Vistage International Board of Directors
Rafael Pastor, Chairman of the Board
Richard Carr, Vice Chairman of the Board
Steven Fink
Steven Jay Green
Mike Milken
John Bellizzi
Rafael Pastor
Rafael Pastor, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Vistage International, has a wide-ranging background in both leading and advising business enterprises. Previously, he was co-founder of Sonenshine Pastor and Co., the New York-based investment banking firm, and its private equity affiliate, SP Capital.
Prior to that, he held several senior executive positions at global media companies, including CEO and President of Hoyts Cinemas Corporation; President of USA Networks International; Executive Vice President, International Division, of News Corporation; and President of CBS/Fox Video International. In these capacities, he dealt with all aspects of the film, television and publishing businesses in the United States and throughout the world.
Mr. Pastor started his career as an attorney, first at the Wall Street law firm of Hawkins, Delafield and Wood and then as Associate General Counsel at CBS Inc. He holds a BA from Columbia University and a JD from New York University School of Law, serves on the boards of several not-for-profit institutions, and speaks several languages. Having moved from New York City in 2004, he lives in the San Diego, California area with his wife, Marina, and their two children.
Richard Carr
Currently serving as Senior Advisor and Vice Chairman of the Board, Richard Carr leverages his nearly 30 years’ experience with Vistage as a member, Group Chair, COO, President, and CEO to work with the Vistage Chair community, executive staff, and affiliates to achieve maximum unity of purpose and effective communications across all matters of strategic importance.
Mr. Carr is a West Point graduate and a highly decorated infantry officer with significant command experience in Germany and Vietnam. After receiving his MBA from Pepperdine University, he went on to become President and CEO of Sentinel Container Corporation and Engineered Foam Inc., serving in that role for 15 years. For nine of those years, he was a Vistage member. He became a Vistage Chair in 1992. He and his wife, Gail, have three daughters.
Steven Fink
Steven B. Fink is Chief Executive Officer of Lawrence Investments, LLC, a venture with Larry Ellison that owns and manages Mr. Ellison’s non-Oracle investments. Lawrence Investments has invested in numerous technology, medical and biotechnology companies, several of which are now public.
In addition, Mr. Fink was a founding partner, Managing Director and Vice Chairman of Knowledge Universe, a company formed to acquire, build, incubate and manage companies in the education industry. He was formerly Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Anthony Manufacturing Company, a specialty glass manufacturer with plants in the United States, Japan, Italy and Venezuela.
He serves as Chairman of the Board of LeapFrog Enterprises, the largest designer, developer and marketer of technology-based educational products. He also serves as Vice Chairman of Heron International, a European real estate company, as well as Director of Spring Group, PLC, C-COR and Nobel Learning. Mr. Fink is also a member of the boards of Quark Biosciences, Pillar Data and NetSuite.
Steven Jay Green
Steven Jay Green served as the twelfth United States Ambassador to the Republic of Singapore from 1997 to 2001. During his tenure, he spearheaded strategic programs that greatly enhanced U.S.-Singapore alliances in economic development, intellectual property, immigration and national security. Many of his accomplishments expanded American business opportunities in Singapore and other ASEAN markets. Ambassador Green directly led the effort to commence bilateral negotiations for a free trade agreement between the U.S. and Singapore.
Prior to this appointment, he compiled a 25-year record of success as an international industrialist, leading major corporate restructurings and expansions for manufacturing, housing, consumer products, retail and real estate enterprises. He presently serves as Chairman and CEO of Greenstreet Partners, a private merchant bank.
Ambassador Green is a board member of the University of Miami and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He is also a board member of Knowledge Universe Holdings, KLC Knowledge Learning Centers, and Greenstreet Realty, a company managing a large portfolio of education-related real estate. He was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of K1 Ventures Limited, a publicly traded investment company in Singapore. Ambassador Green also serves as Honorary Consul General of Singapore in Miami, Florida. He and his wife, Dorothea, have two daughters.
Mike Milken
When Fortune magazine put Mike Milken on its cover in 2004, they called him “The Man Who Changed Medicine” for his three decades of work to accelerate medical research. In 1982, he formalized his previous philanthropy by co-founding the Milken Family Foundation, which has been a leader in support of education and medicine. He also heads FasterCures, a Washington-based think tank dedicated to accelerating progress against all life-threatening diseases. He is chairman of the Milken Institute, which conducts economic research; and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
As a financier, Mr. Milken is often said to have revolutionized modern capital markets, making them more democratic and dynamic by innovating a wide range of financing techniques previously unavailable to most companies. The Washington Post said he “helped create the conditions for America’s explosion of wealth and creativity,” a process that Business Week said “shook America’s defeatist Establishment out of its gloom.” Starting on Wall Street in 1969, he financed more than 3,000 companies that created millions of jobs. The former editor of the Harvard Business Review wrote, “Much of the strength and resilience of the economy today – including its ability to rebound in times of adversity – is due to the way people using Milken’s financing vehicles remade ailing companies or put their entrepreneurial zeal to work.”
A summa cum laude graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Mr. Milken earned his MBA at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He and his wife of 38 years, Lori, have three children. Further details are at www.mikemilken.com.
John Bellizzi
John Bellizzi is Senior Vice President of Thomson Corporation, a leading global provider of integrated information-based solutions to business and professional customers based in Stamford, Connecticut. Before assuming this position in November, 2006, he served as Senior Vice President, Business Operations for Thomson Learning.
From 2001-2005, Mr. Bellizzi was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Manning, Selvage & Lee, a worldwide public relations firm. Prior to this, he was Vice President, Financial Planning & Analysis, at Thomson Financial, and Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Thomson Learning International.
Mr. Bellizzi’s career includes other senior-level positions at Paramount Publishing, Inc., Pepsi-Cola International and Eli Lilly & Co. He is a graduate of Queens College, City University of New York, and has an MBA from the New York University Graduate School of Business.