. He has worked at Michaels Jewelers since 1967 in various capacities including controller, secretary/treasurer, and chairman and CEO.

In addition to serving as a trustee for the Connecticut Community Foundation, Michaels is chairman of the Southbury Board of Finance; vice chairman of the Harold Leever Regional Cancer Center; treasurer of the United Church of Christ in Southbury; and director at Connecticut Hospital Association, Waterbury Hospital Captive Insurance Co., Jewelers Mutual Insurance Co., and the American Gem Society Laboratory Board. He also is past chairman of Waterbury Hospital and Health Network.

Michaels and fellow board members of the former East Hill Woods, Inc., established the $9.2 million East Hill Woods Fund at the Connecticut Community Foundation in 2009 to benefit seniors in our region. Following an in-depth needs assessment by the Foundation in 2010, the East Hill Woods Fund will award grants beginning in 2011 to organizations that enable seniors in our region to remain in their homes.

Michaels and his wife Shirley have been friends of the Foundation for several years. John served as a member of the East Hill Woods Advisory Committee, Audit Committee and Investment Committee. Shirley serves as chair of the Southbury Community Trust Fund. They have three adult children.

Martha Bernstein, Litchfield
Martha Bernstein of Litchfield is a retired nonprofit executive with expertise in programs and fundraising.

Based in New York, her career included several positions notably Director of Development for the former Girls Clubs of America, now Girls, Inc., and Director of Volunteers and Director for Corporate and Major Gifts for the American Red Cross of Greater New York. She also served on the boards of the New York Women’s Foundation and the Association of Junior Leagues.

Bernstein moved to Litchfield full time in 1999. She is a former selectman of Litchfield and has volunteered for several community organizations. She is a former trustee of the Oliver Wolcott Library, former board member and corporator of the Warner Theatre, and former board member of Greenwoods Counseling referrals, Inc. She is a former president and current trustee of the Litchfield Historical Society and current treasurer of the Litchfield Aid of the Connecticut Junior Republic.

Bernstein’s volunteer work for the Connecticut Community Foundation includes serving on the Grants Committee and the Women’s Initiative Fund Steering Committee. She is currently an advisor for the Nonprofit Assistance Initiative (NAI) and counsels nonprofits on fundraising.

Her husband, Robert Bernstein, M.D., is an endocrinologist with a practice in New York. They have two daughters and three grandchildren.