Meet the 2011 Team

LL&W Board Members from left to right: 

Lundy combined his business career with helping to form Partners of Scott County Watersheds and the Xstream Cleanup. He is now dividing his time between QCA projects and ecological restoration work on his 130 acre bluff and stream property in northeast Iowa, and is a member of the Board of Nahant Marsh.

Terry Becker, Riverway Foundation President, Bloomington, MN

Mr. Becker graduated from Colorado College in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology. He spent a year with the Colorado Department of Wildlife conducting research on raptors, banding young prairie falcons, peregrine falcons and osprey.

Mr. Becker has served 13 years as a Director of the American Waterways Operators, serving two terms on the Executive Committee, Chairman of the Inland Dry Sector of AWO and as well as Chairman of the Mid-continent Region. He has served as a Director and member of the Executive Committee of he National Waterways Conference, Secretary, Treasurer, and Chairman of Marine Transportation Council, and a director and currently Vice Chairman of Marc 2000. He recently was elected as a trustee of the National Waterways Foundation.

Mark Werning, is Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of THE National Bank, Bettendorf, Iowa. He joined the Board of LL&W in January 2007 and serves as Chairman of the Finance Committee. He graduated from Luther College, Decorah, Iowa in 1980 with degrees in Management and Economics, and graduated from the Graduate School of Banking with an Audit major in 1986. Mark serves on Boards or Committees of numerous non-profit organizations. Mark lives in Bettendorf with his wife Deb and three young children. His family loves the outdoors, and enjoys being involved in many environmental and conservation projects. Please help us clean up our rivers and waterways - encourage children to get involved!  

Anne Colville is a freelance magazine editor. Her river experience began during a childhood summer vacation, when her family cruised the upper Mississippi by houseboat. An avid outdoorswoman, she has canoed, kayaked, and camped along many Midwestern waterways, including Lake Superior, the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers. Her most ambitious – and most rewarding - environmental project to date has been helping her husband plant 2,000 trees on a farm in Rock Island County, Illinois. Anne received her education from Iowa State University. She resides in Bettendorf, Iowa and also volunteers on the boards of Quad City Arts and the Bettendorf Community Schools Foundation.

Mel Menke is currently a VP of Cargill Marine & Terminal Inc, a Cargill company.  He joined LL&W in the summer of 2008.  Mel graduated from Purdue University with a Masters in Agricultural Economics.  He has been with Cargill for 21 years.  During this time he has been in the grain business working at various locations across the United States from the Mid-West to California.  He has held various positions in merchandising, transportation, elevator management and IT management duties.  Mel was introduced to LL&W during his time spent in New Orleans helping with recovery efforts and clean-up post hurricane Katrina in 2005-06.

Richard G. Bowers Jr.
Rick is a graduate of Princeton University, with an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. While at Stanford, he was also selected for the Public Management Program, a special additional study program for non-profit management and policy.

Since 1975, he has been the President of The Bowers Group, a group of small businesses specializing in life insurance and corporate benefit plans, investment management, and estate and charitable gift planning.

He has served as President of the Quad City Life Underwriters Association, the Quad City Estate Planning Council, and the New York Life Insurance Company Charitable Giving Advisory Board over the past two decades. He currently serves as Treasurer of the Quad City Planned Giving Council Board.

Since 1995, much of his time has been devoted to community service. Currently he is on the following boards:

Local Organizations

• Figge Art Museum (Executive Committee)
• Museum of Art Foundation (President)
• Quad City Arts (Literary Chair)
• John Deere Classic
• Friendly House
• Living Lands & Waters
• See Life Clearly Foundation (Treasurer)
• Life At Night Foundation

Thomas Rowe of Rapids City, Il is currently the CEO and Owner of Servalite Products Inc. East Moline, Illinois. After Graduating from Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, purchasing a wholesale miniature bulb box company, Tom and his wife Jennifer took this small company from 1 product, 1 employee to its current 140+ employees. Servalite today sells over 40,000 fastener and hard to find items to retail hardware, lumber, home center, industrial and other related businesses. During Tom’s 30 Years in business he has been active with special needs children through work programs. His active enthusiasm to improve the environment grew due to his experience of outdoor activities, such as fishing, biking, kayaking, hiking, and in his travels. A desire to pass on to his grandchildren and all other children a legacy of a healthy, clean, sustainable environment, so that they too, will enjoy this beautiful land and all it has to offer. The active involvement and continued results of the hardworking crew of Living Lands & Waters and its dynamic founder and leader, Chad Pregracke, drew Tom to serve on the board.

Matthew Hughes
Matthew graduated from Illinois State University in 1998. He went on to intern with the Bi-State Regional Planning Commission in Rock Island, IL and then on to Missman, Stanley and Associates, a Consulting Engineering Firm based in Rock Island. In 2002, he accepted a position with the McLean County (Bloomington, IL) Regional planning commission where he managed the county-wide consortium’s Cadastral Mapping Project. In 2003, Matthew joined the Illinois Department of Transportation at the District 2 Office in Dixon, IL. Since joining IDOT, he has held several positions including one stint as the Department’s Green/Sustainability Manager. Most recently in 2009 he was appointed to the Bureau Chief of Personnel Management essentially overseeing the Department’s HR functions for 5000+ employees. However as of a month or so ago, Matthew has been asked by the Secretary of Transportation to assume the duties of IDOT’s Director of Finance and Administration which among other things functions as the Department’s Chief Financial Officer in charge of the Department’s Budget, Personnel, Information Technology and Procurement/Business Services. As Director, he currently serves the Secretary’s interests in terms of running the Department’s everyday operations when it comes to Fiscal, HR and overall administrative policy as well as serve as liaison to the Office of the Governor for matters pertaining to Budget, Personnel, Labor, Procurement and Administration of Policy at the Department.

Jeffrey Keifer
Jeff Keifer is the senior manager for AEP River Operations' boat group. Jeff has responsibility for the following departments; engineering & maintenance, purchasing, fuel purchasing and analytics, along with vessel construction.

In 1997, Jeff joined AEP in Human Resources. In an HR role, he has worked with a number of AEP business units, including, Recruiting and College Relations, Commercial Operations, AEP River Operations and AEP Ohio. He made the transition from Human Resources to AEP River Operations in March 2008.

In addition to job responsibilities, Jeff served as co-chair of the AEP – IBEW 1466 Central Ohio United Way campaign in 2006 and 2007. During those years, the campaign generated $1.4 and $1.7 million respectively in contributions, both campaign records.

Jeff has a bachelor of science degree in Business Administration from Heidelberg College and completed the University of Michigan Executive Education Program in Human Resources in 2001.

He and his wife, Ann Marie, and son Braeden, reside in St. Charles, Missouri.

James I. Sears
James I. Sears has served as Chief Executive Officer of Sears Manufacturing Company since April 2001. 

Sears joined the company in 1990 and after assuming various assignments in operations became Sales Manager in 1994.  In 1998, Sears was appointed Managing Director of Sears Europe Ltd.  He relocated his family to Wales, United Kingdom and in this position was responsible for serving all customers within Europe, localizing the supply chain and managing the independent division.  Sears returned to the United States in 2000 and was appointed President of the Off Road Division.   Sears also served as Chairman of the Sears GSK Asia Joint Venture in Lang Fang City, China through 2008.    

A native of Davenport, Iowa, Sears is a graduate of Saint Norbert College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration.  He is a member of Saint Ambrose University School of Business Advisory Board, Wells Fargo Regional Advisory Board, and the Niabi Zoological Society Board.  He and his wife Melissa have two children and reside in Davenport, Iowa. 

Steve Royce
Steve is currently Vice President of Human Resources for Transport America. He joined the LL&W Board in the fall of 2009. Steve was introduced to Living Lands & Waters while working for Marquette Transportation as the Vice President of Human Resources from 2007 through 2010. Prior to Marquette, Steve has held various human resource positions with Schneider National, Target Corporation and Schreiber Foods. Before entering Corporate America, he served on active duty with the United States Air Force, retiring with over twenty years of service. Steve graduated from Southern Illinois University with a Bachelors of Science in Workforce Education.

Bruce L Hahn, CPA – EVP, Marquette Transportation Company, LLC
Bruce Hahn has served as a Marquette Director and Secretary since 2002 and Executive Vice President since 2008. Bruce previously served as Marquette's CFO from 2000 through 2007. Until that time he worked as a certified Public Accountant beginning in 1977. Bruce received a B.S. in Accounting from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a M.S. in Accounting from Texas Tech University.

Gerry Brown
Gerry Brown, is former president of Cargill Marine and Terminal, Inc., a Cargill subsidiary. He joined Cargill in 1969 as a trainee after graduating from the University of Minnesota with a degree in business. He was named branch office manager in St. Louis in 1974, division sales manager in 1978, and became vice president of operations in 1985. Brown is the former chairman and president of the Upper Mississippi Waterways Association and a board member of American Waterway Operators and Marc 2000. He is also the chairman of the Inland Waterways Users Board. Gerry has actively served on the Living Lands & Waters Board of Directors since 2003.