Biographical Profiles of Trustees of Donations and Bequests for Church Purposes, Inc.
Kathleen A. Corbet is the founder of Cross Ridge Capital, LLC, a firm specializing in private investing and strategic consulting in the financial technology industry. During her career in financial services, she served as the President of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and in senior leadership positions at AllianceBernstein LP in the US, UK and Australia/New Zealand. In corporate and non-profit board governance, Kathleen is a member of the board of directors for MassMutual Life Insurance Company, BlackRock TCP Capital Inc, AxiomSL, The Jackson Laboratory and Waveny LifeCare Network. In her board experience, she has served in the positions as Chairman, Lead Director, Audit Committee Chair, Investment, Compensation and Governance committees. As a parishioner of Saint Mark’s Church in New Canaan, Kathleen has served as Treasurer, member of the Vestry and the Finance Committee and currently serves on the parish’s Endowment Committee. In public service, she has served as an elected member of the Town Council and an appointed member of the Board of Finance in New Canaan. She has also served on the board of the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority. Kathleen graduated from Boston College with a B.S. in Marketing and Computer Science and received her M.B.A. in Finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Bruce Lombardi is a Private Advisor and Managing Director of Rockefeller Capital Management. Bruce advises multi-generational families and ultra-high net worth individuals based on each client’s distinct profile and objectives.
Prior to joining Rockefeller & Co. in 2011, Bruce served as a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan where, during an 18-year career, he delivered planning, asset allocation guidance, and investment advice to clients. He began his career as an Equity Analyst at the Life Insurance Company of Georgia and was a personal trust portfolio manager in the Private Bank at the National Bank of Georgia in Atlanta.
Bruce received an M.B.A. from the George Washington University graduate school of Business and a B.A. in Medieval History from the George Washington University.
Bruce is a member of the vestry of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Ridgefield, CT and a member of the Board of Trustees for Donations and Bequests for Church Purposes, Inc.
Ernest (“Chip”) Goodrich is a long-time Connecticut resident and a graduate of Wesleyan
University and New York University Law School. He practiced banking and securities law with
large international firms in New York, Bahrain and London. In 1984 he joined Merrill Lynch &
Co., serving in both legal and business capacities in the Debt and Equity Markets Division,
focusing in particular on the over-the-counter derivatives business. In 1996, he joined
Deutsche Bank’s Legal Department, where he had various regional and global roles, retiring in
2017 as Global General Counsel of the Markets Division. During his career in investment
banking he served in senior roles in a number of industry associations, including as Vice
Chairman of the Board of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.
Chip has been a member of St. John’s Essex for over 30 years. He was a member of the
Search Committee for its most recent Rector, and has been involved in St. John’s Racial
Healing, Justice and Reconciliation ministry. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of
the Southeast Connecticut World Affairs Council, one of 90 local councils around the country
promoting deeper understanding of foreign affairs and global issues.
Gordon Ross served as an officer in the U.S. Navy for six years, including two as the navigator and operations officer for the Sixth Fleet flag ship during the Lebanon conflict. After the Navy, he received a Masters in Finance from Columbia University and joined JP Morgan’s Private Client division. In 1991, he and his family moved to Milan, Italy, and in 1995, Gordon joined Merrill Lynch as the Director of Merrill Lynch’s Swiss Bank branch in Lugano. While in Lugano, Gordon served on the vestry of St. Edward the Confessor and as a trustee of the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce. Gordon started a new career in 2003 as a history teacher at Northwestern Regional High School. Since returning to Connecticut, Gordon has been Senior Warden of St. John’s in Pine Meadow and he has served as the Treasurer of New Hartford for the past sixteen years, leading numerous bond issues and investing the town’s liquidity. In 2022 he was elected as Diocesan Treasurer for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. He and his wife, Caren, live on a small farm in New Hartford where Caren leads a Montessori middle school.
Laurence Hale, AAMS, CRPS is principal and founding partner of Weiss, Hale & Zahansky Strategic Wealth Advisors. He is the Chief Executive Officer (CIO), leading portfolio management efforts and chairing the firm’s Investment Committee. In addition to developing goal-driven financial plans for clients, Laurence has extensive investment experience with estate planning and charitable strategies. Laurence is a Five Star Wealth Manager and has a particular focus on helping pre- and post-retirees and estate planning clients.
Laurence brings many years of institutional investment experience, having started his career in the institutional defined contribution business for Putnam Investments. In addition to more than 27 years of investment management for our clients, Laurence has volunteered his professional talents on behalf of many non-profit and public institutions. He formerly served as an appointed member of Connecticut’s Investment Advisory Council (IAC), an advisory body to the Connecticut State Treasurer, overseeing the approximately $29 billion in the State of Connecticut’s retirement plans and trust funds, on behalf of more than 200,000 beneficiaries.
When not advising clients, Laurence is active with several non-profit and charitable organizations. Laurence currently serves as chairman of the YMCA of Greater Hartford’s Investment Committee, as member of the Hale YMCA Youth & Family Center’s Board of Advisors and is also a member of the Rectory School Board of Trustees. He is a former member of the Pomfret School Board of Trustees, Day Kimball Healthcare’s Finance Committee, past President of the Quinebaug Valley Community College (QVCC) Foundation and over the years has supported many other organizations.
David Kalal has spent his career in banking and finance, principally in credit risk management, bankruptcy, and restructuring, at Bankers Trust Company, Credit Research & Trading, and UBS. He currently maintains an advisory practice focused on insolvency matters. A New Canaan resident, David attends St. Mark’s Church. He has served the parish on the Vestry, as Assistant Treasurer and Treasurer, as Chair of the Finance Committee, and as a member of the Investment and Endowment Committee. He also sits on the board of GetAbout of New Canaan, which provides transportation services to seniors and works with the University of Arizona Foundation (Dianne Kalal Scholarship Endowment for Disabled Students).
David earned a BA (English) from Yale College and an MBA (Finance) for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He was elected as Trustee of Donations and Bequests in 2023.
Ed Seibert grew up in Salem, MA, and Darien, CT. He spent two years as 1st. Lt., U. S. Army, stationed outside Paris, France, managing the non-appropriated fund activities for U. S. forces in France, the U. S. European Command, NATO, and SHAPE Headquarters, and the American Embassy. He joined JP Morgan, Inc., in 1965, retiring in 1991 as Sales and Marketing Manager of JP Morgan Futures, Inc., its commodity futures brokerage affiliate. He served as a member of the Disciplinary Hearing Committee and as a Member Arbitrator at the National Futures Association in Chicago. From 1990-2000, Ed was a Trustee of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, serving on the Strategic Planning, Investment, Budget, Mission Strategy and Congregational Support Plan Committees. He was also Treasurer of the Episcopal Housing Corp., a diocesan subsidiary making pre-development loans to churches throughout the diocese that were sponsoring affordable housing initiatives.
Since moving to Guilford in 1999, Ed and his wife have been involved in a number of local church and non-profit activities. At various times, he has been Treasurer, Finance Committee Chair and Senior Warden at Christ Church in Guilford, served a term as Trustee of Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford and as a member of ECCT’s Standing Committee. He was Treasurer of the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven for 16 years, where his duties included overseeing its endowment and its relationship with its investment manager.
Ed joined the board of Neighborworks New Horizons in New Haven in 2000 as a member of its Real Estate Development and Finance committees and was Board Chair from 2010 to 2016. He rejoined the board in 2017 and is the current Board Chair. NWNH owns and manages nearly 1,000 units of affordable housing in Fairfield, New Haven and New London counties. Ed is also a Board and Finance Committee member of Capital for Change, a community development financing institution in Wallingford.
Ed received a BA degree in Economics from Trinity College, Hartford, and an MBA in Finance from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.
Brad Babbitt is a partner of Robinson & Cole LLP, and co-chair of the firm’s Litigation Section. A trial attorney, Brad represents businesses in a wide variety of industries, helping them to protect their interests in disputes arising from myriad different commercial relationships. In addition to contract and business tort disputes, he has handled copyright, trademark, and trade secret litigation in both federal and state court. Brad also regularly handles administrative appeals for companies in the energy sector. Additionally, Brad represents religious organizations in different types of disputes, including claims of physical abuse, competing claims to property claims, governance issues. As Chancellor of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Brad serves as legal counsel to the Bishop of Connecticut. Brad also serves on the Board of Directors of the two charities that operate the Travelers Championship on the PGA TOUR, and the Seabury Retirement Community in Bloomfield.
Martin Morrissey is Treasurer of Saint Paul’s Church in Southington and a life-long Connecticut resident. His professional career involved healthcare administration and finance serving in executive positions in the hospital and behavioral healthcare arenas. Those responsibilities included oversight of various investment, self-insurance, and endowment portfolios. Early in his career he also spent fifteen years as president of a family-owned commercial printing company. Currently retired, Martin is a Boston College graduate, a CPA, and a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.