Board of Directors Biographies
Mary Frances leMat has been the chair of the Board of Directors since 2007. She served as the vice chair after retiring from her position as chief executive officer (CEO) in 2005. She is the former CEO and president of Social & Scientific Systems and is one of the company's founders. Ms. leMat currently serves on the boards of directors at IMPACT Silver Spring and Easter Seals; she formerly served on the boards of directors of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Career Transition Center, A Greater Washington, and the Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce. She also is a member of the Federal City Council. She has been an active participant for several years in the Potomac Conference and is a graduate of Leadership Washington's Class of 2001. Among Ms. leMat's recent honors are the Women Business Owners of Montgomery County's Athena Award (2000); the Community Service Award from the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce and Business Gazette (2001); Volunteer of the Year, Technology Council of Maryland (2001); Executive of the Year, Business Gazette (2001); one of the Washington Business Journal's "Women Who Mean Business" (2004); and the Small Business Council of America Humanitarian of the Year (2005).
Dan R. Bannister served as chairman of the company's Board of Directors from 1997 through 2007. He is executive director of M International and the former CEO and chairman of the Board of DynCorp, one of the country's largest employee-owned companies. Mr. Bannister serves on numerous other boards and advisory groups, among them the Shenandoah University Foundation, Marymount University, Employee Owners Foundation, Northern Virginia Technology Council Foundation (chairman), Easter Seal Society of Greater Washington (former chairman), and the Falcon Foundation at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Denis Ables is the former executive vice president of Social & Scientific Systems and one of the company's founders. He is a former trustee of the company's ESOP Trust. During his employment with the company, Mr. Ables served as senior vice president (1978-1998) and as executive vice president (1998-2000). He served unofficially as chief financial officer (CFO) and chief technology officer (CTO), overseeing all financial and technology operations for the company. He programmed and maintained the in-house accounting system that the company used successfully from 1978 to 2000. He also provided administrative and technical oversight for a number of early programming contracts, the Infinibyte® group, and the Worldwide Meetings & Communications® division. Mr. Ables was the primary driving force in the establishment and administration of the company's profit-sharing and ESOP plans. Although he retired in the fall of 2000, Mr. Ables continues to play an active role as a director.
W. Lyles Carr III, is senior vice president of The McCormick Group. Other boards and advisory groups on which he serves include the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Federal City Council, the Economic Club, Greater D.C. Cares, Workforce Organizations for Regional Collaboration, Jubilee Housing, Community Wealth Ventures, the Darrell Green Youth Life Foundation, Women of Washington, and Cultural Tourism DC. A past president of Leadership Washington, Mr. Carr has been acknowledged as that organization's Volunteer of the Year. He also has been honored by the Jubilee Support Alliance with the Jim & Patsy Rouse Award; was the 2001 recipient of the Golden Links Award from the Greater Washington Board of Trade; and was a Washingtonian 2002 Washingtonian of the Year.
Leif Karell has a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Lehman College, which is part of the City University of New York (CUNY). He also has taken graduate courses in mathematical logic at the University of Maryland. Leif began his career teaching high school mathematics for 3 years in a private school in Calvert County, Maryland. He has been with Social & Scientific Systems since its formation in 1978. Leif was initially hired as a courier/neophyte computer programmer, and he has advanced through the ranks to the highest nonexecutive grade. Currently, he is the manager of the SAS programming and Web work that is conducted for the Georgia Hospital Association.
James J. Lynch, Ph.D., is the president and CEO of Social & Scientific Systems. Initially, Dr. Lynch served as proposal manager, later as vice president for Business Development, and finally as executive vice president and chief operating officer (COO) before being appointed president and COO in 2005. Most recently, Dr. Lynch was appointed chief executive officer (CEO), succeeding Mary Frances leMat, one of the company's founders, who retired in 2006. His other board and advisory committee affiliations include the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Technology Council of Maryland and the Professional Services Council. He also served on the Hearts & Homes for Youth Board of Directors and is a graduate of Leadership Washington's Class of 2004. Dr. Lynch received the Outstanding Service Award in 2003 from the Professional Service Council for exceptional leadership of the Council's Annual Conference Committee. Dr. Lynch holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Texas. He taught writing at the university level for 13 years and is the author of several publications.
Carol A. Nacy, Ph.D., is founder, CEO, and chair of Sequella, Inc., a biotechnology company based in Rockville, Maryland, that develops products for tuberculosis. Prior to founding Sequella, Dr. Nacy served as executive vice president and chief scientific officer of EntreMed, Inc. She has an extensive background in academic biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. She also has been involved in the development and management of biotechnology companies since 1993.
Mary Tondreau was one of the founders of TvT Associates, Inc., in 1981, and served as president and CEO from 1986 until 2002. In 2002, Social & Scientific Systems acquired TvT and integrated it as a division. Ms. Tondreau served as senior vice president and division director until 2004. In 2005, she became the company's first CAO, and served in that role until her retirement at the end of 2006. For many years, she has been active in the Global Health Council and is a member of the Washington 100 leadership group of the Washington Area Women's Foundation. She holds a bachelor's degree from Smith College and pursued graduate studies in economics at Boston University.
Sandra Thurman is president and CEO of the International AIDS Trust. Ms. Thurman previously served as director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy and the first Presidential Envoy for AIDS Cooperation. During her tenure, the U.S. Government mounted a broadbased, multisector, global AIDS response; declared global AIDS a national security threat; tripled global AIDS funding; and helped bring together leaders worldwide in the fight against AIDS. Ms. Thurman also has served as the director of Advocacy Programs for the Task Force for Child Survival and Development at The Carter Center as well as executive director of AIDS Atlanta, one of the largest AIDS service organizations in the United States.
Willie Woods has served on the company's Board of Directors since 2003. He is a retired naval officer with degrees in computer science and management. In 1988, Mr. Woods founded Digital Systems Research, an employee-owned company focusing on network operations, software development, implementation of ERP applications, and procurement consulting. Mr. Woods saw Digital Systems Research grow to 900 employees before retiring in 2001.