Board of Directors

Robert Book

Elanco Products Company, a division of Eli Lilly, Carmel, Indiana (retired)
U.S. Marine Colonel (retired)
Mr. Book was awarded the Lifetime Career Award for his 28 years with Elanco Animal Health eventually serving as group vice president of agricultural marketing for 11 years. Mr. Book received his B.S. in animal sciences in 1952. He was instrumental in starting the Indiana Institute of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Inc. Involved with public service for a number of year, he served on the board of directors for the Farm Foundation Inc., the United States Grain Council, the Center for Global Food Issues and other organizations. Currently Mr. Book serves as an advisor to the Indiana 4 H Foundation; on the board of directors of Neogen Corporation, the Agricultural Alumni Foundation Seed Corporation, the Indiana Partners of the Americas and as chairman of the board of the Carmel St. Vincent’s Hospital. In addition to his professional duties, he served 35 years of active and reserve duty in the U.S. Marines.

Stan Bunn *

Customer Relationship Management Practice Manager, BST Global
Stan Bunn leads the CRM Practice at BST Global, a Florida-based organization that delivers practical business solutions to project driven organizations throughout the world. His responsibilities include critical areas such as assisting firms with CRM strategies, system analysis, business process improvement and integration consulting. His 12 years of technology experience spans from multiple enterprise resources planning applications to numerous CRM solutions such as Siebel and Microsoft CRM. He is a member of the Society for Marketing Professional Services and Professional Services Management Association. He is also a Certified Microsoft Business Solutions Professional.

Mia Byrne

C.P.A, MKM Ventures, LLC, Ann Arbor, Michigan 
Ms. Byrne earned a BS in Industrial Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Ms. Byrne has spent the focus of her accounting career specializing in taxation in both the public accounting and corporate tax arenas.

Chris Carley

Chris Carley is a 15-year GIST cancer survivor. He was one of the two first survivors to take the trial drug Gleevec for a solid tumor 10 years ago.

He is on the Advisory Board of the Lurie Cancer Center at Northwestern University, a member of the Dana-Farber Cancer Center Development Committee, on the Board of Directors of the Wendy Will Cancer Foundation, a regional member of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and Chicago advisor of Gilda's Club.

Mr. Carley’s “Survivor's Story” is featured in the book LiveStrong by the Lance Armstrong Foundation. It is one of 10 stories featured to inspire and encourage cancer survivors. 

Jerry Cudzil, President *

Jerry Cudzil trades high yield debt ranging from aviation to energy and paper and packaging. Jerry most recently worked for a hedge fund for the past 5+ years where he managed a multi-strategy portfolio. The portfolios focused on investing mainly in fixed income securities. Jerry's 13+ years of investment experience spans from investment banking to portfolio management.

Jerry joined the Life Raft Group 6+ years ago shortly after his father-in-law, Bill, was diagnosed with GIST. Bill lost his battle with GIST on Oct 15, 2008.

Jerry graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a minor in English. Jerry currently resides in New York with his wife and two children.

Jim Hughes

Director of Sales, N-Soft of America, Evanston, Illinois (retired)
Mr. Hughes is a graduate of Loyola University, Chicago where he earned a BA in Philosophy. Before graduation, Mr. Hughes served as an officer in the United States Army and with 3rd Bde 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam.  During Mr. Hughes’ 35-year career in the telecommunications industry, he held management positions including engineering, long-range planning, program and product management.  He is the father of two children including GIST patient Nancy Hughes Welsh (1967-2005) who was an early member of The Life Raft Group. He and his wife, Margi, continue to remain active in the Chicago chapter.

Jerry Knapp

President & CEO of U.S. Computer Services Cable Data, Sacramento, California (retired)
Mr. Knapp earned a BA and a MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.
Knapp is currently retired and working as a consultant/investor with small to medium sized technology companies in the Sacramento area.

Mr. Knapp retired in 1995 after 22 years with U.S. Computer Services. Additionally, he served on the company’s board of directors from 1978 until 1995.  During his 22 years with the company annual revenues grew from a $2 million company focused on the U.S. cable television market to a $225 million international company serving the telecommunications market.

Prior to U.S. Computer Services, Knapp served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. While at U.S. Computer Services he served as a board member on the Walter Kaitz Foundation. Mr. Knapp currently serves as a board member for several small technology companies. He is an advisor to Summerbridge Sacramento, a program encouraging disadvantaged youths to get a college education.  He also participates in HOSTS, a weekly tutoring program for middle school children.

Ray Montague, Secretary-Treasurer*

Ray Montague graduated from Rutgers University in 1973. He has owned several businesses and is currently the vice president for Art Guild Inc., a tradeshow company. Mr. Montague has four children including Jonathan who died from GIST in 2002 at the age of 23

John Poss

Management Consultant
Mr. Poss is the principal in Poss Consulting, a firm that specializes in workouts and turnarounds of troubled companies. During his 35-year business career, he has served as a senior officer or director of both public and private companies in diverse industries, including real estate, construction, oil & gas, mining and telecommunications. Mr. Poss and wife Melinda currently reside in New Braunfels, Texas.

Marietta Robinson, Fundraising Chair

Attorney, Law Offices of Marietta S. Robinson, Birmingham, MI
Marietta Robinson has been a practicing attorney in Michigan for over 30 years. She specialized in various forms of litigation, including medical malpractice and product liability. She was a partner at both a large corporate firm, Dickinson, Wright, and a large plaintiffs’ firm, Sommers Schwartz, before starting her own practice. She has taught extensively over the years, including trial advocacy institutes at the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia law schools. For eight years, she served as one of five federally-appointed trustees to the Dalkon Shield Trust, which was a $2.4 billion trust set up for over 300,000 claimants in 120 countries and she was the Democratic nominee for the Michigan Supreme Court in 2000. She is a member of a number of honorary organizations and is the President-elect of the International Society of Barristers, an invitation-only group of trial lawyers limited to a membership of 650 lawyers in North America and England. She is listed in a number of editions of Who’s Who, including Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World. She has been listed in Best Lawyers in America for more than ten years.  

David Safford

David Safford is the chief business development executive for Insight e- Tools, a growing hightech services provider with business clients large and small, all across the USA. David’s professional Sales Management career has included positions in both Fortune 500 and small business environments for specialty product distribution, business services and hightech data solutions. Areas of expertise include strategic corporate partnerships, innovative problem solving, group dynamics, neuro-marketing, keynote addresses and other public speaking engagements. David is also a member of Vistage Key Executive group in Seattle.

David received his Bachelor of Sciences degree with a double major in Business Administration and Economics at Linfield College. In addition to being recognized by the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame as the Most Outstanding College Student/Athlete in the State of Oregon in 1989, David was an All-American pitcher on the baseball team with many school records that still stand today.

He has been married to his wife, Cherry for over 18 years and has three wonderful daughters, Natalie, Kiana and Alani.

David Safford became a member of the GIST family on January 21, 2010. After receiving an initial diagnosis that gave little room for hope due to the extensive nature of his metastatic cancer, pathology reports later confirmed kit+ GIST and a new mission was formed. David is inspired by the stories of GIST patients and is dedicated to helping not only control the positive outcome of his own disease but in those of the new GIST friends he has made, by participating in the efforts of the Life Raft Group.

Rodrigo Salas

Owner & CEO, Maprex International Inc., Laredo, Texas & Nuevo Leon, Mexico
Mr. Salas is a CPA with an MBA from Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey (Monterrey Institute of Technology). Salas has maintained his position as owner and CEO of Maprex for the past six years. Maprex manufactures solid wooden doors for the Mexican and American markets. He is also a co-owner of Isitax, a company dedicated to obtain sales tax reimbursement in the U.S. for Mexican nationals.

Previously, he served for 14 years as Management Director of Benavides Industrial Group, a group of companies dedicated to the production of Penicillin and its derivatives as well as pharmaceutical laboratories that produced different kinds of generic drugs for the social security sector in Mexico.

Mr. Salas also serves on the board of directors of the John Paul II Institute, a non-profit that focuses on family science and social degrees. Since 2006, he has been serving on the board of Directors of the School of Health Science and Innovation at Monterrey Institute of Technology. Mr. Salas is also part of the Inter-Institutional Comity for the Development of Clinical Research, an effort between Monterrey Tec and the Government of his home state of Nuevo Leon, to promote the implementation of clinical trials in the government’s hospitals and clinics.   

Lawrence Selkovits

President, The Kirkland Group Inc., Methuen, MA
Lawrence Selkovits was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and grew up in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania.
He graduated from Harvard College, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and Harvard Business School. Upon graduation from business school Mr. Selkovits joined a major commercial property development company, headquartered in Boston. During the next 20 years he was responsible for the development of over 5,000 multi-family units located throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. He was also a partner in several large office and commercial projects in the Boston area. In 1985, Mr. Selkovits formed The Kirkland Group as a holding company for his real estate and other investments.

For many years, Mr. Selkovits has been a member of an advisory board for the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He is also a major supporter of the East End Cooperative Ministry in Pittsburgh whose work is dedicated to helping adults and at-risk children in Pittsburgh’s East End Community. Mr. Selkovits and his wife have lived in Cambridge Massachusetts for over 40 years.

Silvia Steinhilber

Co-founder and Managing Partner of NSW Plastics Ltd., Manitoba, Canada
Ms. Steinhilber was educated in biochemistry but decided to partner with her father to establish an injection molding firm. NSW Plastic Ltd. specializes in custom injection molding, vacuum forming, mold making, and R.F. sealing.