Board of Directors
Peter A. Singer, M.D.
Chairman of the Board
Chief, Clinical Endocrinology
Keck School of Medicine
University of Southern California
Peter A. Singer, M.D. serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of East Meets West, and has been an active board member since 1990. Dr Singer’s interest in East Meets West is an outgrowth of his experience as a battalion doctor with U.S. Armed Forces in Da Nang,Vietnam from 1966-1967. At that time he became aware of the significant needs of the very poor in Vietnam, and began medical and relief efforts. His association with EMW has allowed him to continue to assist the poor in Vietnam.
Peter is a native San Franciscan, and completed his undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley, and received his medical degree from University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). He currently is Professor of Medicine at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, where he is active in clinical practice, teaching, and research. Dr. Singer has been married since 1971 to Marjorie Kagawa-Singer, who is Professor of Public Health and Asian-American Studies at UCLA. Despite being employed by rival universities, Peter and Margie have set aside their academic differences and have raised two great kids, Jonathan and Joana.
Stephen Gunther
Vice Chairman/Secretary of the Board
Principal, New Urban West
One of the co-founders and principals of New Urban West Inc., Steve served as president for over 20 years. He maintains an active, leadership role in the company he helped create, overseeing residential, commercial and office development. Steve is a former deputy attorney general for the State of California, a father, traveler, collector of vintage posters and member of several charitable foundations.
Eric Hemel, Ph.D.
Treasurer of the Board
Eric Hemel recently served as President of Alson Capital, a New York City based investment partnership, where he remains a Limited Partner and
Advisor. Eric served as Co-Head of U.S. equity research at Merrill Lynch from 2000 to 2002. Prior to that, he was an analyst at First
Boston, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch for 13 years, and was ranked in the annual Institutional Investor poll in the Financials and REIT
categories for 12 consecutive years, nine as #1 in his sector. Before coming to Wall Street, Eric held several positions in the Reagan
Administration, including serving as staff director of the President's Council of Economic Advisers.
Eric graduated from Stanford University, where he earned his B.A. (1974), M.B.A. (1977), and Ph.D. (1980). With his wife Barbara Morgen, Eric has
committed the funds to EMW to sponsor 1,500 children through the end of high school through the SPELL program, EMW's scholarship program for
impoverished primary school students in Vietnam and is a major supporter of the Breath of Life program.
Board Members
Jerome Falk
Senior Member, Howard Rice Law Firm
Jerry Falk joined the EMW Board in 2007. Jerry is a senior member of Howard Rice Law firm where he is a Certified Specialist in Appellate Law.
Following law school, Jerry served as law clerk to Justice William O. Douglas of the Supreme Court of the United States. He then joined
Howard Rice where he engages in civil trial and appellate litigation. For 10 years, Jerry also taught constitutional law at UC Berkeley's School
of Law.
Jerry's litigation practice includes substantial cases in the fields of securities, antitrust, contracts, financing, professional
liability, environmental, intellectual property and constitutional law.
Representative clients include American Express, McKesson Corporation, Genentech, Inc., University of California, and the State of California.
For more than 20 years, Jerry has been listed in Best Lawyers in America. For the third consecutive year, he was in 2006 recognized as a
Top 100 Super Lawyer by Law & Politics, and he was recently recognized by The Best of The U.S. for his commercial
litigation work. In 1994, he received the Distinguished Jurisprudence Award of the Anti-Defamation League. Jerry has received numerous other
awards for his litigation service.
Jerry received his J.D. from the University of California Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, where he graduated first in his class in 1965 and
his A.B. from the University of California at Berkeley (with honors, Economics) in 1962. Jerry lives in San Francisco with his wife, Nancy
and became a supporter of EMW's Operation Healthy Heart program after visiting Vietnam and seeing the work that EMW is involved in there.
Gil Kemp
Gil Kemp founded Home Decorators Collection, one of the
nation’s leading direct sellers of home furnishings and accessories, in
1991. He led the company as
President and Chief Merchant until his retirement in July 2009, approximately
three years after the company was purchased by the Home Depot. Prior to
founding Home Decorators Collection, Gil was co-founder of Kemp & George, a
catalog of products for the home.
From 1976 to 1988, Gil developed direct-marketing programs for books and
newsletters for New American Library, Bantam Books and Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich.
Gil graduated with honors from Swarthmore College and
received his MBA from Harvard Business School. He is also a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy. Gil is the
co-author of Dale Carnegie: The Man Who Influenced Millions, published by St. Martin’s Press and printed in five
foreign editions. He has been a member of the Board of Managers at Swarthmore
College since 2003, where he chaired the Annual Fund for three years, and is
currently chair of the Development Committee. He has also been a board member of the United Way of
Scarsdale for over 20 years, and served for ten years on the board of The
Scarsdale Foundation. “As a donor to EMW, I have seen how effective EMW is in
improving the health and welfare of Vietnam. It’s been extremely gratifying to
be a supporter of programs such as SPELL, Breath of Life and the Dental
Program, and I look forward to the opportunity to deepen my involvement through
serving on the EMW board."
Tom Low
Partner, Bridges SF, LLC
Tom
Low joined the EMW Board in 2006. Tom is a partner with Bridges SF,
LLC, an executive search firm specializing in the placement of senior
financial executives. Tom
was the founding Chief Financial Officer of Restoration Hardware, where
he was a member of a three man executive team that expanded the company
from four stores to 100 stores with a direct mail and e-commerce
business. The business grew to over $300 million in revenue. Tom took
Restoration Hardware public in June 1998, one of the most successful
IPOs of that year. Tom also has been CFO of Ask Jeeves and Safeway.com.
Tom
graduated from the University of California, Davis with a B.S. degree
and holds an MBA in Finance from the University of California, Irvine
where he won the Arthur Andersen & Co. Entrepreneur of the Year
award. Tom
is a former board member and Treasurer of St. Paul's Episcopal School
in Oakland, and a founding board member of the San Francisco Bay Area
Chapter of the Ascend.
ALL PHOTOS BY MICHAEL HUYNH PHOTOGRAPHY