Board of Directors
Commitment to the passions and ideals that Jimmy Miller held dear.
Board of Directors
Commitment to the passions and ideals that Jimmy Miller held dear.
Nancy Miller
Professional:
Nancy was the Associate Editor of Well Bella Magazine and writes about the Mind/Body Connection, Bella Bodies and Healthy Travel. Nancy specializes in charity event production and cause-related marketing for several non-profit organizations including the Elton John AIDS Foundation. She co-produced the annual EJAF Oscar Night Viewing Party and coordinated their cause-related charity events.
She was also Special Projects Coordinator for Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Future Society and produced “An Evening with Keiko, Cameron & Cousteau” and created fund-raising opportunities for Ocean Futures Society around the world.
Organizations/Service:
- South Bay Youth Project
- Women at Risk
- Richstone Family Center
- Sandpipers
- Women in Film Philanthropy
- Board Member
- Elton John Aids Foundation
- Ocean Futures Society
Personal:
Wife, mother, “nanny Nancy” to Riley and Austin, sister, friend, traveler, scuba-diver, surfer, “beach mom and water person. Learned to surf at age 50. Practices yoga and Pilates. Power walks on the strand by the ocean.
Connection to JMMF (sigh)
This is how I honor my son’s life. Jimmy’s pure love of surfing and his ability to teach others is an inspiration. The foundation is a way to keep Jimmy’s spirit alive and help others experience the healing power of the ocean.
Nancy worked with non-profits most of her professional life. With the love and support of family, friends and community, Nancy has facilitated and coordinated volunteers and communications for the JMMF Foundation. “I believe we are healing others and ourselves, “one wave at a time,” through the Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation.
Jeff Miller
Professional:
Jeff is a senior marketing executive having led the marketing departments at Orange Theory and YogaWorks. Prior to joining YogaWorks Jeff was the Director of Interactive Marketing at Launch DRTV, a direct response marketing agency in Los Angeles. Prior to working at Launch DRTV, Jeff was the Director of Interactive Marketing and Ecommerce at Body Glove International. Jeff is a part-time Los Angeles County Ocean Lifeguard and also worked as a surf guide at an Eco-resort in Samoa and as a middle school teacher in San Francisco, CA and Redondo Beach CA.
Organizations/Service:
Jeff worked 6 years as a LA County Junior Lifeguard Instructor and also worked for the LA County WATER Program teaching Ocean Safety to kids throughout LA County
Personal:
Jeff is married to wife Alissa has a daughter Riley and son Austin
Interests: Surfing, traveling, volleyball, yoga
Jeff graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in History and has earned his Master’s in Educational Technology and California Teaching Credential from the University of San Francisco
Connections to JMMF:
Jeff was Jimmy’s only brother and his first student. Jeff looked up to Jimmy his entire life. Jeff followed in Jimmy’s path in so many ways; from Pacific Elementary School, to 4th St, to Mira Costa, to Cal, to San Sebastian, to life guarding, to traveling the globe with a surfboard and back home to Manhattan Beach.
Tome Baldocchi
Tome Baldocchi is an accomplished tax and accounting professional with over 20 years of experience as an Enrolled Agent with firms located in Torrance, Westwood and Manhattan Beach, California.
Tome has extensive experience providing tax and accounting solutions for closely held businesses and high net worth individuals. A valued advisor and business relationship manager, his experience includes tax planning and compliance for individuals, corporations, partnerships, and LLC’s. Additionally he represents clients with financial matters associated Federal and State Government notices and examinations.
Tome currently lives in Manhattan Beach with his wife Alli and three boys (Kyle, Caden and Maguire). A native of southern California, he is originally from Hermosa Beach and attended Redondo Union High School before graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a B.S. in Mathematics.
Growing up a surfer in Manhattan Beach, Tome shared many waves with Jimmy Miller, which is his personal connection to the organization. As well as his declaration that, “ I can personally attest to the healing power of the ocean for the mind, body and soul.”
Kevin Barry
Professional:
Kevin is a partner in several restaurants and Director of Food & Beverage for an exciting new hospitality brand: Highway West Vacations. He has been a Los Angeles County Ocean Lifeguard for 35 years and is an Instructor for the Junior Lifeguard Program. Kevin has produced numerous charitable events at his restaurants, raising over $3 million for local schools, community organizations, and non-profit foundations, including the JMMF!
Organizations/Service:
- Board of Directors (Past President): Downtown Manhattan Beach Business & Professional Association
- Board of Directors: Dig for Kids Foundation
- Organizing Committee: International Surf Festival Event Director: Dig 4 Jimmy, Surf n Turf
- 2011 Honoree: California State Assembly, 53rd District’s Small Businessman of the Year
- 2009 Honoree: Bank of Manhattan Celebration of Entrepreneurship, Distinguished Philanthropic Event
Personal:
Kevin is the proud father of Brynn & Grace with his wife, Shelby. He loves to surf overseas and to play volleyball with his friends in local tournaments.
Connections to JMMF:
Kevin was a friend, Lifeguard and Junior Lifeguard Instructor with Jimmy and always looks forward to working on the beach and hanging out with his brother, Jeff. He enjoys his role as auctioneer for the annual Jimmy Surf Contest. Just like the Miller family, his love of community service and the gift of helping others is one of the greatest joys in his life!
Chris Brown
Professional:
Chris is the Executive Director of Campsurf/Pure Surfing Experience, a full service surf school and volleyball school, located in Manhattan Beach, California.
Previous professional experience includes:
- Owner/General Manager of Peninsula Surf, a retail surf shop located in Rolling Hills Estates.
- Marketing Specialist for Anheuser Busch.
- Tournament Director, U.S. Open of Beach Volleyball. 2007-Present.
Organizations/Service:
- Current President of the California Beach Volleyball Association.
- Member, Heal the Bay – a Santa Monica Bay based environmental organization.
- Usher, Manhattan Beach Community Church.
- Member, United States Volleyball Association Nominating and Governance Committee.
Personal:
Chris is a proud husband and father. Pictured here with Chris, is his wife Laura with their son Taylor.
Interests:
Surfing, Beach Volleyball, Golf, Travel, Music, Coaching
Connections to JMMF:
Chris grew up with Jimmy playing soccer and surfing and they traveled the world together. Jim, Nancy, Jeff and Alissa are considered part of my family.
It is my sincere hope that the Foundation’s work will help to keep Jimmy’s spirit alive and acquaint many more to the ocean’s healing powers.
Brent Broza
Professional:
Self taught photographer, Brent Broza, grew up in Manhattan Beach surrounded by the Southern California beach community and culture. Surfing and skateboarding all over the famous South Bay with like-minded friends, Brent became very interested in art, sports and music at an early age. His passions, surfing and traveling, took him all over the world.
Always a fan of photography and with parents that documented so much of his childhood through this medium, Brent was drawn to the art early in his life. He started exploring film photography in 2004, but his passion deeply unfolded a few years down the road. In 2008, Brent returned home to the South Bay from his then home in Maui to care for his father who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
While caring for his father, he came upon a camera of his that hadn’t been used much and started shooting photos to create artistic balance at a time of darkness. What started as a creative emotional release grew into a passion that still has Broza constantly curious, always on an adventure and never without a camera.
In 2016, Brent won the World Surf League’s “Biggest Paddle Award” by capturing the photo of Aaron Gold’s Guinness World Record wave of 63 feet at Jaws on Maui. The wave was documented as being the largest wave ever to be paddled into by a surfer.
His work has been featured by Surfer Magazine, Surfline, The Inertia, Jose Cuervo, Birdwell, Matix, Jack Johnson, Descendents (Back Cover), Pennywise, Blink 182, Shepard Fairey (Obey), Greg ‘Craola’ Simkins, The Seventh Letter, Known Gallery and many more. Broza was also the featured artist at LA’s Fox Studios with a 6 month lobby installation in 2012 & will return again in 2017.
Organizations/Service:
Organizer-Winter Bocce Ball Tournament. Proceeds to JMMF
Personal/Interests:
Surfing, volleyball, reading, visiting with family and friends around the world.
Connection to JMMF:
Brent and Jimmy became friends in elementary school and shared life together growing up in Manhattan Beach. Through surfing, volleyball, travel and modeling, they became best of friends. Brent traveled to Hawaii with the Miller’s in the 80’s and vowed to return. He lived in Maui for years and returned to the South Bay in 2008 to concentrate on photography. Some of his first expressions of art through painting and photography were a way of dealing with Jimmy’s death in 2004.
Mark Gerold
Professional:
Mark is with the AVP, Great American Professional Risk Insurance Services a Board Member of the Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation
Personal:
Mark lives in Manhattan Beach with his wife Malia and their two sons, Kai and Wyland. Mark enjoys spending his free time with: family, surfing, traveling, friends, camping, boating, fishing, anything outdoors.
Connections to JMMF:
Mark has been with PSE, Campsurf, and the Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation since the beginning. You can still find Mark at Ocean Therapy sessions throughout the year and he loves to share his love and stoke of surfing and the ocean with everyone!
Mark was a Junior Lifeguard of Jimmy’s and started working for him in 1997 when Jimmy started his surf school, surf camps and (first of its kind) contest series, Pure Surfing Experience. Mark continued to work with Jimmy and built a strong friendship that was built over hours and years of being together in the water and on land. Mark started with PSE/Campsurf as a Junior Instructor, Head Instructor and eventual partner in Campsurf.
Debbie Goldberg
Professional:
With more than 11 years of experience as a Chief Marketing Officer in the restaurant and hospitality industry, I have a successful track record of creating and executing marketing solutions that yield growth, community awareness, and customer retention.
As a Co-founder of Fresh Brothers, I spent many years learning all aspects of the restaurant business and honing my marketing skills as I developed creative strategies to continuously expand the business. Over the last decade, my vision, creativity, and marketing expertise has transformed Fresh Brothers from a small town pizzeria to the sixth largest independent pizza chain in the US with 18 locations in California.
In 2018, I established Sand and Surf Digital Marketing to help business owners skip the marketing and brand development learning curve and grow their businesses. I specialize in targeted, community-driven, grass roots social media marketing focusing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Yelp. My goal is to help other organizations cultivate their brand, design their marketing strategy, and promote growth effectively. I leverage my marketing expertise and firsthand experience as a business owner to help small and mid-sized companies develop strategies that achieve actual results.
Personal:
Mother of twins, Nathan and Ryann. Married to my partner and best friend, Adam. Interests: Reading, spending time at the beach, travel, cooking and spinning.
Connections to JMMF:
Adam and I have been proud supporters of the the JMMF for the last ten years. Our kids have grown up learning to surf with the Camp Surf crew, and they are now experienced and passionate surfers and Junior Lifeguards.
John Kim
Professional:
Born in South Korea, John Kim immigrated to LA in 1973. John grew up in Manhattan Beach. He went to Cal, worked as a Los Angeles County Lifeguard and Jr. Lifeguard instructor and surfed around the world. John has been a science teacher and Middle School Dean at Harvard Westlake school since 1999, where he also coached water polo, worked as an admissions officer and was part of the development office. John is now the COO of Vision to Learn, a non-profit that was founded in Los Angeles in 2012 to ensure that every child in America has the glasses they need to succeed in school and in life. Vision To Learn now serves children in low-income communities in more than 400 cities from Honolulu to Baltimore, becoming the largest school-based program of its kind in the nation. John also helps kids and families as an educational consultant. John lives in Manhattan Beach with his wife Casey and sons Parker and Jake.
Roger “Rocky” Laverty
Professional:
Rocky is a retired business executive with over 40 years’ experience in publicly traded food retailing and distribution businesses.
Rocky worked for Smart & Final, Inc. from 1979 until 1998 retiring as CEO. At Smart & Final he developed and implemented strategies that grew the company from 60 stores and $200 million in revenue to 250 stores and over $1.5 billion in revenue.
He came out of retirement in 2003 to serve as President and CEO of Diedrich Coffee, Inc., a diversified operator of coffee houses and franchises that was known for its expertise and traditions in specialty coffee. Then in 2005 he became the President and CEO of Farmer Bros. Co. a national roaster/distributor of coffee and related products to the foodservice and institutional markets, where he grew the company from $200 million in revenue to over $400 million in five years.
Rocky is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Grandpoint Bank, and Unified Grocers, Inc.
Organizations/Service:
Trustee of The Children’s Bureau of Los Angeles since 1996.
Director of Perkins Scholarship Foundation awarding merit scholarships to sons and daughters of L.A. County sheriffs since 2008.
Personal/Interests:
Rocky grew up in Santa Monica, CA and learned to surf in 1958. He still loves to surf, though with a SUP these days, and enjoys golf, fly-fishing, kids and grandkids.
He has lived in Manhattan Beach since 1976 and is married to Corinne. Together they share four children and a grandchild.
Connection to JMMF:
Rocky has known the Miller family since his son Rory and Jeff Miller played Little League together. The entire Miller family was a great source of strength and comfort to the Laverty’s when they first lost their son Geoff to a car accident and then Rocky’s wife, Jill, to ALS. Preserving memories and legacy in the face of tragedy has been an important bond between our families.
Aaron Osten
Professional:
Aaron Osten is a civil trial attorney at Greene Broillet &Wheeler, LLP, representing Plaintiffs who have suffered catastrophic personal injuries as well as employees who have been retaliated against in the workplace. He has been recognized as a Super Lawyer Rising Star from 2017-2020 and was chosen by The Best Lawyers in America as “Ones to Watch” in 2021. He is a graduate of San Diego State University and Loyola Law School.
Organizations/Service:
Aaron is a member of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, the American Association for Justice, Association of Business Trial Lawyers, and Attorneys Information Exchange Group. Aaron is also a member of the Animal Legal Defense Fund and helps advocate against cruelty to animals.
Personal/Interests:
Aaron’s personal interests include surfing, running, hiking and ocean paddling.
Connections to JMMF:
“As a lifelong surfer who grew up in the ocean, the JMMF has always hit home to me as an Organization that truly makes a difference in people’s lives. I knew Jimmy from an early age, mostly from spending countless hours in the water with him. He was always the guy who surfed for the right reasons, and it made everyone around him better off. It is an honor and privilege to continue Jimmy’s legacy and help promote the positive influence and energy that the JMMF stands for, and to be a part of the incredible healing programs for such deserving people.”
David Peters
Professional:
David Peters is co-founder of Regency Affiliates, a diversified group of real estate companies which acquire, market, develop and manage residential, industrial and retail properties in the western United States. He is a graduate of Pomona College and of the Coro Foundation Internship in Public Affairs. He holds a master’s degree in urban studies from Occidental College.
Organizations/Service:
In the community, David has served as a mediator with the Centinella Valley Juvenile Diversion Project and in business as a mediator and arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association. He is presently Vice Chairman of the Richstone Family Center. He is former chairman of The California Community Foundation, Coro Southern California, and Liaison Citizens. He was a founder and board member of Leadership Southern California and has also served on the board of governors of Genesis LA, the Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation, the Beverly Hills Land Company and the Warren Christopher Scholarship Fund.
Personal/Interests:
Nancy Miller introduced David and his wife, RL, to each other in 1986. David and RL live in Manhattan Beach and have three adult children, two granddaughters and two grandsons. David’s personal interests include traveling, painting, grandchildren, golf, skiing, fly fishing, stand-up paddle boarding and volunteering with non-profits. Through the sale of his paintings David provides a vehicle for buyers to contribute directly to JMMF and the Richstone Family Center.
Connections to JMMF:
“I met Jimmy when he and my son David played AYSO Soccer. Jim and I coached the boys together and our families have been friends for over 35 years. I have always admired Jimmy’s waterman’s passion, his sense of adventure and his spirituality. Having tremendous respect and love for Nancy and Jim it is an honor to be a board member and participate in the wonderful work of JMMF.”
Chase Williams
Professional:
Chase is an Enterprise Account Executive and early sales hire at Arkestro, an artificial intelligence startup focused on helping large organizations to automate and save across their supply chains. Prior to Arkestro in 2022, Chase spent three years at Salesforce specializing in emerging financial technologies.
Organizations/Service:
- Alumni Leader – Spiders in Tech – An annual event for undergraduate students from the University of Richmond to experience the technology field.
- Fmr. Member – University of Richmond Board of Trustees, Student Development Committee
- Fmr. Cadet – Los Angeles County Fire Department, Lifeguard Division
Personal Interests:
Surfing, Beach Volleyball, Golf, Skiing, Travel, Cooking, Water Polo
Connection to JMMF:
Growing up in Manhattan Beach, the JMMF has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Having started volunteering around the age of ten as a surf volunteer, I vividly remember my first sessions at Camp Pendleton. The impact of sharing the water with a group that had given so much was a profound experience that hooked me. In the passing years, Nancy, Jim, and many other frequent volunteers have become an extension of my family and a group I cherish.
Russell Wolfe
Professional:
Russell Wolfe has worked as a surf, swim and fitness coach since 2010. Formerly of Camp Surf, he prides himself on being able to teach absolutely anybody how to surf and to be confident and safe in the water. Russell is also a founding employee of Sawtelle Sake, a Californian sake producer, and works on their sales, events and production. He graduated from Colorado College in 2017 with a BA in environmental policy and is a Harvard-Westlake alumnus.
Organizations/Service:
Russell began volunteering for the Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation while he was in high school and has been involved ever since. As well as being a director, he is one of the head surf instructors and water safety coordinators at the organization’s regular ocean therapy sessions. He has also worked with the MattMan Surf Kids Foundation and the Compton Surf Club.
Personal:
Born and raised in LA, Russell loves catching party waves with his friends up and down the California coast. The son of a gallery owner, he designs and paints his own boards and had one of his creations featured in an exhibition in Santa Monica in 2021.
Connection to JMMF:
After Russell stood up on his first wave at Camp Surf in 2006, he went home and told his dad he wanted to be a pro surfer. His surf coaches were taught by Jimmy himself, and Russell is proud to be carrying on Jimmy’s legacy with his dedication to spreading the joy and healing properties of the ocean.
One of his favorite parts of the foundation’s work are the ocean therapy sessions where athletes and volunteers alike share thoughts about the day, which brings an amazingly special energy to the beach. He finds the wisdom and experiences that people share to be incredibly inspiring.
Some of Russell’s favorite memories are from volunteering with JMMF, from riding a wave with Kelly Slater at Camp Pendleton, to learning secret tricks from surf legend Peff Eick.
