News

SS United States Conservancy Welcomes Three New Members to its Board of Directors
Posted: October 19, 2011

The SS United States Conservancy is delighted to announce the appointment of three new members to its board of directors. As we deepen our curatorial and preservation planning efforts, the Conservancy is extremely fortunate to be guided by these renowned experts in the fields of finance and the arts. Welcome aboard!

Stephen S. Lash is Chairman Emeritus of Christie's Americas and Vice Chairman of Christie's American Advisory Board. He has been with Christie's since 1976, when he was one of the original team of eight responsible for launching the venerable auction house's first galleries on Park Avenue in New York City. Prior to joining Christie's, Mr. Lash worked in London with the investment-banking firm of S.G. Warburg. During his 35 years with Christie's, he has been involved with virtually every major historic record-setting auction. Mr. Lash serves on the boards of the Museum of the City of New York, The New York Landmarks Conservancy (of which he was Chairman for several years), the Park Avenue Armory, and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, where he is on the Board of Overseers and Chairs the Maritime Visiting Committee. He previously served on the boards of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Preservation League of New York State. He is a newly appointed Trustee of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, as well as a newly appointed Member of the Advisory Board of Stanhope Capital in London. His passion for all things maritime inspired him to become the founder and first president of the Ocean Liner Museum, which became part of the South Street Seaport. He is an avid collector of trans-Atlantic passenger steamship memorabilia, and has loaned items from his collection to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, as well as to the Cooper Hewitt, Mystic Seaport, Peabody Essex, and Forbes museums. Mr. Lash enjoys lecturing on board various vessels and at other venues; a favorite speech includes The Floating Palaces of Art Deco. He has also taught a Residential College Seminar at Yale, entitled The Ocean Liner and the Golden Age of Travel. Mr. Lash received a B.A. in French Literature from Yale and an M.B.A. in International Business from Columbia.

Mark Byers is a vice president and senior relationship manager at Wilmington Trust Company responsible for managing high-net worth family relationships throughout the United States. Prior to joining Wilmington Trust in 2002, he worked in New York for the Swiss investment bank UBS Warburg. Mark's international experience includes five years in Moscow, Russia, as a business development director for a Moscow-based joint venture. As a veteran of the United States Army, Mark worked in Intelligence and served in Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf War. Mark holds an MBA in International Management from Thunderbird, The Garvin Graduate School of International Management, and is a magna cum laude graduate of Portland State University with a bachelor's degree in Economics. Mark is a member of the Philadelphia CFA Society where he serves on the Board of Directors as a vice president and is also chairman of the Society's Career Development Committee.

Robert L. Forbes is Vice President of Forbes and President of ForbesLife, launched in 1990 as Forbes magazine's dedicated lifestyle supplement, devoted to the pursuit of "civilized pleasure and fulfillment." Published five times a year, it is designed for affluent business leaders who "play as hard as they work." Mr. Forbes has authored numerous articles on food and travel, in addition to producing various documentary films for Forbes. In September 2007, his book of poetry for children, Beastly Feasts! A Mischievous Menagerie in Rhyme (Overlook Press), was published. His new book, Let's Have a Bite! A Beastly Banquet in Rhyme, was published by Overlook Press in September 2010. Both are illustrated by world renowned caricaturist Ronald Searle. He divides his time between Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida.