GOVERNING BOARD

Peter Accinno, Governing Board Director

Peter Accinno joined the Executive Team of Environmental Defense Fund as Vice President, Finance and Administration in October 2004. In this position, he has responsibility for finance, administration and human resources. Peter received his BS with honors from Boston College in 1972, where he majored in accounting and his MBA from Columbia in 1976, where he majored in finance. Upon graduating from Columbia, he spent over 20 years with MetLife in a variety of investment and financial management positions: VP Corporate Investments, CFO Investment Group, VP Financial Management Reengineering and VP Financial Risk Management. During this time, he attended the Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program. After leaving Met Life in 1999, Peter was the CFO for the top-ten online brokerage firm, Wall Street Access Corporation, helping to raise capital and guide its growth. He joined the financial software firm IQ Financial Systems, Inc. in 2003, where he played a key role its sale to a larger, UK-based competitor in 2004. Peter is an inactive CPA, having worked for Deloitte & Touche and passed the licensing examinations earlier in his career. He lives in New Canaan, CT with his wife Patricia, where he is active in his church and local charitable affairs. Peter and his wife have three grown children, the youngest of whom is in graduate school.

David Festa, Governing Board Director

As West Coast Vice President for Environmental Defense Fund, David Festa oversees all of California's programs, including its Oceans Program. Festa directs the Oceans Program's innovative approaches to align environmental and economic interests, improve laws, policies and business practices to strengthen ocean stewardship, and build resilient ocean ecosystems. In addition to working for EDF, Festa has spent the past 25-years working as a journalist, businessman, adviser and governmental official on conservation issues. As director of Policy and Strategic Planning at the Department of Commerce, Festa led on issues including reducing harmful fish subsidies, maintaining the moratorium on whaling, improving conservation in U.S. fisheries and strengthening the National Marine Sanctuaries. Festa holds a BA from the University of Virginia, and a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.

Diane Regas, Governing Board Director

Diane is Associate Vice President of Environmental Defense Fund's Oceans Program where she has led successful efforts to improve fisheries through advocating practical management tools, protecting important biological habitats and creating innovative approaches to mobilizing capital markets. Prior to joining EDF, Diane spent 19 years at the US Environmental Protection Agency. Diane held a number of the most senior leadership posts at EPA, including Acting Assistant Administrator for Water, and, most recently, as Director of the Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds (O-WOW). Diane also worked closely with the White House in different administrations, spending a year as a senior advisor to the White House Domestic Policy Council, co-chairing the interagency committee charged with integrating management of ocean resources, and heading the United States' governmental delegation to the Bonn conference on freshwater resources. Diane received her BA in history, her MS in environmental science and her JD at the University of California at Berkeley. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including one of the most prestigious, the Presidential Rank Award.