National Advisory Board
Joseph P. Anderson
Joseph P. Anderson is a native Arizonan and a graduate of Arizona State University. Mr. Anderson held executive positions in Arizona state government for 17 years, including deputy director of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the Arizona Department of Administration, and the Arizona Department of Economic Security. While at state government, Joe was tapped by then Governor Bruce Babbitt to address the state’s failing Medicaid system. Working with Dr. Donald Schaller, they rebuilt Arizona’s health plan for the poor and created a new model of managed health care that cut costs while providing high quality care and became a model for other states. Mr. Anderson was also instrumental in drafting and securing Federal approval on legislation for Arizona’s Long Term Care System, which was the nations’ first statewide prepaid long-term care system for the elderly, physically disabled and developmentally disabled Medicaid populations.
Mr. Anderson is co-founder and chairman of Benovia Winery in Sonoma County, California. In 2003, he purchased the Cohn Vineyard, the oldest Pinot Noir vineyard in the Russian River Valley, and two years later he purchased a winery and an adjacent vineyard in Santa Rosa. Benovia Winery produces some of Sonoma County's finest Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Zinfandel wines. In 2016, Benovia Co-Founders Joe Anderson and his wife, Mary Dewane, were named winery owners of the year by the California North Bay Business Journal. Continuing his community service, in 2015, Mr. Anderson and his wife were co-chairs of the annual Sonoma Wine Country Weekend, an event which raised $4.5 million to support literacy programs in Sonoma County.
Mr. Anderson’s other passion is his fully restored World War II-era DC3 airplane named “The Spirit of Benovia.” The plane has been involved in air shows throughout the country. In June 2019, the Spirit of Benovia proudly represented the United States with the Tunison Foundation’s D-Day Squadron of WWI-era planes making the crossing from the United States to Europe for participation in the 75th D-Day Anniversary in Normandy, England and Caen, France.
Adrienne Arsht
As a business leader and impact philanthropist, Adrienne Arsht has taken a leading role promoting artistic, business, and civic growth in Washington, D.C., Miami, and New York. Her $30 million contribution to Miami's Performing Arts Center in 2008 secured its financial footing. In her honor, the center was renamed the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County. Recently, Ms. Arsht donated $5 million to the Metropolitan Museum in New York City to fund the Museum’s first ever-paid internship program, which now will be named the Adrienne Arsht Interns. With Ms. Arsht’s gift, The Met, is now the single largest art museum in the country to offer 100 percent paid internships.
In 2012, her contribution of $10 million to Lincoln Center was recognized with the dedication of the Adrienne Arsht Stage in Alice Tully Hall. In Washington in 2016, Ms. Arsht spearheaded the creation of the Adrienne Arsht Center for Resilience at The Atlantic Council, which was renamed in 2019 the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, with the $30 million Rockefeller Foundation gift that she matched. She also founded the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center at the Atlantic Council in 2013 to focus on the role of South America in the trans-Atlantic community. Ms. Arsht is a Trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She is a Vice Chairman of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Executive Vice Chairman of the Atlantic Council. Shea Board Member of the Blair House Restoration Fund, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Ambassador Barbara Barrett
An American businesswoman, attorney and diplomat, Barbara Barrett served as the United States Secretary of the Air Force from 2019 to 2021. She is also an instrument-rated pilot, and cattle and bison rancher. As the 25th Secretary of the Air Force, Barrett leads the affairs of the Department of the Air Force, comprising the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force. She served as U.S. Ambassador to Finland from 2008 to 2009.
Barrett is former chair of the Aerospace Corp. and a member on the boards of California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, RAND Corporation, Smithsonian Institution, Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, and Lasker Foundation. She and her husband, retired Intel Corporation Chairman and CEO Dr. Craig Barrett own the award-winning Triple Creek Ranch in Darby, Montana.
Alan Day
The younger brother of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Alan Day’s upbringing branded him a cowboy from the day he was born. He was part of the third generation to grow up on the 200,000-acre Lazy B cattle ranch straddling the high deserts of southern Arizona and New Mexico. The ranching and cowboy lifestyle appealed to him so greatly that after graduating from the University of Arizona, he returned to manage Lazy B for the next 40 years. During his career, he received numerous awards for his dedicated stewardship of the land.
In 1989, Alan purchased a cattle ranch in Nebraska and soon after, a ranch in South Dakota. The latter became the first government-sponsored sanctuary for unadoptable wild horses. He is the author of three books, including the Lazy B, which he wrote with his sister, Justice O’Connor. Now retired from ranching, Alan divides his time between Tucson and Pinetop, AZ.
Bert Getz
Bert is Chairman and Director of Globe Corporation, having served as its President from 1974 to 1999. He is also a Director and the President of the Globe Foundation, as well as a Director of the National Historical Fire Foundation. Bert also serves on the Board of Rodel Foundation. He is a previous owner and director of various banks in Illinois and Arizona, and served as a Director of both Security Pacific Bank Corporation and the Federal National Mortgage Association under the Reagan administration.
Bert is the Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the Mayo Foundation, Director Emeritus of the Indiana University Foundation, and the Chairman Emeritus of the Arizona Community Foundation. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Bert earned a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan.
Peter M. Hayes
Peter Hayes is the former Associate General Manager & Chief Public Affairs Executive for the Salt River Project. Hayes directed SRP’s congressional and federal relations in Washington, D.C. for six years, before returning to Arizona to assume responsibility for the utility’s federal, state and local government relations. Prior to joining SRP, Hayes worked on Capitol Hill for the U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader, John J. Rhodes from Arizona’s First Congressional District. During the Reagan administration, Hayes worked as a special assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the U.S. Department of Interior, and then served as Deputy Director of Congressional Liaison in the Office of the Secretary, under both Secretaries William Clark and Donald Hodel.
In 1992, Hayes served as Chief of Staff to Arizona Governor, Fife Symington. He graduated from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, and completed the program for senior managers in government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The father of three sons Hayes, serves on the Board of Trustees of the Arizona Science Center, and the Board of Directors of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. He is a past member of the Arizona State University Barrett Honors College Dean’s Advisory Board, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, and a commissioner on the Arizona Commission on the Arts.
Myles Lynk
Myles V. Lynk is senior assistant disciplinary counsel in charge of the District of Columbia Bar Office of Disciplinary Counsel appellate group. Before joining the DC Bar, he was the first Peter Kiewit Foundation Professor of Law and the Legal Profession at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Professor Lynk teaches civil procedure, business and corporate law, and legal ethics and professional responsibility. He is a faculty fellow in the Center for the Study of Law, Science and Technology.
Prior to teaching, he was a Partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Dewey Ballantine LLP, served as an Assistant Director on the White House Domestic Policy Staff under President Carter, and was a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Damon J. Keith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was elected to the Council in 2001.
Francis Najafi
Francis Najafi is Founder and CEO of Pivotal Group, a thirty year old investment firm in Phoenix, Arizona, with experience in private equity investments and all major real estate product types. Najafi completed his Bachelor of Science degree in engineering at Arizona State University (ASU), followed by two Masters Degrees from Thunderbird – The School of Global Management and the University of Southern California (USC). While a Ph.D. candidate in International Political Economy at USC, he began his entrepreneurial activities. Najafi has served on the Board of Directors of Network Solutions, NxSystems and Western Alliance Bancorporation. Currently he serves on the Board of Directors of EastWest Institute, is a member of Urban Land Institute (ULI), and serves as Governor of the ULI Foundation. Mr. Najafi is also active in the World President’s Organization (WPO) and Chief Executive’s Organization (CEO).
Najafi is a member of the Greater Phoenix Leadership (GPL), a Trustee of Thunderbird – The School of Global Management, and a Foundation Board member of Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). He is a member of the President’s Club at ASU and serves on ASU’s Business School, Dean’s Council.
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