WPC Board of Directors

Alfred Barbour

Al Barbour has been CEO and president of Concast Metal Products Company since 1985. Concast is the leading domestic producer of continuous-cast copper alloys. Concast has been active in the field of environmentally friendly alloys for 20 years or more.

Al holds a Master of Business Administration degree from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University. He has served on trade association boards including the Copper Development Association, the Non-Ferrous Founders Society and the Copper and Brass Service Center Association. In the community, he has served as a board member at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Al and his wife, Mary, live on a historic Benno Janssen property in Sewickley Heights where they have restored the structures and the gardens. Their gardens have been included in the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Gardens. Mary has served as president of the Garden Club of Allegheny County. Al and Mary have an adult daughter who lives in Santa Barbara. Al is a trail cyclist, has a passion for architecture and, in addition to his own homes, has been involved in new building construction and historic restorations of existing structures.

 

Marie Cosgrove-Davies

Marie Cosgrove-Davies is an avid gardener, a keen reader, and an engaged hiker and camper. She is currently on sabbatical after working in tech for more than a decade as a product manager for Google, Pivotal and Opower. Marie moved to Pittsburgh in 2016 from the San Francisco area after a careful review of potential areas to settle down long-term, and loves the Pittsburgh area. She grew up in the DC area and went to college at Swarthmore, outside of Philadelphia, where she graduated with a BS in Engineering. After college, she served in the Peace Corps for two years and taught basic computer skills in rural Tanzania. Upon her return, she embarked upon her career in software development, from which she is now on hiatus. In her newfound time, she's keeping bees, tending to her Audubon-certified backyard habitat and growing everything from fruit trees to mushrooms and pawpaws.

Marie joined the Conservancy’s Emerging Leaders Advisory Committee in 2018 and became chair in 2022. She is also a supporter of Grow Pittsburgh. She lives in Pittsburgh with her husband, Chris Jordan-Squire.

 

Thomas Kavanaugh

Thomas Kavanagh is Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel at Highmark Health. Prior to joining the Highmark organization, Thomas was the general counsel of various public and private companies and, prior to these in-house positions, he practiced law at Reed Smith LLP during which time he advised clients on various mergers and acquisitions, financings and corporate governance matters. He holds a Bachelor of Science in applied economics and management from Cornell University and Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

Thomas and his wife, Megan, live in Squirrel Hill with their twin sons. Megan is Principal Research Scientist for the Guttmacher Institute based in New York, New York. Thomas serves as a board member of the Jefferson Regional Foundation. Thomas and Megan have been members and supporters of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy since 2021 and live in Pittsburgh. Thomas enjoys hiking, skiing and paddle boarding with his family.

Barbara Bott

Barbara Bott graduated from Bucknell University with a Bachelor of Science in secondary education, with a field concentration in biology. She taught high school biology in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, for almost seven years. She earned a master’s equivalency by way of courses taken through the school system and graduate course work in stream ecology at West Virginia University.

Barbara and her husband, Bob Jennings, moved to Hampton Township, located north of Pittsburgh, in 1981 to raise their two sons and take advantage of all that the Pittsburgh area offers, including the many parks. Upon her husband’s retirement, they built a house on the Allegheny River and have lived near Foxburg, Pennsylvania since 2009. Foxburg and Emlenton are “gateways” to the Oil Heritage area and the PA Wilds. She is on the board of the Allegheny Riverstone Center for the Arts in Foxburg and servers as the recording secretary and treasurer.

They attend and support the Pittsburgh Public Theater, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, the Pittsburgh Speakers Series, the Carnegie Museums, and Phipps Conservatory. Barbara has been a long-term supporter of WPC, as well as numerous local and national charities and environmental groups. Barbara joined the board of directors in 2011 and serves on the Ridgway advisory committee.

 

Mike Boyle

Mike Boyle is president of the Derrick Publishing Company of Oil City, Pennsylvania, a publisher of general circulation newspapers in Western Pennsylvania. Mike’s business-related interests included serving as director of PennWell Corporation, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based global information provider serving a broad range of industries. He also served as a director of National City Bank of Pennsylvania and its predecessor banks.

Among his community-related interests, Mike was a trustee of Point Park University and chaired its Finance committee. He also served as a director of Housing Opportunities Inc., a social service organization assisting home ownership. Mike joined the board of the Conservancy in 1975 and has served in several key roles including acting president and board chair. He currently is on the finance, personnel, executive, and diversity and inclusion committees. Mike is a graduate of Georgetown University. He and his wife live in the Pittsburgh area where they raised their three children.

 

Dennis Fredericks

Denny Fredericks is retired from Consol Energy where he served in various roles from 1977 to his retirement. He served most recently as the manager of conservation properties and activities of CNX Land Resources. His responsibilities included coordinating conservation efforts and partnerships with agencies and organizations to protect and enhance wildlife populations and habitats on 500,000 acres of support properties for energy extraction across the United States.

Additionally, he supported the role of recreational hunting to manage wildlife populations in compliance with science-based wildlife management plans, final disposition of critical wildlife habitats to public trust when possible, and the education of energy regulators to realize the value of wise use of the land base prior to, during and post mining. He developed internal improved land use practices including timbering operations to maximize revenues while establishing and preserving critical wildlife habitats. Denny provided support to other company functions such as permitting and engineering to address the protection of threatened and endangered plants and animals through interaction with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Denny serves as a Pennsylvania forest fire crew chief, president of the Washington County Sportsman and Conservation League, board member of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and is a board member of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Energy and Wildlife Coal subcommittee. He is a hunter-trapper education instructor for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Denny and his wife, Judi, have two adult sons. He has served on the board of the Conservancy since 2006 and serves on the Ridgway advisory committee.

 

Caryle R. Glosser, Ph.D.

Caryle Glosser is a retired clinical psychologist who spent 23 years in the private practice of psychology seeing adult patients for individual, group and couples psychotherapy. While in her full-time practice, she had medical staff appointments at Shadyside Hospital and Eye and Ear Hospital. Caryle also held faculty positions at the University of Pittsburgh. She was involved in interdisciplinary research areas such as cultural anthropology and consciousness studies and has lectured at various national and international conferences on clinical hypnosis and consciousness studies.

Since closing her professional practice in 2000, she has been pursuing her interests in the areas of bolstering Pittsburgh, traveling, ranching, finance and family. For the Conservancy, Caryle is a member of the finance committee, the Ligonier Valley advisory committee, and past chair of the Community Greening advisory committee. Caryle travels extensively both domestically and internationally, with an emphasis on understanding the overlap of culture, consciousness and personality.

Caryle has two daughters, one son-in-law and two grandsons. Caryle has served on the board of the Conservancy since 2005 and is a member of the executive and finance committees, as well as the Community Greening and Ligonier Valley advisory committees.

 

Robert T. McDowell

Rob McDowell served as CFO of Education Management Corporation from 1991–2006 until his retirement. Prior to Education Management Corporation, he was a CPA with Arthur Andersen & Co. (1981–1988) and a financial analyst with Texas Instruments (1978–1981). Rob holds two degrees from the University of Pittsburgh: a Bachelor of Arts in economics in 1977 and an MBA in 1978.

Additionally, he was chair of Achieva, which serves persons with intellectual disabilities in several Southwestern PA counties. Rob chaired the Finance Committee for Achieva, and now serves on the board for the Achieva Family Trust. He also served on the board of Arc of Pennsylvania and was a member of its finance committee. Rob’s professional affiliations include membership in AICPA, retired status.

Rob and his wife, Elizabeth Etter, have five grown children. After his retirement from the corporate world, Rob and Elizabeth operated an organic vegetable growing business at their farm in Crawford County for several years. He has served on the board of the Conservancy since 2006 and serves on its finance committee.

 

Paul J. Mooney

Paul Mooney retired from Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation in 2008 where he had served as executive vice president and chief financial officer since November 1997. He served on its board of directors from August 2003 until November 2006. Previously, Mooney spent 24 years with Price Waterhouse LLP, where he served in a variety of positions including national director of cross-border filing services, Pittsburgh site leader in the accounting and business advisory services department, client service and engagement partner, and senior manager in Pittsburgh and London, England.

Paul earned a Bachelor of Science in accounting from St. Francis College, where he subsequently served as a member of the board of trustees and the executive committee. He is a past member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Society Board as well as a past director of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. He was elected as a school board director in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, where he chaired the finance committee.

Paul and his wife, Anne, live in Mt. Lebanon and have four children. He has served on the board of the Conservancy since 2005 and serves on the Conservancy’s finance committee.

 

Daniel S. Nydick

Dan Nydick is a principal software engineer with Microsoft where he's been helping design computer storage products since 2018. Before acquisition by Microsoft Dan spent ten years as director of engineering development and co-founder of Avere Systems, a Pittsburgh startup where he led the team developing the company’s high-end computer storage products. Before Avere, Dan spent four years as technical director at Network Appliance where he developed architectures for their next generation scalable storage systems.

Dan co-founded four other technology startups, including Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance) and Scalable Networks (acquired by Fore Systems); he has also held roles with Transarc, Fore Systems, and other Pittsburgh high technology companies. Earlier in his career, Dan spent eight years involved in research on distributed computer systems and storage at Carnegie Mellon University and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. He has published and/or presented academic papers on a variety of topics, ranging from computer storage and semiconductor testing through distributed timekeeping and particle physics.
Dan joined the board of the Conservancy in 2009. He serves as board treasurer, and as a member of the executive and finance committees. Dan and his wife, Lisa, live in the Pittsburgh area where they raised their two daughters.

 

Stephen G. Robinson

Steve Robinson is active in both business and non-profit sectors in the Pittsburgh area. He is a managing partner of Pittsburgh Equity Partners (PEP), a Pittsburgh area venture capital partnership. Prior to the founding of Pittsburgh Equity Partners, he was a general partner in Robinson Venture Partners, a family venture capital partnership which has been active since 1982. Steve is also an investor in and current or former director of numerous early-stage venture capital backed technology-oriented companies in Western Pennsylvania, including Webmedx, Precision Therapeutics, Bit Armor, mSpoke, True Commerce and Bethany Hospice.

His numerous current and past non-profit board positions include the Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association (past President) and the advisory committee of the Donald Jones Center for Entrepreneurship at The Tepper School. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. Steve has served on the board of the Conservancy since 2000. Steve chairs its personnel committee and serves on its executive and nominating committees.

 

Alexander C. Speyer, III

Alex Speyer is president of North Star Coal Company. Alex is a chemical engineering graduate from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Pittsburgh native. Alex was elected to the board of directors of the Conservancy in 1995, serves on the executive committee, and chairs the finance committee and the Fallingwater advisory committee.

He is a life trustee of Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and chairs the endowment committee of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, served as a board member of the National Wildlife Federation and of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. Alex and his wife, Silvia, have two adult children and four grandchildren.

 

K. William Stout

Bill Stout is vice president of Medicare and Marketplace Product Operations at PA Health & Wellness and subsidiary Centene Corporation. Prior to that, Bill was head of provider network integration at Aetna, responsible for provider integration and migration aspects resulting from Aetna's acquisition of Coventry Health Care. During his twenty-year tenure with Aetna, he held progressive provider network management positions in Philadelphia, Western Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. and nationally. Before joining Aetna, Bill was in managed care operations with San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West.

Bill earned a master’s degree in health care administration from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. degree in health policy and administration from Penn State University. He lives in Imperial, PA with his wife, Lyndy, and their four children. Bill has served on the board of the Conservancy since 2002, and currently serves on the executive, personnel, and diversity and inclusion committees.

 

Megan M. Turnbull

Megan Turnbull is a partner with Weiss, Burkardt and Kramer, LLC, in Pittsburgh, where she works with municipalities and school districts in the role of solicitor, labor counsel and special counsel.

Megan has represented private and public schools in all aspects of organization, management, operation and finance. She specializes in managing personnel matters of these clients, and she serves as special counsel for investigative and reporting purposes.

For the Allegheny County Bar Association, Association of Municipal and School Solicitors, Megan has served as Chair and Vice-Chair. For the Allegheny County Bar Association Political Action Committee she served as the chair and co-chair. She also served as a Pennsylvania Bar Association Zone 12 Delegate to the House of Delegates for several years. Megan volunteers with the Neighborhood Legal Services of Pittsburgh Protection from Abuse Program. Megan joined the Board of Directors in 2017, has been a member of the Conservancy since 2012, serves on the audit committee and chairs the Community Greening committee.