BOARD OF TRUSTEES
ERBIN CROWELL, Board President, Chepachet, Rhode Island. Erbin has worked for over ten years with Equal Exchange, a worker-owned co-operative marketing fairly traded coffee, tea and chocolate from small farmer co-ops. His experience at Equal Exchange has included sales and marketing, and he created and for five years served as director of the co-operative’s innovative Interfaith Program. He is currently working on a pilot program for Domestic Fair Trade. He has served in a number of elected roles with Equal Exchange, including chair of the board and worker-owner coordinator. Erbin brings to CFNE a commitment to workplace democracy, community-based economics and sustainable agriculture. He holds a BA in anthropology and the visual arts from Brown University, and is currently working toward a Masters in Management (Co-operatives and Credit Unions) from St. Mary’s University in Nova Scotia, Canada.
BRENDA PFAHNL, Board Vice-President, Goffstown, New Hampshire. Brenda's background is in cooperatives, community lending and affordable housing development. She holds a master's degree in Community Economic Development, as well as an MBA with a concentration in finance. She has worked with CFNE as an Outreach Coordinator as well serving on the Board. She has also worked as Finance Director for an affordable housing development company and with manufactured housing park cooperatives while working for the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund. In a volunteer capacity she has served as Treasurer on the Board of Directors of the Concord Food Cooperative and as the Secretary on the Board of Nesenkeag Farm. Brenda currently serves on the Equity Committee and the CFNE Loan Review Committee.
TIMOTHY WINGATE, Board Treasurer, Montpelier, Vermont. Tim is the finance manger for the Hunger Mountain Food Co-op and has served as the co-op’s general manager. He is a CPA who has his MBA from Plymouth State College and a BS from the University of Maine at Machias. Tim serves on CFNE’s Loan Committee.
ANDREW DANFORTH, Board Clerk, Foxborough, Massachusetts. Andy is a self-employed management consultant specializing in enterprise solutions for mortgage companies, commercial banks, governmental agencies and whole loan traders. He has 21 years of executive, accounting, technological and operational experience in banking and finance, and has held executive officer positions for two public companies. His clients have included 5 of the nation’s 20 largest banks, as well as the FDIC, OTC, RTC, several states and GSOs. Andy has an interest in affordable housing issues and has worked with several housing agencies and non-profits as well as Habitat for Humanity chapters. He is a CPA and serves on the Loan Committee.
JOHN ABRAMS, West Tisbury, Massachusetts. John s cofounder and CEO of South Mountain Company, a 32-year-old employee owned design/build and renewable energy company on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. His book THE COMPANY WE KEEP: Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place was published by Chelsea Green Publishing in 2005. Business Ethics magazine awarded South Mountain its 2005 National Award for Workplace Democracy. He roams far and near to speak, write, and teach about Good Business. Close to home, he concentrates on re-localizing the economy and solving the island’s affordable housing crisis. John and his family live in a cohousing neighborhood developed by his company.
CORY GREENBERG, Board Treasurer, Shutesbury, Massachusetts. Cory is a financial and management consultant to small businesses and serves as part-time CFO to some of those businesses. He is also active in the management of movie theaters in the New York metropolitan area. He has been CFO at a publicly traded company as well as a financial manager at a worker cooperative. Cory is the chairperson of CFNE’s Loan Committee.
JENNIFER GUTSHALL, Manchester, Connecticut. Jen is the Executive Director and Co-op Specialist at the Cooperative Development Institute in Greenfield, Massachusetts. She is a recent graduate of the Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) School of Community Economic Development in which her master’s thesis involved the provision of business and organizational support to Connections Co-op in an effort to breaking-down language barriers In Providence, Rhode Island. She spent seven years as a community organizer and cooperative business developer focusing on energy issues in the state of Connecticut and she co-founded the CT Energy Cooperative, Co-opPlus of Western Mass. She has completed the CooperationWorks! Professional Development Training Program for Cooperative Development. She has BA in philosophy from Pennsylvania State University and a MS in Community Economic Development from SNHU.
DON KREIS, Norwich, Vermont. Don is President of the Board of the Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society in Hanover, New Hampshire. He is general counsel to the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission and has been a law clerk to a judge on the Vermont Supreme court. Don is Justice of the Peace in Norwich, Vermont, He is an active participant in the Connecticut Valley Neighboring Co-ops. He has a special interest in governance and fiduciary responsibility of boards. He has served as a third mate on the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater and served as a newsman for the Associated Press and the Maine Times. Don enthusiastic about the cooperative model and its need for capital. Don has a BA from Middlebury College, a MS in Journalism from Columbia University and a JD from the University of Maine.
