//Team

STAFF | SECTOR LIAISONS | FOUNDERS | SENIOR ADVISORS

Staff

MARK RODGERS
MANAGING DIRECTOR

Mark Rodgers is the Principal of The Clapham Group and Managing Director of Wedgwood Circle – two companies that seek to influence culture upstream of the political area.  Mark served as the third-ranking Republican leadership staffer in the U.S. Senate for six years overseeing strategic planning and strategic communications.  He served as a high profile chief of staff to Senator Rick Santorum, working on Capitol Hill for a total of 16 years.  He was known on the Hill for his work on such issues as poverty alleviation and global AIDS, as well as protecting life at its most vulnerable stages.

Mark is a published writer and a speaker at large and small gatherings on the topic of faith and public life, culture and caring for the least of these.  His work over the years included an outreach to “culture creators,” and has worked closely with artists such as Bono, Patty Heaton and The Fray.  He still collects pop culture artifacts, as the walls of his office attest.

Mark is a social entrepreneur, and enjoys finding ways to help people “do good while doing well.”  Currently he serves as a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.  In the 1980’s, Mark worked at the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation, a faith-based organization committed to addressing the social needs of Pittsburgh from a Christian perspective.  He also founded the National Institute of Lay Education (NILE), which developed adult education curriculum to encourage reflecting Christian involvement in public life.  He earned a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from Penn State, and attended Trinity Episcopal School for ministry. Mark is married to Leanne, and the proud father of four children.

SCOTT MORGENTHALER
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

A former equities broker, Scott Morgenthaler worked on the institutional trading desk of the DC-based investment banking firm, FBR Capital Markets. Collaborating closely with fund portfolio managers and analysts, Scott steered transactions of publicly traded stock, IPO’s, Secondary Capital Raises, and 144a Private Placements. His accounts focused on a broad range of industry sectors including consumer, diversified industrials, energy & natural resources, insurance, real estate, and technology. Prior to his role on Wall Street, Scott worked in financial services and insurance in Charlottesville, Virginia. Scott studied at Georgetown University and graduated from the University of Virginia, where he was a scholar and an accomplished pitcher on the varsity baseball team. He has done extensive missions and community service work, such as Athletes in Action in Central America and American Heart Association fundraising. Scott is a native of Virginia and he and his wife, Ashley, live in North Arlington. He enjoys international travel, squash, fishing, running, and reading. He takes great interest in discovering new music talent and keeping a pulse on the entertainment industry.

JENNY WHITE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WEDGWOOD CIRCLE INSTITUTE

Prior to the creation of the Wedgwood Circle Institute in 2008, Jenny was the Director of Membership and Events for Wedgwood Circle LLC.  Her love of event planning stemmed from her experience working in the Bush Administration as Senior Trip Coordinator in the Office of Presidential Advance in 2007 as well as Deputy Director of the First Lady’s office of Advance in 2006.  Before working at the White House, Jenny served as a Trip Coordinator at the Department of Commerce under Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Don Evans.  She thoroughly enjoyed the exposure to international politics and foreign protocol as she traveled ahead of political leaders to plan their trips and policy meetings in the Middle East, China, South America, Western Europe.

Jenny is a native Texan and graduate of Texas A&M University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and English.  In addition to her studies in Mexico and Florence, she recently completed her second year as a CS Lewis Institute Fellow.  She currently resides in Washington, DC, and when she isn’t working on Wedgwood projects or consulting ONE Campaign on their faith outreach strategy, she enjoys cooking, hosting her Grace DC weekly Community Group, cycling, writing about life, reading witty memoirs and theology, finding new music, and all things Italian.

KRISTIN NEAL
DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Upon moving to DC in September 2008, Kristin spent a year under the direction of Steve Garber, Art Lindsley, and John Yates, among others, as a Falls Church Fellow.  She spent nine months studying the intersection of faith, vocation, and culture, while learning how to decompartmentalize the many components of life through living in an intentional Christian community.  Kristin was hired by Wedgwood Circle as an intern for her fellows year, giving her the opportunity to act as the Assistant Director of Events and manage communication between investors and artists with mediums such as The Wedgwood Weekly Newsletter.  In May 2009, Kristin was offered a full-time position at Wedgwood Circle as the newest Director of Community Relations.  She continues to serve regularly as a discipleship leader for a small group of 8th grade girls at The Falls Church as well as volunteering her time to further develop the mission of The Fellows Initiative.

Kristin is a native of Massachusetts, growing up in a small New England suburb about 30 miles outside of Boston.  She is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, with a liberal arts degree in Sociology.  Kristin enjoys dancing, sipping tea, reading a good book, outside bistros, laughing with friends and family, and catching a Sox game at Fenway Park.

STEVE GARBER
FACILITATOR OF MEANING

As the Director of The Washington Institute, Steven Garber has a classroom among many people in many places—wherever he is and whatever he is doing, he is always wanting to understand more fully the integral character of faith to vocation to culture.  Author of The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior (Second Ed., 2007), he writes frequently for Comment, and, in addition, was a contributor to the volumes Faith Goes to Work: Reflections From the Marketplace, and Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalogue, as well as to the Mars Hill Audio journal, “Tacit Knowing, Truthful Knowing: The Life and Work of Michael Polanyi.”  For many years he taught on Capitol Hill in the American Studies Program, and is particularly interested in the relationship of popular culture to political culture; from that appointment he became the Scholar-in-Residence for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.  He serves as a board member for Ransom Fellowship, the Blood: Water Mission, and the Kairos Project, and as a consultant for Wedgwood Circle, The Murdock Trust, and the Mars Corporation.  A native of the great valleys of Colorado and California, he is married to Meg and is the father of five children whose own callings have scattered them around the world.  For many years, he and his family have been members of The Falls Church in Northern Virginia.

PETER MITCHELL
STRATEGIC ADVISOR

Peter Mitchell was born in Clapham, South London (yes, really!) but moved away from London to Washington, DC, with his family when he was eight.  Peter graduated from the Washington International School in DC and then returned to the UK to study Politics and Economics at Durham University, gaining his Bachelor of Arts in 2005.  After graduating from Durham, Peter did a one-year internship with his local church which was part theology and part youth and community work.  After this, he returned to Durham and did a part-time Masters degree in Relational Politics, which argued for a holistic approach to human well-being that incorporated the value of relationships in society.

While studying at Durham, Peter was elected to the local city council where he served a two-year term until March 2009.  During this time, he served as Press Spokesperson and Deputy Leader for his party group.  In November 2008, Peter got engaged to his American girlfriend, Emily, and moved to the United States in July 2009.  In August 2009, Peter and Emily were married in Bethesda, MD, and currently reside in Rockville, MD where he is quickly picking up his American language skills!

NEIL CORKERY
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Neil Corkery has served as a senior financial executive with experience in international treasury and cash management and a track record of managing banking relationships, defining capital/financing structures, developing risk management and foreign exchange strategies and managing global real estate. Currently he runs a financial consulting firm specializing in assisting non-profit organizations. In 1998 he was appointed treasurer of an international telecommunications company in Reston, Virginia, where he was responsible for setting investment and liquidity policies, managing foreign exchange exposure, risk management, global real estate and banking relationships worldwide for this $7 billion company, with operations in 58 foreign countries. Prior to this he spent 7 years as controller and then treasurer of an international, publicly traded, management consulting firm based in Palm Beach, Florida. He also spent 7 years in various international finance roles at Colgate Palmolive in New York. Neil is a chartered accountant and earned an MBA from Columbia University in 1982. He and his wife Ann are raising six children, ages 5-18 in Manassas, Virginia.

Founding Members

PHILIP ANSCHUTZ

Philip Anschutz is the founder and CEO of The Anschutz Corporation. Some companies Mr. Anschutz runs or has had major interest in are Walden Media, Crusader Entertainment, Forest Oil, Pacific Energy Group, Qwest Communications, Regal Entertainment Group, Union Pacific Railroad, and The Examiner Newspapers. He resides in Denver with his wife, Nancy.

DAVID KIERSZNOWSKI

David Kiersznowski is founder and coowner (with his bride Demi) of DEMDACO, a wholesale gift company founded in 1997. DEMDACO’s headquarters are in Leawood, Kansas, and their distribution center is in North Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Kiersznowski has a Masters of Management from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and a Bachelor of Science in Manufacturing Engineering from Boston University. He and his bride, Demi, have three children and live in Mission Hills, KS.

THOMAS LEHRMAN

Thomas is the President and Founder of Boliven LLC.  Prior to founding Boliven, Thomas served as the first Director of the U.S. State Department’s Office of WMD Terrorism, during which time he received the Department’s Meritorious Honor Award and an Exceptional Performance Award from the National Counterterrorism Center.  Prior to his service in government, Thomas was the co-founder and co-Chief Executive Officer of Gerson Lehrman Group, the world’s leading expert network, on whose Board of Directors he currently sits.  He began his career as a financial analyst at the investment firm Tiger Management.  Thomas also co-founded the Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School, a top performing public charter school in Brooklyn and serves on the Boards of Trustees of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a biological sciences research and educational institution on Long Island and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a leading public interest law firm focused on defending religious freedom in the U.S. and abroad.  Thomas holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, earned his B.A. from Duke University and his J.D. from Yale University, and has published articles in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and a variety of law and public policy journals.

GEORGE SEAY, III

George Seay is the CEO and founder of Annandale Capital of Dallas, Texas.  Annandale Capital is a money management firm centered on conflict-free, customized investment portfolios for a wide variety of clients, including individuals, family offices, foundations and institutions.  Annandale serves clients across the United States and has global breadth and reach in its sophisticated investment research platform.  Mr. Seay is a licensed attorney at law in the State of Texas; he has prior public policy experience working for the Governor of Texas and Deputy Secretary of State at the U.S. State Department in Washington.  Mr. Seay received his B.A. with highest honors from the University of Texas at Austin.  He received his J.D. with honors from the SMU School of Law.  He received his M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin where he received a Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence.  He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.  Mr. Seay is also the co-founder of Legacy, a national fellowship of business and civic leaders committed to making a difference through policy, philanthropy and political engagement.  In addition to time invested in his company, Mr. Seay serves on numerous boards and enjoys time with his wife and children, hunting, fishing, public policy and politics, and American and European history.  He and his wife, Sarah, live in Dallas with their three children.

BILL WICHTERMAN

Bill Wichterman is in the Legislative Practice Group at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C. Formerly, he was Special Assistant to President George W. Bush in the White House.  He also served as Policy Advisor to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Chief of Staff to Congressmen Joe Pitts and Bill Baker.  He has been active in congressional and presidential campaigns, and was a key participant on the Republican Convention’s Platform Committee in 2004.  Mr. Wichterman is an author and speaker on the relationship between culture and politics.  He and Mark Rodgers co-authored an essay entitled, “Making Goodness Fashionable” in a Creating the Better Hour: Lessons from William Wilberforce (Stroud & Hall, 2007).  Mr. Wichterman wrote, “The Culture: Upstream from Politics,” published in Building a Healthy Culture: Strategies for an American Renaissance (Eerdmans, 2001).  Mr. Wichterman received his B.A. from Houghton College, and his M.A. from the Catholic University of America in Political Philosophy.  Bill is married to Dana, is the proud father of three redheads, and is a member of The Falls Church (Anglican).

SEAN WOLFINGTON

Sean Wolfington, co-owner of One Media Group and Metanoia Films, is an entrepreneur and financier.  Mr. Wolfington’s first film, Bella, won the Toronto International Film Festival and was released in October 2007.  Mr. Wolfington also executive produced Swing State Ohio and is a producer of Self-Medicated, the most award winning film of the year.  Mr. Wolfington founded and sold two technology and internet marketing companies over the last eight years, including BZProductions, which was recognized as the “Innovative Company of the Year” by the leading publication for pioneering digital marketing in the automotive industry and generating billions of dollars of retail sales through targeted online marketing.  At the age of 34, Mr. Wolfington was a finalist in Ernst & Young’s annual “Entrepreneur of the Year Award.”  Mr. Wolfington is the chairman of The Wolfington Charitable foundation, which actively supports charities that serve the poor, supports positive causes, and defends the defenseless all around the world.  He resides in Miami and Philadelphia with his wife, Anna, and three children.

Senior Advisors

BOBETTE BUSTER

Bobette Buster is a world-renowned lecturer on “What’s the Big Idea?  The Art and Craft of Feature Film Development” and “The International Principles of Cross-over Success.”  Ms. Buster has been a Creative Executive, working in Hollywood for director,Tony Scott, screenwriter, Larry Gelbart and producer, Ray Stark, while also serving as an Adj. Professor at USC since 1992.  For the past eight years, Pixar Studios has asked her to create a lecture series for their animators.  This past year, Twentieth Century Fox commissioned Ms. Buster to create a major lecture on the History of Hollywood Economics, “Fox Thru Film.”  Ms. Buster has also served on the Visiting Faculty of La Fémis in Paris, the University of Milan, and the Media Business School in Ronda, Spain, as well as guest lecturing at the Sundance Lab for Latin American Writers, and film programs in Ireland, Mexico, Cuba, Berlin, Prague, Denmark, Norway and Japan.  Ms. Buster has various screen credits and is also completing the book and DVD to her international course.

ANDY CROUCH

Andy Crouch is the author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, winner of Christianity Today’s 2009 Book Award for Christianity and Culture and named one of the best books of 2008 by Publishers Weekly, Relevant, Outreach and Leadership.  A senior editor at Christianity Today International, he has served as executive producer of the documentary films Where Faith and Culture Meet and Round Trip and was editorial director of the Christian Vision Project from 2005 to 2008.  He is a member of the editorial board of Books & Culture, and a senior fellow of the International Justice Mission’s IJM Institute.  His writing has appeared in several editions of Best Christian Writing and Best Spiritual Writing. He lives with his family in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

From 1998 to 2003, Mr. Crouch was the editor-in-chief of re:generation quarterly, a magazine for an emerging generation of culturally creative Christians.  For ten years he was a campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Harvard University.  He studied classics at Cornell University and received an M.Div. summa cum laude from Boston University School of Theology.  A classically trained musician who draws on pop, folk, rock, jazz, and gospel, he has led musical worship for congregations of 5 to 20,000.

DAVID J. EVANS

Dave Evans is 30-plus year veteran executive of Silicon Valley who offers a range of professional services to rapidly growing companies and personal mentoring to individuals.  Since 1990, Mr. Evans has been assisting high-tech clients in strategic planning, sales and marketing, new business development, mergers and alliances, growth management, and executive development.  Mr. Evan’s client list has focused on early stage start-ups but also includes Fortune companies including such leaders as Veritas/Symantec, HP, Intel, and AT&T. (He.s also negotiated fishing rights for the Inuit in Alaska – but that’s a whole nuther story).   Prior to consulting, Mr. Evans was VP and Co-Founder of software publisher Electronic Arts, led the introduction of the mouse and laser printing at Apple, and has held senior marketing positions with IBM/ROLM Corporation and voicemail inventor and manufacturer VMX (now Avaya).

Since his college days, Mr. Evans has had an abiding, faith-nourished commitment to living and helping others live a coherent life – thoroughly integrating soul and role especially in the realm of vocation.  This passion has taken Dave to lots of interesting places, like the first corporate culture committee at Apple, the co-deanship of a national young professionals conference on Marketplace Ministry, and San Francisco Theological Seminary for graduate studies in Christian spirituality.  Mr. Evans holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Thermosciences from Stanford University.  He is a lecturer in the Stanford Product Design Program, mentors off and on with Stanford Graduate Students in Law and Business, and taught the undergraduate course on Finding Your Vocation at UC Berkeley for 8 years.

DR. OS GUINNESS

Dr. Os Guinness is a writer and speaker living in Northern Virginia. He is the co-founder of The Trinity Forum and served as Senior Fellow and Vice Chairman of the Board from its inception in 1991 until 2004.  Os directed the first seven Trinity Forum seminar curricula and many other projects during that period and was a regular Moderator at Forums in the United States, Europe, and Asia.  Born in China during World War II, he remained there until 1951 when the Communists forced most foreigners to leave. Since then he has lived mostly in England, Switzerland, and the United States. Educated in England, he did undergraduate studies at the University of London and postgraduate studies at University of Oxford, where he graduated with a D.Phil in the social sciences from Oriel College.  Since 1984, he has lived in the Washington, DC area. He was a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies and then a Guest Scholar and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution. From 1986-1989, he was the Executive Director of the Williamsburg Charter Foundation, one of the drafters of the Williamsburg Charter, and co-author of the public school curriculum Living With Our Deepest Differences.  He has written or edited more than twenty books, including The American Hour (Free Press, 1993), The Call (Word 1998), Time for Truth (Baker 2000), Long Journey Home (Doubleday 2001), Unspeakable: Facing Up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror (HarperCollins, 2005), and The Case for Civility: And Why Our Future Depends on It (Harper One, 2008).  His deep concern is to bridge the chasm between academic knowledge and popular knowledge, taking things that are academically important and making them intelligible and practicable to a wider audience, especially as they concern matters of public policy.

ERWIN RAPHAEL MCMANUS

Erwin Raphael McManus is an author, speaker, activist, filmmaker and innovator who specializes in the field of developing and unleashing personal and organizational creativity, uniqueness, innovation and diversity.  He is committed to creating environments that expand imagination, unleash creativity, and maximize the creative potential in every individual and organization.  Erwin is the Founder and President of Awaken and McManus Studios.  Convinced that the world is changed by dreamers and visionaries, Awaken serves the purpose of history by maximizing the divine potential in every human being. He also serves as a Senior Scientist with the Gallup Organization. Engaging such issues as culture, creativity, change, and leadership, Erwin is widely known as a thought-provoking communicator.  His travels have taken him to over 30 countries and he has spoken to over a million people from a wide variety of audiences, including the NFL, Lionsgate, New Line Cinema, and ILOG. His work is featured in numerous films, articles, and magazines across the US and internationally.

ERIC METAXAS

Eric Metaxas is the author of the New York Times Bestseller AMAZING GRACE: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, the official companion to the feature film.  He is also the author of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About God (but were afraid to ask), a book of Christian apologetics that has been praised by Dick Cavett (“Stylish and entertaining… Metaxas deserves a prize), Chuck Colson (“Quick, witty, engaging, and often profound”), and Tim Keller (“,..a wise, funny, and disarming book.”)  Eric has worked as a writer for VeggieTales, and is the author of over 30 children’s books, including Squanto & the iracle of Thanksgiving. Woody Allen has called his humor writing “quite funny”, and the musician Moby has called Eric “one of the funniest people I know.” He often appears as a cultural commentator on FoxNews and CNN.  He lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter.

DR. JOHN SEEL

Dr. John Seel is the president of TRI Corp Entertainment, which provides extreme-computing solutions to the entertainment industry particularly in computer-generated images and visual effects.  The company is based in Vancouver, British Columbia with offices in Boston, Massachusetts and is a subsidiary of TeraScale SuperComputing, Inc.  Dr. Seel a cultural renewal entrepreneur.  He works with people and projects that foster human flourishing and the common good.  He is active in the entertainment industry serving as an executive producer on various film projects.  Dr. Seel is a Senior Advisor to Wedgwood Circle, an angel investment firm investing in art and entertainment.  He also serves as a Senior Fellow for Cardus, a Canadian think tank, where he conducts research on educational reform.  He is also a Senior Fellow at The Clapham Institute, a consulting firm aligning people and organizations with an accurate assessment of human nature.  He grew up in South Korea, the son of medical missionaries.  He earned his B.A. from Austin College with majors in Philosophy, History, and Business Administration.  He has a M.Div. degree from Covenant Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Maryland (College Park).  Dr. Seel began his career as the Vice President for Client Services for The Naisbitt Group, where he worked closely with technology firms.  He was a co-founder and Administrative Director for the Williamsburg Charter Foundation, a national reaffirmation of the First Amendment for the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution as well as The Trinity Forum, a leadership academy contributing to the transformation and renewal of society through the transformation and renewal of leaders. He has served as a Senior Fellow and Research Assistant Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia as well as headmaster at The Cambridge School of Dallas.  Dr. Seel has written numerous articles and is the author of three books.  He is an avid alpine mountaineer, rower, and sailor.  He has climbed the highest peaks in the Alps and the Cascades as well as coached high school oarsmen to a gold medal finish at the USRowing Junior National Championships.  John and his wife, Kathryn, have three grown children and live in Cohasset, Massachusetts.

Sector Liaisons

Kim Alexis Model and Fashion Commentator	Dean Batali Executive Producer and Writer	David Carlson Experience Designer	Valerie Dillon Gallery Owner	Dan Egger Video Game Consultant
Micheal Flaherty President, Walden Media	Jon Foreman and Drew Shirley Switchfoot	Makoto Fujimura Nihonga Artist; Founder, International Arts Movement	Karen Goodwin President, Fifth Avenue Entertainment	Chris Hansen Writer; TV Correspondent
Jim Krueger President, 26 Soldiers	Jill Lamar Director, Discover Great New Writers, Barnes & Noble	Owen Leimbach Former Supervising Producer, MTV	Stephen McEveety Film Producer; Braveheart, Bella, The Passion of the Christ, What Women Want	Charlie Peacock Songwriter, Producer, Executive, Author
Carter Pilcher Chief Executive, Shorts International	John and Ed Priddy Founders and Principals, Priddy Brothers	Kathryn Seel Former Fashion Consultant	Isaac Slade Singer, Songwriter, & Producer, The Fray	Doug Tennapel Graphic Novelist; Cartoon Network Executive Producer/Creator
Janine Turner Actress; Author	Steve Turner Journalist, Writer, Poet, Lecturer	Tim Washer Manager, Social Media Communications, IBM; Comedy Writer, Ridiculous Media LLC	Ralph Winter Film Producer, X-Men, Fantastic Four	Scott Wong Founder, Brethren Entertainment Studios