Who We Are

Amanda founded Row New York in 2002 to make the sport of rowing, paired with top-notch academic support, accessible to young people in NYC. In addition to her work at Row New York, she was a United States fellow to South Africa through a sports-based youth development exchange. She is a regular blogger on the Huffington Post as well as an Adjunct Associate Professor at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service and a member of the Catalog for Giving’s board of directors.

Amanda is a recipient of numerous awards, including the 2012 Community Leadership Award winner by President Obama’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition (2012), US Rowing’s Anita DeFrantz Award (2011), US Rowing’s John J. Carlin Service Award (2008), and NYU Partnership Award for serving girls and women with disabilities.

Amanda has an MA in Education from Harvard and a BA in English from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she was captain of the women’s crew team, a member of the DII National Championship boat, and a member of the Commonwealth Honors College.

Andy Merrill is a Partner at Prosek Partners where he brings nearly 20 years of strategic financial communications experience, with a focus on transaction communications and issues and crisis management working with some of the world’s leading corporations. Prior to joining Prosek, Andy was a Senior Managing Director at Teneo, a global strategic consultancy where he counseled CEO’s and boards of directors in the areas of corporate strategy, business operations, media and investor relations, corporate and executive reputation management, transaction communications, and other special situations.

Prior to Teneo, Andy was the US Chief Executive Officer of Finsbury, a financial communications firm based in London. He led the successful build-out of Finsbury’s US office focusing on domestic and cross-border transaction communications, financial media and investor relations, shareholder activism approach and defense, and crisis communications. Prior to Finsbury, Andy led Edelman’s thirty-person global financial communications practice, which he joined from Abernathy MacGregor, a strategic financial communications consultancy where he was a Partner and Managing Director. Prior to Abernathy, Andy was in finance, serving as an investment banker at UBS and as both a senior commercial banker and the head of investor relations for The Bank of New York.

Andy is a graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was Captain of the lightweight rowing team.  Andy also has an MBA in finance from Columbia University in New York.

In addition to Row New York, he is Chairman of the Board of the Stamford Hospital Foundation in Stamford, Connecticut, and a Member of the USRowing Foundation Board of Trustees.

Andy is currently a competitive masters rower.

Bill Fradin is Managing Partner and co-founder of HEPCO Capital Management LLC, a private investment firm in New York. He has extensive experience in private and public investing, and as a SPAC sponsor. He has an MBA from the Wharton School and an AB from Harvard College. Bill has served as the Chairman of the Advisory Board at Rethink Food since its founding. He lives on the Upper East Side with his wife and two children. He started rowing at Cold Spring Harbor High School on Long Island and continued at Harvard.

Dan Fisher is a Senior Director at the Institute for Contemporary Leadership (ICL), as well as a Managing Partner at Contemporary Leadership Advisors (CLA), an advisory firm focused on enabling leaders, teams, and organizations to achieve peak performance. Before shifting to working exclusively with executives and organizations, Dan, a licensed psychologist, was originally on the faculty of New York Hospital and Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Prior to co-founding ICL and CLA, he helped run the Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness Practice at AlixPartners. A native New Yorker and proud graduate of The Bronx High School of Science, Dan rowed crew at the University of California at San Diego. He is honored to serve on the Board of Row New York and support the organization’s mission to empower the lives of young people through rowing and academics.

Francine Chew is VP and Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at The Guardian Life Insurance Company (Guardian), where she is responsible for leading and evolving the philanthropic strategy for the company to effectively engage its colleagues, community and consumers.

Previous roles include VP, Business Engagement in the Inclusive Solutions organization at Prudential Financial, and the founding Program Officer of the 10,000 Small Businesses initiative at Goldman Sachs. Francine was also an Associate in the Equity Capital Markets group at Merrill Lynch, and an Analyst in the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley.

Francine graduated with a BA in Economics from Yale University, where she was a 4-year varsity athlete. She also earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and was a Fulbright Scholar in Ecuador.

Geoff George is the CEO and CIO of a single-family office, heading investments for a private family. Geoff started in this role in 2017 following an 11-year career at Bank of America and Merrill Lynch in the structured equity derivatives group of the capital markets division. Geoff’s role in the family office also involves serving as the President of the family’s private, grant-making foundation. Through this role, Geoff has collaborated with a number of NYC-area nonprofits, including a current seat on the Donor Advisory Board for Charity Navigator. 

Outside of work, Geoff also serves as the President of his condo board in the East Village, where he has lived since 2018. Geoff also enjoys traveling, finding new restaurants in the city, CrossFit, and embarrassing himself on the golf course and tennis court.

Ian John is a partner at the law firm, Kirkland Ellis, with a focus on antitrust law. He represents clients from a diverse range of industries and has appeared before U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Department of Defense, representing a number of major corporations. Ian attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME. He was a founding member of Bowdoin’s modern rowing team. Rowing was Bowdoin’s first intercollegiate sport, originally established in 1858. However, the sport was absent from student life at Bowdoin for much of the 20th century, until it was reestablished when he was a freshman. He has three children and lives in New York City with his wife.

Jack, together with his girlfriend Keziah Beall, is the founder and creative director of NYC clothing brand Rowing Blazers – a youthful, irreverent menswear label dedicated to the idea that the classics can be cool; and that being authentic and inclusive go hand-in-hand. Before founding Rowing Blazers, Jack wrote an acclaimed coffee-table book, also named Rowing Blazers. Jack was also a three-time member of the U.S national rowing team, a World Championships bronze medalist, and a Henley Royal Regatta and Head of the Charles winner.  He earned a Ph.D. in Archaeology at Oxford University and a B.S.F.S. in Chinese and Classics from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Jon is an industry leader in the field of real estate consulting, with over 25 years of experience in planning, design, and construction in New York City. Guided by his complementary background in civil engineering and urban planning, Jon co-founded Denham Wolf with Paul Wolf to provide integrated real estate services to nonprofit organizations as a means toward sustainable and dynamic urban development. His work has included planning and feasibility studies, building and facility assessments, and the design and construction of a diverse range of building projects for educational, healthcare, and cultural organizations.

Jon holds an M.P.A. from NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He also holds a B.S. in engineering from Princeton University. While at Princeton, Jon rowed on the varsity lightweight crew team. His eight boat went undefeated, won both the Eastern Sprints and Kennedy Cup and rowed in the Henley Royal Regatta.

He lives in New York City with his wife, Barbara, and three children.

Morgan is a senior trader in the Quantitative Strategies Group at RBC Capital Markets in New York City.  Morgan has worked on the trading desk at RBC for the past 15 years since he retired from rowing following the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he was a member of the Canadian Men’s 8+.  Morgan began rowing as a high school student in western Canada, and after the sport led him to study at Princeton and Oxford, as well enjoy the experience of being a member of the Canadian National Team, he has a deep appreciation of what doors rowing can open for the student-athletes involved with Row New York.

Nicole Doyle is a Row New York alum from the Queens boathouse, she was part of the first Row NY middle school team and graduated in 2015. After high school, she studied Communications and Spanish at Marist College, and she also rowed for the Division 1 Women’s Rowing team for 2 years. After receiving her BA in 2019, she began her career in the Global Markets Division at Goldman Sachs.

Today, she is an Associate in the Fixed Income Division at Morgan Stanley. She is passionate about giving back to her community and committed to making the sport of rowing more welcoming and inclusive for all.

Patrick Wilson is a Founding Partner of FalconPoint Partners, a private equity firm based in New York. Prior to launching FalconPoint, Patrick was a private equity investor with both Rhône Group and The Carlyle Group in New York. He began his career as a corporate attorney in Sydney, Australia. Patrick attended the University of Sydney Faculty of Economics and Business and the University of Sydney Law School and holds a Master of  Applied Finance from The Securities Institute of Australia. He has extensive private company and not-for-profit board experience. An Australian national, Patrick began rowing at St. Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill and continued as an undergraduate with Sydney University Boat Club, where he was awarded a Blue for his success at intercollegiate, national, and international regattas. He lives on the Upper East Side with his wife, Samantha, and their two children.

Rhoden Monrose grew up in Harlem, NY after emigrating from Saint Lucia at the age of ten. With the help of nonprofits, he attended Middlesex School before earning a scholarship to Trinity College. Upon graduating, Rhoden began his career as a derivatives trader at Citigroup. In 2012, he found a circle of like-minded individuals who found purpose in using their time, talent, and success to make an impact. Rhoden’s personal experiences with nonprofit organizations helped fuel his passion to be the founder of CariClub, a technology platform that empowers members to pursue a life of excellence while making a positive impact in society.

CariClub was named by Built in NYC as one of “50 Startups to Watch in 2018,” and Rhoden was recently featured on Cause Artist as one of “14 Social Entrepreneurs of Color Making History Through Social Innovation.” CariClub was previously named by CB Insights as one of “21 Nonprofit and Charity Tech Startups to Watch.”

In addition to serving on the governing board of Charity Navigator and Row New York, Rhoden is a member of the Board of Fellows at Trinity College (Hartford, CT) and the Alumni Association Board at Middlesex School (Concord, MA) where he served as captain of the crew team.

Rita is Senior Director of eCommerce at Walmart. She is a digital leader with strong
experience and customer focus in Fortune 500, startup and retail/lifestyle companies.
Prior to Walmart, Rita was a Senior External Advisor to McKinsey after having led
teams at Ralph Lauren Corporation and Michael Kors. Her formative years were spent
as a production line supervisor and an industrial engineer at Ford Motor Company in
Dearborn, MI. While in Michigan, she was a Board member of the Ann Arbor Rowing
Club and rowed competitively.

Rita holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering Management Science from Northwestern
University, an M.E. in Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Michigan and
an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Rita lives in New York City and also serves as Vice President of the New York Athletic
Club’s Triathlon IntraClub. She is thrilled to serve on the Row New York Board and to
further encourage and empower youth through competitive rowing and academic
support.

Serena Flaherty is a Fellow in Health Equity Research at Weill Cornell Medicine where she conducts clinical research with a focus on adolescent reproductive health. Prior to her research career, she worked as a nurse practitioner at several community health centers serving adolescents from under-resourced communities in New Haven, CT, and New York City. Serena is a member of the Dean’s Leadership Council at Yale School of Nursing, a council that offers professional expertise and support to the school and its leadership. She received her BA, MSN, and PhD from Yale University. Serena lives in Greenwich, Connecticut with her husband and two daughters and rowed as an undergraduate at Yale.

Simone D’Abreu is part of the Management Development Rotational Program at The Vanguard Group. In this position, she contributes to the success of the different divisions to ensure all investors have the best chance for investment success. Simone is interested in developing innovative fintech products to help alleviate financial access and knowledge in disadvantaged communities. Simone is a recent graduate of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (MBA) and the Harvard Kennedy School (MPA).  Simone held numerous leadership positions, such as the Chief Financial Officer for the Annual Harvard Black Policy Conference. She grew up in Queens, New York City before studying Economics and Government at Smith College. Simone joined Row New York’s High School team in 2006 and rowed out of the Queens boathouse. Row New York has been a pivotal force in Simone’s life and she looks forward to giving back to the new generation of rowers.

During graduate school, Simone interned at JP Morgan Chase within the Digital Strategic Alliance group and interned at Bloom Impact, a fin-tech startup in Ghana that serves as a marketplace for small businesses to obtain sustainable financing options. Before graduate school, Simone worked at the Federal Communications Commission as a Junior Economist within the Wireless Bureau/Spectrum Competition Division and then transitioned to the telecom non-profit space working as an Analyst for the E-Rate program, which provided discounted telecom services to help eligible schools and libraries in the United States obtain affordable telecommunications and internet access.