Board of Directors

Sanjiv Yajnik
Chairman of the Board

Sanjiv Yajnik is the President of the Plano-based Financial Services Division of Capital One. He joined the Company in July 1998. As a young boy growing up in Calcutta, India, he volunteered at Mother Teresa’s orphanages, and this experience led to a lifelong passion of helping others. As an active member of the community, he participates in organizations such as Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Boys & Girls Club of Collin County. He also encourages a high level of volunteerism among his associates at Capital One.

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Secretary-Treasurer

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Barbara Baffer

Barbara Baffer is Vice President, Government & Industry Relations and a member of Ericsson's North American Executive Leadership Team. In addition to her role at Ericsson, Ms. Baffer is heavily involved in the community. She serves as the Chairperson for the Board of Directors to the CTIA Foundation, co-chairs the Federal Communications Bar Association Texas Chapter, is a member of: the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Board of Directors in Dallas, the Dallas Executive Women’s Roundtable (EWR). Ms. Baffer will also serve as the Metroplex Technology Business Council Gala Chair for 2014.


Directors


Syd Blocher

Syd Blocher is Vice President of Program Management, Boeing Global Services.  In this role, Blocher leads an organization focused on defining, developing and  implementing fit-for-purpose program management, business operations and project  management processes, tools and training for all facets of Global Services business.  Additionally, he is responsible for the creation and deployment of the Global Services tailored Agile Enterprise as well as the oversight and creation of functional Global  Services product management capabilities. Prior to this role, Blocher served as Vice President of Business Aviation, General  Aviation & OEM Services, Boeing Global Services, where he had functional  responsibility for sales & marketing, business development, channel management, e Commerce and program execution to establish Boeing as a market leader in this sector. 


Donald Braun

Mr. Braun, a seasoned professional with over 40 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, holds the esteemed position of President of the HALL Group and its affiliated entities, prominently including HALL Structured Finance. In his role, he assumes the responsibility of overseeing the day-to-day business operations and spearheading the execution of investment strategies. He has extensive capital market experience and has worked on a broad range of funding facilities and arrangements. Having joined HALL Group in 1980, Mr. Braun has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the organization’s success and growth. In addition to his role at HALL Group, Mr. Braun has made substantial contributions as a board member for numerous companies spanning diverse industries including real estate, software, technology, and the arts. His participation on the executive boards of various nonprofit organizations highlights his dedication to philanthropy and community engagement. Mr. Braun’s academic achievements include a BA in economics from Albion College, which provided him with a strong foundation for his professional endeavors. Moreover, his certification as a CPA further attests to his comprehensive understanding of financial matters.


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Glenn Callison

Glenn served as Munsch Hardt’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from 2006 to 2013. With broad-based experience over several decades, Glenn represents a variety of commercial real estate owners, operators, investors and developers of mixed-use properties, hotels, multifamily and senior housing facilities, as well as clients investing and leasing office, retail and industrial projects. Glenn currently represents investors in the acquisition and development of student housing projects, full- and select-service hotels and self-storage facilities located across the country. Glenn and his wife of nearly 30 years, Jean, have two children, Wil and Abby. Collectively, they have six college degrees from Baylor University.


Sandy Cross

As Chief People Officer at the PGA of America, Sandy is a member of the C-suite leading organizational development, while continuing to pioneer diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. She also launched and continues to lead a strategy that embeds inclusion and diversity throughout all lines of the business, enabling the association to better capitalize on its mission to serve its members and grow participation in golf. In her previous role as Senior Director, Inclusion & Diversity, Sandy established the department and laid the foundation for inclusion programming. In her role as Director, Women’s & New Market Initiatives, she spearheaded the groundbreaking strategic Initiative “Connecting with Her,” designed to attract and retain more women in the sport of golf. She drove business and revenue growth as Director, Business Development where she built some of the PGA’s most coveted partnerships, including PepsiCo and National Car Rental.


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Michael W. Dardick

Michael W. Dardick is a founding partner and CEO of Granite Properties, Inc.  Granite Properties is a privately held commercial real estate investment and management company with offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Houston, and Los Angeles.  Since 1991, Granite Properties has acquired or developed almost 30 million square feet of commercial real estate. Prior to founding Granite Properties, Michael was in banking, most recently serving as a Senior Vice President at a JPMorgan/Chase predecessor running the Foreclosed Real Estate Division. Michael is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, with a degree in finance. He resides in Plano with his wife Jill and two children.


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Scott Flannery

Scott Flannery is the Chief Executive Officer of United Healthcare North Texas & Oklahoma. He has served in this position since October 2009 and is responsible for health plan operations. Prior to his current position, Mr. Flannery was Vice President of Sales and Account Management, responsible for new business sales and client management for North Texas and Oklahoma. He is Vice President on the board for Earning by Learning of Dallas and is a board member of the Health Industry Council of North Texas.


Daniel Jones

Daniel L. Jones is the Chairman, President, CEO and Board Member of Encore Wire Corp in McKinney, Texas. Mr. Jones has held the office of President and CEO since February 2006 after serving as CEO in an interim capacity from May 2005 to February 2006. Since joining the company in November 1989, he has also served Encore Wire as Executive Vice President, Vice President-Sales and Marketing and Director of Sales. He received his BBA from East Texas State University.


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Anthony Kyles

Anthony Kyles has served as a transformational leader and growth driver during his career. He currently serves as Vice President Sales, Strategy and Retail Execution, PepsiCo Foods North America (Quaker). His visionary leadership has been critical to developing a diverse culture of collaboration, innovation and progress. Preceding his tenure at PepsiCo, Anthony worked at IBM as a Systems Engineer for several years. Anthony is an alumni of Western Michigan University and serves on the Chicago Board of Big Brothers Big Sisters. He and his family reside in Prosper, Texas.


Maher Maso

Since 2018, Maher has been a Principal in site selection and business incentives at Ryan, the largest firm in the world dedicated exclusively to business tax. With more than 20 years of economic development experience in the public sector, Mr. Maso supports Ryan clients to improve profitability through business growth and development. Previously, Maher Maso served as the CEO of the Prosper Economic Development Corporation. Maher Maso also proudly served as Mayor of the City of Frisco from 2008-2017, named by the U.S. Census Bureau as the fastest growing city in the country in the last decade. Under Mayor Maso’s administration, the City of Frisco has received dozens of awards and attributions including Money Magazine “Best Places to Live List” and Allstate’s “Safe and Secure Communities List”. Maher Maso works to represent small and large companies to create public/private partnerships and to create jobs in communities by negotiating incentives and focusing on site selection. His initiatives as Mayor positioned the City of Frisco as a hub of first-class entertainment, sports and sports medicine including the home of the Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Stars, FC Dallas and the world headquarters of the PGA. He has been interviewed by Newsweek, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and others.


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Neil Matkin

Dr. H. Neil Matkin has been serving as District President for Collin College since 2015. He previously served in senior positions with other community college systems in Texas, Louisiana and Virginia and the Illinois Century Network Interagency Governance Board. Dr. Matkin also serves on the Congressional Veteran’s Commendation Selection Board. He holds a Doctorate of Education degree from Texas A&M University-Commerce.


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James McCarley

James McCarley has served on the Board of Directors of ViewPoint Financial Group since 2006. Since January 1996, Mr. McCarley has served as President of James McCarley Consultants, which is a governmental affairs consulting company. He also spent 23 years in law enforcement, including serving nearly 11 years as the Chief of Police for the City of Plano.


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Donnie Nelson

Donnie Nelson is former General Manager and President of Basketball Operations for the Dallas Mavericks and is one of the co-owners of the Frisco-based Texas Legends of the NBA Developmental League. In addition to serving on a number of non-profit boards, he founded the Assist Youth Foundation, now known as Little Heroes, and Texas Legends Care which supports underprivileged youth and military. Mr. Nelson is a graduate of Wheaton College.


Bob Pryor

Bob Pryor serves as Chief Executive Officer of NTT DATA Services, a Trusted Global Innovator delivering technology-enabled services and innovative solutions to clients around the world.  Bob joined NTT DATA from Fujitsu, where he was CEO of Fujitsu Americas, Inc., leading the hardware, software and services businesses in North America, the Caribbean, Mexico and Latin/South America. Bob holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of North Texas, a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from the University of Texas at Austin, and completed the Kellogg Executive Development Program at Northwestern University.


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Bobby Ray

Housing industry veteran Bobby Ray began his career in 1983 at Goodman Homes, eventually serving as a partner and president. He helped the company grow to a Top 10 homebuilder in Dallas. Mr. Ray served as President of the Collin County Homebuilders Association and as a board member for both the Dallas and Texas Homebuilders Associations. He currently serves on the board of Presbyterian Hospital and Northern Trust Bank.


The Honorable Florence Shapiro

Florence Shapiro, former Richardson High School English teacher and small business owner, entered her journey into politics in 1979 when she was elected to the Plano City Council. Following six terms on the council, she was elected the first woman Mayor of Plano.  From 1993 to 2013, Florence served as a Texas State Senator.  In 2003, she became Chair of the Senate Education committee for 10 years.  She was best known for her work on regional mobility, setting accountability standards for public education and protecting children  from sexual predators. Senator Shapiro has been a volunteer, a Board Chair, and Founder and first President of the Collin County Junior League and the Assistance League of Collin County. She holds a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from the University of Texas at Austin.  She and her husband, Howard, live in Plano.  They have three children and twelve grandchildren.  Today, Florence is a partner in Shapiro Linn Strategic Consulting, where she serves as a public policy consultant specializing in public and higher education.


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Scott Sonju

Scott Sonju is the President of the Dallas Jackals. Sonju brings the Jackals extensive sports industry leadership experience, including his role as longtime President and General Manager of the Frisco RoughRiders (Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers). Sonju also serves as President of Neltex Sports, the parent company of the Jackals that owns, develops, and operates various sports and entertainment-related properties.

Sonju graduated from Texas A&M University and earned his MBA at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, where he had a quadruple major. Sonju likes to be involved in the community and over the years has served on multiple boards. He is also an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University, where he teaches a popular masters-level Sports Sponsorship course. Sonju is a two-time selection for the Dallas Business Journal “40 Under Forty” and was named Texas League Executive of the Year in 2014.


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Robert (Rob) Spencer

Robert (Rob) Spencer is a General Manger of New Business Development at Toyota Financial Services. He is currently serving as Vice President of Finance and Administration at Toyota Insurance Management Solutions. Prior to joining Toyota, Rob spent 19 years at Goldman Sachs. He was most recently a Managing Director, based in Dallas responsible for the Equity Derivatives business in the Southern United States. Before moving to Dallas in 2014, Rob ran Equity Derivatives Sales in Hong Kong and previously had the same role in Tokyo where he spent 8 years. Rob began his career in New York after graduating from Duke University in 2001 with a BA in Economics. Rob is originally from The Bronx, NY and lives in Dallas with his wife and 3 year old son.


LaMonte Thomas

LaMonte currently serves as the South Central Market President for AETNA. Formerly, he was the President and General Manager for Cigna where LaMonte's responsibilities included enhancing customer satisfaction through personalized service, improving quality of care, helping Cigna's employer clients improve the health and productivity of their workforces and leading Cigna's community service efforts. LaMonte has 20 years of experience in the health care industry. Before joining Cigna, LaMonte held positions in finance and audit and operations. He earned a bachelor's degree in finance from Washington University.


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Cade Thompson

Cade Thompson is the CEO at Mortgage Assets Management, a residential mortgage services company. Formerly, Mr. Thompson has held positions at Transworld Systems Inc. and was the Co-Founder, Chairman, Director and CEO of Halo Companies, Inc. He graduated from Abilene Christian University studying Finance, Accounting and History. His education includes studying abroad as a Presidential Scholar at Oxford University.


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Adrienne Trimble

Adrienne Trimble is the Vice President & Chief Diversity Officer at Sysco. She is a known thought leader for advancing corporate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Trimble brings to this position the same executive vision and record of achievement that defined her remarkable career at Toyota Motor North America, where she served as General Manager, Diversity & Inclusion. A graduate of Wilberforce University, Trimble holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Organization Management. In 2014, she was appointed to the Board of Trustees of her alma mater. Other board and committee leadership positions include The Herndon Institute Corporate Board Development, VisitDallas Diversity Advisory Council and Junior League of Collin County Corporate Advisory Committee. She resides in McKinney, Texas with her husband Jamiel.