Board of Directors

Cameron has served on the SOS USA board for 5 years, and has visited 13 villages around the world including those in Haiti, Nicaragua, Indonesia, the USA and Italy. It is from those experiences that he has developed deep passion for the SOS USA mission, believing it is the absolute best "product" in child development globally.  He was most recently the head of PayPal Canada, responsible for driving the growth of one of the company’s largest markets. Prior to PayPal, he spent several years at Intuit Inc., where he was a Vice President. Prior to Intuit, he held leadership positions at companies including Warner Lambert (now Pfizer), General Motors and IBM. He is also an advisor to CEO's and boards of technology and consumer product companies.  He lives in Northern California.  His two teenaged children are both active supporters of SOS Children's Villages.

Brian Reinken joined the Board of Directors in 2015. He is a Partner with Egon Zehnder, one of the world’s largest global search firms, and has been with the firm since 1999. He has served in a variety of leadership roles in the firm, including serving as Managing Partner for the U.S. Practice for many years. Reinken also founded and built the Texas offices for the firm. He is a core member of the firm’s CEO and Board Practice and has deep expertise in CEO, C-Suite and Board of Director executive search. He is a core member of the firm’s Global Consumer Practice, with a focus on consumer technology, retail, media and e-commerce. Reinken has extensive global client experience, successfully serving Fortune 500 clients and leading global brands across a broad spectrum of companies.

Prior to joining Egon Zehnder, Reinken was a Director with Compaq Computer (now HP) in Houston, where he led the development and growth of Compaq.com. Earlier, he was general manager of Compaq’s printer division and led strategic planning and business development. Previously, he was a Senior Consultant with Gemini Consulting. He began his career in a variety of finance and marketing roles at Amoco Oil Company (now BP) in Chicago.

Reinken earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his BBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin.

As CEO of Havas New York, the North American flagship creative agency of Havas Group and part of the world’s largest entertainment company, Vivendi, Laura is responsible for driving a culture of creativity and innovation and creating deeper meaning for some of the most recognized companies in the world. Since taking the helm in NY in early 2016, Laura has been a catalyst for growth, steering an enterprise-wide turnaround and transformation of Havas that earned the agency AdExchanger’s Best Collaborative Agency Team 2020, Ad Age 2019 Best Places to Work, Digiday’s Most Innovative Culture and on the shortlist for Campaign’s US Agency Network of the Year 2019. Laura’s 25-year career spans independent digital pure-players and large integrated ad agencies across several major holding companies (Publicis, WPP, IPG and now Havas) in Chicago, San Francisco and now NY. A proud alum of Loyola University Chicago (where she delivered the 2020 Commencement Address), Laura was recently named a Working Mother of the Year by SheRunsIt, Campaign US Female Frontier honoree for Championing Change and Creativepool’s Top 100 Influencer of the Year in the Annual 2020 awards.

In addition to raising consciousness and using business as a force for good as a certified B Corp, Laura ignites meaningful change as a Board Member of the 4A’s, ACT Responsible, GNB, Loyola and Alembic. She’s an investor and Village Global advisor to early stage VC-backed companies, a founding member of Kindred, Chief, Casa Cipriani, Spring Place NY and Soho House Chicago, an executive mentor of SheRunsIt and Adweek, and one of the first agency leaders to take 3% Conference's Pledge for Pay Equity. She's also an original signer and Steering Committee member of TIME’S UP™/ADVERTISING, and a recognized industry voice speaking at CES, Digiday, S.H.E Summit, USACE Women in Business, Adweek’s #Brandweek, Ad Age’s Remotely Live, Allyship & Action and more.

In her time away from the office, Laura resides in the north end of TriBeCa with her husband and son and enjoys SoulCycling, pilates, #5amclub river walks, pop-up shops and bold California reds.

Aaron Carmack is a 30-year retail executive currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer at Roger’s Electric. With more than 1,300 employees, 13 offices nationwide and $300 million in revenues, Rogers is the largest self-performing electrical and lighting contractor in the U.S. Aaron also spent 14 years as a senior executive with Home Depot and served on the board of Habitat for Humanity East Bay.

Aaron holds a Master’s of Business Administration from Goizueta School of Business at Emory University. His undergraduate studies were at DePaul University. Aaron has a passion for serving the needs of abandoned and orphaned children. He and his wife adopted their daughter from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Bill Reese served as the Chief Executive Officer of the International Youth Foundation (IYF) from January 2005 until his retirement in December 2018. Having joined IYF in 1998 as Chief Operating Officer, Bill oversaw IYF’s operations and programs supporting positive youth development in more than 70 countries. Under Bill’s leadership, IYF invested in scaling and sustaining proven practice programs focused on workforce development and youth-led entrepreneurship, as well as leadership development for young founders and CEOs of social enterprises.

Before joining IYF, Reese spent 12 years as President & CEO of Partners of the Americas, the largest citizen-run, volunteer organization working to promote economic and social development in the western hemisphere. He also served for 10 years with the Peace Corps, first as a volunteer in an urban community development project in Salvador, Brazil, and later as director of Brazil operations. He was Deputy Director of the Latin American and Caribbean region before heading a special task force that managed the international celebration of the Peace Corps’ 20th anniversary in 1981. 
 
Reese sits on numerous boards and committees. He serves on the board of Youth Business 
International, a UK-based nonprofit promoting youth-led business start-ups and entrepreneurship globally, and was a founding co-chair of the Alliance for International Youth Development. He also is a board member of Global Citizen Year, which provides a bridge year of international service for U.S. high school graduates before they enter college, and he serves as a founding board member of Solutions 4 Youth Employment, a multi-stakeholder alliance that tackles the global challenge of youth unemployment. Reese served on the U.S. Government’s Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid from 1991 to 2009 and was chair for nine of those years.

Irene Bailey is originally from Dakar, Senegal, but she grew up in an SOS Village in Germany. Passionate about children’s rights and advocacy, she is a spokesperson for SOS Children’s Villages and is a founding member of SOS Children’s Villages Atlanta Volunteer Committee, where she has been building a network of friends and supporters for the organization since 2005.

Bailey built her career in education and currently serves as Educational Consultant at Public Consultant Group, where she is responsible for establishing partnership opportunities to advance education and instructional support services for students throughout the southeastern United States.

Bailey studied International Relations, Business and Communications at the University of Mannheim, Germany, and holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Oklahoma. She actively supports various organizations dedicated to international outreach and meaningful interaction between the state of Georgia and countries around the world.

Lance J. Reisman is a retired business executive with over 30 years of experience with Fortune 500, private and start-up companies. Since his retirement in May 2019, Mr. Reisman has joined KKR as an Advisor and the board of GeoStabilization International, a KKR company, as its Chairman. He is also engaging in philanthropist initiatives, such as SOS Children’s Villages USA.

Prior to his retirement, Mr. Reisman spent four years as a Group Executive and Vice President at Danaher Corporation, a global science and technology company with more than 30 operating companies with leading positions in diagnostics, life sciences, dental and environmental/applied solutions. During his time at Danaher, he had global responsibilities for Danaher’s Water Quality business for which he led holistic operational and commercial execution and transformation, including several strategic acquisitions. Prior to this role, Mr. Reisman spent six years in increasingly senior leadership roles at Hach (a Danaher operating company), ultimately serving as President.

Lance began his career with Frito-Lay, where he held positions as both an Industrial Engineer and Manufacturing Manager. He then transitioned to Black & Decker where he held various leadership roles of increased responsibility in marketing in the Power Tool and Hardware divisions, where he was the Vice President of Marketing. Lance also held the position of Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for Robotoolz, a Silicon Valley start-up. He was subsequently Vice President of Business Development for RSI, a major manufacturer of cabinetry.

Mr. Reisman holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, and an MBA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.

Jim McGrann is an engaging, decisive and adaptable leader with a demonstrated history of delivering results in the healthcare, insurance, technology, supply chain and consulting industries. Mr. McGrann is an experienced CEO, CTO & CIO with a passion for helping businesses win in the marketplace while growing profitably and achieving change amid order, and order amid change.  Mr. McGrann possesses the ideal mix of business skills, technology expertise and creativity to lead in today’s rapidly evolving marketplace.  He has been a C-Level executive for 20 years and has also served on both internal and external boards of directors.
Mr. McGrann is the Chairman & CEO of Healthy Eyes Advantage a solutions company that empowers independent eye care professionals to succeed in the rapidly evolving optical industry. 

Prior to joining Healthy Eyes Advantage, Mr. McGrann was the President & CEO of VSP Global, a $5.3B vertically integrated healthcare organization with the mission of helping people see.  He successfully navigated the needs of a complex set of stakeholders, including 83M customers, 60K clients, 37K doctors, 6K global employees & numerous business partners including fashion houses, lens & lab, software and eyewear companies. 

From December 2008 to November 2011, before becoming CEO of VSP Global, Mr. McGrann served as VSP Global’s President of Eyefinty, the largest practice management and electronic health record company in the Optical industry serving 25K doctors, VSP Global’s Chief Technology Officer and President of VSP Vision Care, the largest healthcare company in the world (by membership) providing vision benefits to 83M consumers (including 1 in 4 Americans).  

From December 2011 to September 2015, while President of VSP Vision Care, Mr. McGrann focused on winning in the marketplace and the business grew by $1.02B (34%) and 23.7M members (42%) while delivering record EBITDA and NIBT. He also led the creation and strategic development of VSP Global Innovation Lab, The Shop. Mr. McGrann leveraged revolutionary techniques such as design thinking, user-centered design and nexus management to successfully launch The Shop in a three-month period of time.

While President of VSP Vision Care, Mr. McGrann was Chairman of the Board for the National Association of Vision Care Plans (NAVCP).  The NAVCP is the national association established in order to act as the unified voice representing the managed vision care industry.  Mr. McGrann was elected as Chairman by his peers at competing organizations.
Mr. McGrann’s employer Marchon Eyewear was acquired by VSP Global in August 2008.  From August 1999 to November 2008 Mr. McGrann was the CIO of Marchon Eyewear and the CEO of OfficeMate Software Solutions (a Marchon Company).  Mr. McGrann led the post-acquisition integration team following VSP Global’s acquisition of Marchon.  Before joining Marchon, Mr. McGrann spent 15 years as a management consultant and partner for Accenture, IBM and EY. 
Mr. McGrann lives in New York City with his wife Taryn.  He has a BS in Industrial Engineering from Columbia University.  He was a Member of the Wall Street Journal CEO Council from 2015 to 2017.

Composer and performer Patrice Michaels is a long-time supporter of SOS Children’s Village and centers her professional work around themes of social justice.

The breadth of Michaels’ interests are fully expressed in her project, Notorious RBG in Song, a salute to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Cedille Records) released in 2017 that has since become a live stage show. “…an engrossing, episodic portrait of the legal thinker, wife, mother and feminist icon” (WQXR), performed to date in Los Angeles, the Washington, DC, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and at the Illinois Holocaust Museum.  “RESOLVED, Songs of Women’s Suffrage and the Nineteenth Amendment” premiered in August filmed by NBC for the National Constitution Center, featuring mezzo-soprano  J’Nai Bridges.  Michaels’s choral work “Refuge,” debuted at the Kennedy Center in July 2019 for the Serenade Festival.  Projects such as Divas of Mozart’s Day and Intersection: Jazz Meets Classical Song have earned Michaels praise as “a formidable interpretative talent” (The New Yorker) possessing “a voice that is light, rich and flexible” (Opera News).  Patrice’s singing has been featured on more than 25 albums, including the Decca, Neos, Albany and Amadis labels, and 14 releases as an artist for Cedille Records.  Her eclectic nature is expressed through recent recordings such as La vie est une parade (Cedille), featuring music of Satie, Britten, and Tailleferre with the Czech National Symphony, and the work of contemporary composer Laurie Altman on Sonic Migrations (Neos) and On Course, a solo recording of the composer’s work for the Albany record label. Patrice has been featured with the Shanghai and Czech National Symphonies, in concerts for the Festival of Contemporary Music in Havana and the Maverick Festival, and has appeared with St. Louis, Atlanta and Minnesota Orchestras among many others. 

Patrice Michaels holds BAs in Music and Theater from Pomona College, an MFA in Voice from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and a certificate from the Music Theatre Studio Ensemble at The Banff Centre. Former Professor of Music at Lawrence University’s Conservatory of Music, Michaels now serves as Director of Vocal Studies at The University of Chicago and on the faculty of the Voice/Opera Program in Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.   

Edwin Fountain has served since March 2015 as General Counsel of the American Battle Monuments Commission, the U.S. government agency that builds, maintains and operates American military cemeteries and memorials around the world.  Previously he was a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of the international law firm Jones Day, where he practiced for 24 years as a general litigator and antitrust lawyer. 
 
In 2013 Edwin was appointed by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission, where he served as Vice Chair until 2019.  In that capacity he led, and still continues to lead, the development of the national World War I Memorial in Washington, DC.  He also serves as Chairman of the Arlington County (Va.) Industrial Development Authority.
 
Edwin received his college degree from the University of North Carolina, his law degree from the University of Virginia, and a master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics.