The USTA Foundation is proud to announce the recent appointment of four new members to its Advisory Board. Each Advisory Board member will serve as ambassadors to help the USTA Foundation continue serving up dreams during their three-year term.
“I am very honored to have several longtime supporters and friends of the USTA Foundation join our organization in a leadership capacity,” said USTA Foundation President Thomas Chen. “They each share in our passion and support of the USTA Foundation’s mission of improving the lives of underprivileged youth through tennis and education. I am confident that they each will continue to help build upon our ability to serve the 200,000-plus in-need children that we support through the National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) Network.”
The following individuals have been appointed:
Michael Borkowsky, a longtime supporter of the USTA Foundation, is the former President of Prince Tennis. Borkowsky also held several positions with Bristol-Myers Squibb, including VP of Corporate Development, responsible for Mergers & Acquisitions for the consumer products businesses, President of Clairol Appliances, VP of Bristol-Myers International Group and Director of Strategic Planning, and has received many accolades for his work with each entity. Borkowsky was also formerly the VP of Marketing, Health & Beauty Products Division at Chesebrough-Pond’s, and an Account Supervisor at BBDO Advertising Agency, among other positions. Borkowsky serves as a board member with the National Executive Services Corp. and has previously served as a Trustee of Cooper Union, President of Cooper Union Alumni Association, and as a board member of the United Way of Greenwich (CT) to name a few.
Martin Mann is a business attorney with an investment group for acquisitions across multiple industries. Mann has been a longtime supporter of the USTA Foundation and has had an active role in the NJTL, supporting both Sportsmen’s Tennis & Enrichment Center in Boston and New York Junior Tennis & Learning. Most recently, Mann was instrumental in bringing the police-community engagement initiative, Serve & Connect, to the USTA Foundation. That initiative partners NJTL chapters with local law enforcement officers in an effort to build positive police-youth relationships through tennis.
Neeraj Mehta is the Executive Vice President, Chief Executive Officer of Payment Solutions and Chief Commercial Officer of Synchrony Financial. Mehta leads one of Synchrony’s sales platforms that provide consumer financing through retail channels. Formerly, Mehta was the Executive VIce President, Business Strategy and Development, where he built out a new function for Synchrony overseeing corporate strategy, payment innovation, strategic partnerships, Synchrony Ventures and acquisitions. Mehta joined GE in 1996, and held numerous executive roles at GE Capital, including president and Chief Executive Officer of GE Capital, Commercial Distribution Finance, and operating multiple other business units during his 20 years with GE. Mehta earned a Bachelor’s degree in Social Ecology from the University of California, Irvine and a Master’s degree in finance and banking from Syracuse University. Mehta is also a board member of United Way Worldwide and Chairman of the Board of U.S.A. United Way.
Ivan Zinn founded Atalaya Capital Management in 2006 and serves as its Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer. Atalaya Capital Management is a special opportunities and private credit manager that manages capital on behalf of a wide range of investors including endowments, foundations and public and corporate pension plans. Zinn was previously responsible for HBK’s strategy to originate and invest in corporate and real estate loans and other special situation investments. Prior to HBK, Zinn established Highbridge/Zwirn Capital Management’s European investment effort and concentrated on media and telecom special situation investments in the U.S. Zinn was also a private equity investment professional at Leonard Green & Partners, L.P. and began his career as an investment banking analyst in the Los Angeles office of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Zinn received a BA, magna cum laude in Physics and Economics from Claremont McKenna College, where he was an NCAA All-American tennis player.
The remaining slate of USTA Foundation board members include:
BOARD OFFICERS – Thomas S. Chen, President; Benjamin F. Doller, Vice President; Kathleen J. Wu, Vice President; Robert Oberrender, Treasurer; and Richard H. Ader, Secretary
BOARD OF DIRECTORS - Fabrizio Alcobe-Fierro, Joan Baker, Patrick Galbraith, Molly G. John, Mark Leschly, Julia A. Levering, James Majeski, Missie Rennie, Y. David Scharf, and Amy K. Smith.
ADVISORY BOARD - Alexander Boyd (Andy) Andrews IV, Stephen Butzlaff, Howard B. Cowan, Anne Marie Davis, Jamshid Ehsani, Terri Florio, Andrè Hawaux, John B. Hess, Dave Higaki, Doug Kimmelman, Bill Macatee, Marcy Maguire, Roberto Marques, Kevin Martinez, Sean S. Mayo, Jack Mills, Paul Palandjian, Thomas Shen, Ken Solomon, Raj Vaswani, and Barbara S. Wynne.
HONORARY BOARD - Mary Carillo, Past President; David N. Dinkins; Patrick McEnroe, Past President; Alan G. Schwartz; Pam Shriver, Past President; Jonathan Vegosen; and Rosalind P. Walter.
Since its inception, the USTA Foundation has awarded more than $28 million in grants and scholarships to hundreds of community-based, grass-roots programs, benefitting thousands of children through tennis, education and health programming, primarily through the NJTL network. This network features more than 350 chapters that reach more than 200,000 youth on an annual basis, providing free or low-cost tennis and education programming to the 50 largest markets in the U.S. – nurturing future leaders and enabling kids in need to succeed on the court, in the classroom and in life.