2012-12-17 01:10 Fort Worth, TX – Fort Worth Sister Cities elects new board of directors at annual meeting Dec. 6th Newly elected officers are Board Chair, Ann Rice, United Way; Chair-Elect Michael Bennett, Bennett Benner Pettit; Secretary, Denise Whitfield; and Treasurer, Cee Yager, Worthington National Bank.  New board members include: L.O. Brightbill III, Thomas Fairchild, Tre Garrett, Greg Irwin, Marianne Leal, Kara Peterson, Mary Jo Polidore, Michael Roemer and Mac Zimmerman. “The annual meeting is a time to review accomplishments and recognize those responsible for our success,” said Brad Mahon Chairman of the Board.  “This year we signed Guiyang, China as our eighth sister city;   celebrated 25^th anniversaries with Nagaoka, Japan and Trier, Germany; hosted firefighters from Indonesia, an organist from Germany; added a new Director Emeriti, Hilde Horchler; and won our 8th Best Overall  Program in the U.S. award,” said Mahon. Sister Cities also recognized individuals and businesses for outstanding service.  The Fort Worth Independent School District was awarded the Eisenhower Award for Organizational Involvement. Paul Geisel was awarded the prestigious Bob Bolen Award for Outstanding Board Leadership and Mary Eckelbarger was awarded the Yamagata Emerging Leaders Scholarship. Youth Volunteer of the Year went to Zack Kurima and Volunteer of the Year to Cody Cox.   https://www.fwsistercities.org/about-us/awards Other elected officers include:

Past Chairman/Nominating, Brad Mahon, Murphy Mahon Keffler & Farrier

Development Chair, Jeff King, Northern Trust Co.

Government Relations, Michael Hyatt, UBS Financial Services, Inc.

Marketing Chair, Kara Peterson, Alcon Laboratories

Long Range Planning, Julie Johncox, JP Solutions

Program Chair, Eva Bonilla

At-Large, Travis DeVault, BNSF Railways

At-Large, James Meintges, JP Morgan Chase

At-Large, Mary Jo Polidore, DFW International Airport

Bandung Chair, Brent Clifford

Budapest Chair, Mac Zimmerman

Guiyang Chair, Albon Head, Jackson Walker, LLP

Mbabane Chair, Dr. Staussa Ervin

Nagaoka Chair, Tom Brents

Reggio Emilia Chair, Veronica Chavez Law, Decker Jones LLP

Toluca Chair, Doug Harman

Emerging Leaders Network, Andrea Ballard

“We have many things to look forward to next year.  We’re going to Indonesia and Swaziland in June;  and we have 75 students going to Fort Worth’s sister cities on educational exchanges,”  said Ann Rice, new Board Chairperson.  “We do this because we’re citizen diplomats.  We care what the world thinks about the U.S. and we want to know more about the rest of the world.” For more information, please contact Mae Ferguson, President/CEO at 817/632-7104 or email.