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Newsroom 2004 MDRT Foundation Board of Trustees Announced Read about the Foundation's leaders Lee is the 39th MDRT Foundation President. In addition to increasing the scope of international projects, Lee said, “The Foundation would like to hear about steps individual MDRT members have taken in their communities to become involved and make a difference. We’d like to have the opportunity to join with them to make that difference, to better the quality of life for people. We want to recognize and support these heroes the world over.” Lee, whose firm’s vision is “let us help you live,” has been an MDRT member for 35 years. Recently inducted into the Foundation’s Excalibur Society (an honor for those who have contributed more than $50,000 to the MDRT Foundation), Lee has served on the Foundation’s Board of Trustees since 1999. Based on his community service, he’s received four MDRT Foundation Quality of Life Grants, most recently in 2000 for the Trust for Wildlife Inc., an environmental education organization located in Shaftsbury, Vermont. He has volunteered frequently for the MDRT Foundation’s annual Phonathon, and in 1996 served as Phonathon Chair. Lee also has participated in all three of the Foundation’s hands-on projects (where members and staff not only organized and funded the project but did much of the actual physical work): the Habitat for Humanity home building project, 1994, in Dallas, Texas; and both Kids Around the World playground building projects, March 2002 in Trinidad and Tobago, and February 2003 in Los Angeles, California. He and his wife, Mary Lou, also visited Jeremie, Haiti, in 2002 to be present to the work of the Haitian Health Foundation, an MDRT Foundation-funded project serving more than 170,000 people. Lee’s philanthropic efforts expand beyond his work with the MDRT Foundation. He has been an active member of the Fairfield Rotary Club for 37 years, serving as president in 1971–1972. He has also worked with the Fairfield Drug Advisory Board; Prospect House, a homeless shelter in Bridgeport, Connecticut; Mercy Learning Center, a literacy and skills center for low-income women in Bridgeport; and Mercy Center at Madison, a center for human and spiritual development. This year, Lee tutored a woman in math four hours per week to help her prepare successfully for her GED (high school equivalency test). He also read to an inner-city sixth-grade class twice a month. No stranger to leadership positions, Lee has served on nearly 20 MDRT committees and task forces, including the Leadership Committee, the Annual Meeting Program Development Committee, the Annual Meeting Program General Arrangements Committee, the Constitution and Bylaws Committee, the First-Time Orientation Task Force and the Membership Communications Committee. He has been
actively involved in the industry, acting as president of both
the Bridgeport and the Connecticut Association of Insurance
and
Financial
Advisors, as well as chairman of the Life Underwriters Political
Action Committee (Connecticut). Other MDRT
Foundation officers include: Immediate Past President Mitchell
W. Ostrove, CLU, ChFC, of White Plains, New York; Vice
President Allan
G. Hancock,
CLU, ChFC, of Altoona, Pennsylvania; Treasurer Donald J. Benedetti
of Yardville, New Jersey; and Secretary Walton W. Rogers, CLU,
ChFC, of
Annapolis, Maryland. Board members continuing their service to the MDRT Foundation include: Bill Bachrach of Bill Bachrach and Associates in San Diego, California; Lynne S. Crow, CLU, ChFC, of Cranford, New Jersey; William H. Dodd, CLU, of New York, New York; Mark S. Jones of Houston, Texas; Allan T. Mendels, CLU, ChFC, of Roslyn Heights, New York; James Douglas Pittman, CLU, ChFC, of Portland, Oregon; William F. Pollak III, CLU, ChFC, of Tustin, California; Lawrence J. Rybka, J.D., of ValMark Securities in Cleveland, Ohio; Robert D. Sills, CLU, ChFC, of Columbus, Ohio; and Brian P. Winfield, CLU, of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Jerry D. Semler, CLU, CEO and chairman of American United Life Insurance Company, Indianapolis, Indiana, is a Trustee Emeritus. The MDRT Foundation has also added a new group of Honorary Trustees to its Foundation Board. These new Honorary Trustees include: Dennis J. Manning, CLU, ChFC, president and CEO of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, New York; David B. O’Maley, CLU, ChFC, chairman, president and CEO of Ohio National Financial Services, Cincinnati, Ohio; Arthur F. Ryan, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial, Newark, New Jersey; Seymour Sternberg, CLU, chairman and CEO of New York Life, New York, New York; and Edward J. Zore, president and CEO of Northwestern Mutual, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The MDRT Foundation was created in 1959 to provide Round Table members with a means to give back to their communities. Since its inception, the Foundation has donated nearly $11 million to more than 1,500 worthy charities around the world. The majority of these funds were raised by MDRT members from MDRT members. Some of the organizations that have benefited from MDRT Foundation grants are: Make-a-Wish Foundation, Habitat for Humanity and the American Paralysis Association. The MDRT
Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Million Dollar Round
Table, the premier association of financial
professionals. An international, independent
association of more than 28,000 of the world’s best life insurance
and financial services professionals from 74 nations
and territories,
MDRT members demonstrate
exceptional professional knowledge, strict ethical conduct and outstanding
client service. MDRT membership is recognized internationally as
the standard of sales excellence in the life insurance and
financial services business. Read about the Foundation's leaders
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