A new slate of officers led their first meeting of The John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art Foundation, Inc. Board of Directors on Oct. 10.
Mike Urette now serves as Board Chair, Paul Hudson as Vice Chair, Nancy Parrish as Treasurer and Jane Skogstad as Secretary for the next fiscal year, which ends on June 30, 2015. The Ringling is the State Art Museum of Florida.
Board Chair Mike Urette is the founder and chief executive of Great American Corporation in Tampa. The 32-year-old family-administered organization is a diversified real estate construction, development, and management company.
Urette has been active in the Tampa community for more than 30 years. He has held a variety of civic positions focused on the arts and support for the military.
As Chairman of the Building Committee at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, he was responsible for over-seeing the construction of the Patel Conservatory. Urette received the 2010 Impact Award from Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture & the Arts. Urette and his wife, Karen, are also donors to the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay, the Tampa Bay History Center and the Tampa Theatre.
He served as president of the local Military Affairs Committee, the West Point Society and Leadership Tampa Alumni. Urette is currently an active member of the American Committee on Foreign Relations, the Society of International Business Fellows, and the Tampa Yacht and Country Club.
He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, and he holds Master Degrees in Operations Research and Economics from Indiana University. Urette has served on the Board at The Ringling since 2009 as a Chair of the Development Committee and the Budget, Finance and Investment Committee.
Board Vice Chair Paul G. Hudson is a Managing Director and Private Client Advisor at U.S. Trust®.
He has more than 20 years of professional experience in delivering customized financial, tax, trust and investment planning strategies to wealthy clients and their families to help them pursue financial and philanthropic goals.
Prior to joining U.S. Trust, Hudson held positions at Northern Trust, Merrill Lynch and Meridian Associates, Inc, working directly with private clients in the development and implementation of holistic wealth management plans.
He received his Bachelor of Science in finance from Florida State University and is a graduate of Cannon Trust School. Hudson has served on a variety of not-for-profit boards throughout his career in both Sarasota and Manatee counties.
Board Secretary Jane Skogstad worked in commercial interior design, principally for Rich’s, a division of Federated Stores. She was active in the American Society of Interior Designers, serving as committee chairman and officer at the local and national levels and as president of the Georgia Chapter for two terms.
Her career in interior design began after her marriage to Sam, a college professor and Foreign Service officer. They lived abroad before returning to her native Atlanta where she pursued her interest in art and design. She graduated with a degree in Interior Design from Georgia State University.
Since the 1980s, Skogstad has been involved with art at the local level. She served as a part-time volunteer in the Education Department of the National Gallery of Jamaica.
Skogstad also served as an active member of the American Women’s Association there and in subsequent posts, and as President of the 300 member multi-national American Women’s Association in Cairo.
Skogstad also holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Florida State University.
Board Treasurer Nancy Parrish is a private investor and collector.
Parrish was founding co-chair of Human Rights Watch, northern California Chapter and serves as President of Protect Our Defenders Foundation.
She served two terms as Development Trustee of Friends of University of California San Francisco’s Department of Psychiatry’s Hospital Board, focusing on the creation of a children’s center. Parrish served as a board member and Chief Negotiator with the federal government for Plum Orchard Foundation, whose mission was to preserve the historic Carnegie estate within the Cumberland Island National Seashore.
Recently she served as Vice President and Development Chair of The Children’s Guardian Fund of Sarasota. Prior to 1996, Parrish was founder and managing partner of Parrish, Smith Associates, a southern-based consulting firm. Parrish is a native Floridian. She is married to Chuck, co-founder of Phone.com now Openwave Systems, Inc. and former Chairman of the Board of Family Independence Initiative.
Hotchkiss also served on the Advisory Board for the International Master of Business Administration Program at Suffolk University and lectures at the Suffolk Graduate School of Finance. Hotchkiss has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Bucknell University and a Master of Management Science from The Sloan School at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
